my name is any o'shaughnessy and the founder and president of self there's a small nonprofit dedicated to helping people reconnect with their true nature and to find the courage to live  the name so flairs was inspired by an essay written by dr cresap in kali estes and i have it right here to read just an excerpt from it the lightest soul throws sparks can send up flares build signal fires causes proper matters to catch fire to display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these to be fierce and to show mercy towards others both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it if you would help to calm the tumbled this is one of the strongest things you can do and on my website i wrote a further description of this what is a soul flare it is any act of kindness creation expression that comes from our true nature from the undefended state of presence so flares are created by people who dive deep inside themselves beyond the layers of fear and judgement to find and to offer their beauty to the world no matter how small a smile a song a painting an act of kindness no special degree is required to make a difference in this world no training or special gift the world will be changed by the daily accumulated acts of kindness and beauty so flares was born out of the belief that the change we need to see in the world begins inside each of us as a light as this soul flare waiting to be expressed this is our true nature our true nature is the place that we go to when we are fully present passionate clear content and full of joy and as young people we often feel that place or absorbed in play we are without a lot of cares but as we get older we learn that there's a certain way to be a certain way to be to be loved there's a certain way to be to get a job to get into college there's even a certain way we might need to be for a husband or a wife for us to feel loved and lovable and over time slowly and surely our true nature just gets a little more and more hidden and it takes a real effort to reconnect with our true nature but it's in that place of true nature that our greatest potency is found and in the world our greatest chance to do good usually there comes a time in our life when the call or the feeling of our true nature is so dim that we begin to feel whether it's depression or anxiety or certain sadness that we cannot name we begin to look around for things that will help us and remember what it's like to be full of passion and so flares was born out of a desire to help people find ways to reconnect with the true nature and one of the ways that so far has worked in the organization since two thousand and six is to offer three d retreats i call these reconnecting with your wild soul and during those retreats we remove ourselves from our daily lives where we are certain way we're certain employee were certain wife  husband and we relax and we listen and listen to our bodies we spend a lot of time in the teacher and we are surrounded by kindred people kindred souls who are also trying to reconnect with their true nature and in doing so slowly but surely over those three days i see it i see it in the people who come they begin to speak from the true place their eyes get brighter their faces smile more easily and they begin to speak from a place that is very clear about what they want to be in their lives secondly another way to get touch with your true nature is to surround yourself with people who feel to you are very passionate and full of purpose and the so flairs website offers these voices artists and writers who are in the world living their truth and offering you the word you need to have the courage to live it because once you rediscover your true nature and are committed to to live from that place the world that you were part of may not be so happy about that they're used to you being the way you are so selfless offers courage to keep on the path because at first it feels clunky you're used to being this good old person you usually are and so to suddenly start speaking your truth and asking for what you need it gets scary and you need  a circle of friends or a retreat or this website to help you maintain that courage so that you can continue to reconnect with your true nature and offer that the world so so flairs offers one day retreats and three day retreats we also offer guidance on how to create your own true nature circle where you can find that support that you need and on our website we have contact information for myself for a one on one guidance thank you very much for listening about like to end with some words that have inspired me my work at so flairs is inspired by people like rosa parks who wrote i will no longer act on the outside in a way that contradicts the truth that i hold deeply on the inside i longer act as if i were less than the whole person i know myself to be with one humble act of courage rosa showed the world the power of shining the light of her own truth i found it so flairs and continue to offer what i can through it as a reminder to myself and others that such humble acts of courage can change the world