Jennifer Lakshmi Dove
“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” ~ Gustave Flaubert
I am a poet, a writer of memoir and fiction, a certified life coach, and an astrologer. I love words and I love the ways in which humans communicate with words. I love all the ways we attempt communication, the successes and the failures because communication is challenging and words are the most important tools we have. Primarily, I think of writing as a way of communicating with the self and with the Divine. I start there and then find out if other people resonate with my words. Writing is self-discovery.
I grew up in Maryland, Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Although I haven’t been back in ages, I consider Brandon, Florida my hometown. As a child, when someone asked what I’d like to be when I grew up, the standard answers of the time were, Teacher, Nurse, or Secretary. However, I had a plan to be a Mermaid. I was busy practicing every chance I got in my neighbors’ pools. I was growing my hair down to my waist. I planned to work at Weeki Wachee. As a child, my passion for the “force that through the green fuse drives the flower” was on fire. I couldn’t get enough of nature and was amazed on a daily basis by experiences of what holds the world, as we know it, together.
Although my mermaid dream never left me, life had a different plan. I graduated from Towson University with a degree in English/Creative Writing and a minor in Women’s Studies. I became a teaching artist for the Maryland State Arts Council and have worked with public and private school students for over 18 years. Along side of my work as a teaching writer, I also became a Kripalu yoga teacher back in 1994, when practicing yoga was considered odd and becoming a yoga teacher meant going to an ashram to train. I’ve been teaching Kripalu vinyasa-style yoga for more than twenty years. During this time, I also got married and had two amazing children. When, belly dance found me years ago, I began to explore this dance form with a passion that continues today.
As a young girl, writing was an important way to make sense of the drama that was unfolding in the home of my family-of-origin. Writing became a source of self-renewal and reflection, a lifeline. Into the Green, my first book of poems, was published when I was barely out of college. Writing continues to be an integral part of my life, and an important part of my work with life coaching clients.
As a life coach, I help my clients untangle habitual thinking patterns and teach them to follow Divine guidance, their own inner guidance system. My favorite thing is when I have the honor of serving as a guide for my clients as they begin to experience the more of themselves. My hope is that each of my clients might experience a multitude of Aha! Moments, those moments in our lives where we feel in alignment with our purpose, moments that lighten our energy and bring a sense of renewed commitment to our soul growth. I love to do this with my life-coaching and writing clients.
Writing is a tool that’s supposed to be fun. Dive in. Come write with me.
For more information and to make an appointment, please contact me at [email protected].
I don’t know any mermaid who has more fun than the mermaid named Jennifer Lakshmi! I love your website. And I love how you are still have a passion for “the force that through the green fuse drives the flower,” as well as a passion for writing, dancing, for all of life.
Anyone who has the privilege of having you as their coach for life or writing is surely blessed. If I weren’t already blessed beyond measure to have you as a friend and very happy with my life I would sign up to be a client of yours! all love, Adhikari