Welcome to Unabashedly Human. I am glad you're here.
Living unabashedly is simply living as we are, vulnerable, real, and vitally alive in our bodies of flesh and bones. But, oh the things that can (seemingly) get in the way.
If Unabashedly and Julie Daley feel vaguely familiar, it is most likely because I wrote a blog for years titled Unabashedly Female. Unabashedly means “without embarrassment or shame.” I wrote about being female without shame and now I am writing about being fully human, in all of our gorgeous humanity, without embarrassment or shame.
In my life and human journey, I’ve been graciously gifted a multitude of experiences that have supported my homecoming. Graced by life, I have been offered remarkable opportunities to see through the things that caused me to believe I wasn’t home already. I am finding my way out from under the fragmented mental and cultural structures we believe are the world and deeper into my body where I am directly connected to life. I have been guided into a reawakened profoundly human and loving relationship with a more human and natural existence on earth. I have few answers but I trust lived experience. I am moving toward trusting the unknown more than the known, although this one has been a tough one for me.
In my work, I split my time between being a coach, educator, and creative designer of experiences and projects. In the past, I was a systems analyst. In my writing, I use both sides of my brain to create intriguing, inspirational, sometimes intellectual, and always passionate work.
All of this is to say that Unabashedly Human is where I am exploring and experimenting with how to language, in a new way, the lived experience of healing the (perceived) wound of separation between who we think we are and what we truly are.
“Julie has deep insight and the ability to integrate in ways that can take us to new levels of performance, discovering parts of ourselves that we never knew existed.”
- John Hagel, Co-Chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge Innovation
A different way to know me…
Healer. I have a very soft side. I love to love. I feel great joy and sometimes great grief and sorrow. I love the mystery, the dark, rich, fertile place of transformation.
Catalyst. In my work, I’m both loving and forthright. Not content with the status quo, I go deep fast. I’m here to ignite things, to offer a new way, to rekindle the creativity within, that beautiful soul fire inside of you. As a species, I know we are capable of so much more love and joy, and so much less hate and sadness.
Dancer. I’m a dancer. I didn’t start until I was 45. Dancing is my life’s blood. When I dance, something moves me and my soul sings through the bones, muscles, and sweat.
Writer. I’m a writer. I didn’t begin to write - freely in the way my soul longed to write - until I was 45 as well. (It was a big year!) I swore I would never write when I was younger. I should have known that resistance was a sign that something was up.
“Julie is one of the wisest coaches I have worked with. She is one of the best, a genius of the body and heart. Her words, her presence, are a manifestation of what is real, what is precious, what is life-giving. Julie’s ideas, words and intent feed what must be fed for us to change the course of our planet through love. Let yourself be fed. Let yourself know the real in your bones.”
— Jennifer Louden, best-selling author
Things I love.
My Grandchildren. They are delightful.
Dance. Yes, I’ve repeated this. It’s that good.
The sheer beauty. of Math. I once cried in a Calculus class due to the sheer beauty of it. This particular Calculus teacher would read us poetry, too. I tell you, sheer beauty.
Flowers. I can’t get enough. I can’t walk past them when they are so amazingly gorgeous.
Color. I LOVE color, although I often wear black.
Photography. One of my favorite things to do is grab my phone and set out on a photo walk. San Francisco is a great city for this!
"Julie is dark rich moist soil like the kind seeds crave”.
— Danielle LaPorte, bestselling author, entrepreneur, speaker
I’m Non-Traditional.
I became a mother at 17 and a widow at 38. I graduated from Stanford University with my B.S. in Interaction Design (I designed my own major) at 45, after fourteen long years, and after my first grandchild was born. I studied abroad in Florence with students half my age.
I wrote my thesis on Spirituality and the Internet in 2001. Oh! the looks and comments I got from many Professors when I announced that one! Yet, the idea turned out to be perceptive and prophetic. I see things before their time.
I’ve worked with groups of humans from many walks of life in many different life situations - some more traditional and some very unusual. I’ve worked with family members who lost loved ones in 9/11, people directly affected by the tragedy at Sandy Hook, undergrads and continuing studies students at Stanford, women who desired to awaken to the sacred feminine within, and women writers coming home to the deep well of knowing within.
I know what it’s like to be different, to have lived life backward and forward and upside down. I know what it’s like to view the world from outside of the cultural and societal norms. I know how to guide you to live life differently than you are used to, too.
"Julie is a healer & instigator with her words, a wicked combination."
— Ev`Yan Whitney
The Truth is, it's a Mystery.
All of these aspects of my nature give you a taste of my soul, but nothing can tell you who I am within. That’s the crazy mystery of life, is it not? If we’re honest with ourselves when we ask this question, “Who am I?” the mystery brings us back into its embrace and leads us deeper within. This IS the healing of that seeming chasm of separation between the human and the soul. In truth, there is no separation between our human nature and our sacred nature other than old outdated ideas, identities, and patterns that tell us we should hide who we truly are. We cannot be anything other than what we are. The opportunity is to no longer put ourselves away. It’s time to come out of the shadow and into the light.
Intrigued? Fantastic.
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One way or another …
stay true to what intrigues and compels you. Follow the scent of your longing. Dine on the succulence. Breathe deeply. I know it can be scary to trust the truth, yet that is where you will find yourself. Eventually, the desire to know who you are grows greater than the fear of finding out.
