Ruth Davis is an author, artist, speaker, and coach, and the founder of Spark the Heart. She has spent the last twelve years exploring how we hold ourselves back from pursuing our dreams, how we stay in situations that are familiar, even when we’re no longer satisfied, and how, when we live from our hearts, we are so much happier.
Ruth leads workshops and retreats that combine practical coaching techniques with creativity and play, to help her clients learn more about themselves and how they want to show up in the world.
Her book, Heart Sparks: 7 Practices For Loving Your Life inspires readers to consider new possibilities for their lives. Her new deck of Heart Sparks cards pairs Ruth’s coaching prompts with artwork by artists from around the world.
Ruth and her 3 year old dog Tillie spend the winters in Phoenix and the summers at the ocean, volunteering and connecting with people from all over the world.
Listen to/watch some recent interactions with Ruth:
• Ruth was a recent guest on the KXCR public radio show, Conversations, talking about Heart Sparks.
• Ruth is the featured speaker in this video from Open Heart Spiritual Center in Memphis, TN, sharing her insights about finding community.
• Here’s Ruth on video at Open Heart Spiritual Center again, inspiring folks to decide.
• Ruth talks with Erica Harey-Butcher about getting un-stuck and taking action on Catch Good health blogtalkradio.
MY STORY
For years I coasted through my life. I enjoyed a successful computer training business, went on great beach vacations, sold my mixed media art in galleries. And I engaged in some pretty addictive behaviors to avoid dealing with any real emotions.
Then, in 2007 I underwent emergency open heart surgery to remove a benign tumor in my left atrium. Like any major surgery, it forced me to slow down. Really slow down. I had to let go of what I wished I could be doing and began focusing on what I COULD do: breathing, sitting still, saying thank you. And it forced me to take a close look at my life and ask myself what really mattered.
As I regained my physical strength I was also taking inventory of what was working in my life and what was no longer serving me. I started saying NO to invitations that felt more like obligations. I let go of relationships that drained me. I became acutely aware of the love and support in my life. And, a year later, I let go of those addictive activities.
That first year after the surgery, nothing was the same. I stopped making art. I didn’t even do much writing. I remember sitting a lot, just feeling like I was in a wide open void. While this is typical of heart patients, my biggest fear was that I wasn’t ever going to be creative again.
I had to find new ways to tap into my creative self and discover how I wanted to express myself authentically. And I wanted to do more of my “real work,” even though I didn’t really know what that was. Many of the tools I share with my clients are things that worked for me in those long, empty months as I searched for myself.
Now, fifteen years later, I am healthy, strong and genuinely happy. I am more grounded in the present moment, not bemoaning the past or living in the future. I show up 100% authentically in my life, with such clarity and presence that I never imagined possible.
I am learning to lean into my vulnerability and actually embrace the gifts of my emotions. And I am bravely following the callings of who I really want to be and how I can best do my life’s work.
Six years ago I stepped to the edge of everything I knew and said yes to a dream I had for more than 20 years: living full-time on the road in a motorhome with my then beloved. We sold the house and all of our stuff and lived full-time in a 32 foot motorhome for six years. We played tourists for a few months, then volunteered at a campground or national refuge or forest for a few months, learning something, engaging with people, and getting to know a new part of the country.
I’m single now, and Tillie and I are continuing the volunteering lifestyle, but without an RV.
You can follow our journey on the Heart Sparks blog.
If you’d like to have me come and engage with your community, club or organization, please email or call me.
In addition to retreats and the online Virtual Heart Sparks Circle, I also work with coaching clients one-on-one, by phone.
If you’re ready to open your heart and claim your biggest dreams (even if you don’t know what they are), I’d love to work with you!
From my heart to yours,
Ruth@nullsparktheheart.com
602-531-3736
