Gratitude.

Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, you are the North Star toward which I run. Thank you for encouraging my gifts, talents, and contributions. Thank you for your Grace, blessings, and teachings, which continue to show me the purpose of creativity and the joy of working toward heightened perception.

My dearest Mom, Jyotika Patel, aka “Joyba.” It is fitting that your lineage would design a method that gives people a way to know their joy. Your natural impulse has always been to help others. Your compassion is boundless. Your strength, unprecedented. My soul chose you because she knew you were the one who could assure I remain free and continue to reach for new heights. My book and my company exist because of you. Thank you for investing in my gift. Thank you for teaching me to stand tall.

Dad, you are so the man that would buy a ticket to every city in the world to buy a book and lift my voice. I feel you everyday, in the sound of the chimes, the black butterflies and blue bonnets, and of course, when Niko gets impatient with me in the same voice and facial expressions as you. You have given me countless gifts—invisible and seen—for which I am eternally grateful. Telling me everyday that I was one of your greatest blessings, holding me with that eye, is why this book and my method has come alive. Thank you.

Mom and Dad Barnett, Denise and John Anderson, thank you for loving me as your own from day one. Your thoughtfulness and generosity fill every corner of our home. The way you take in life inspires me—you are the embodiment of community in its purest form. The publication of this book was possible because of your gifts.

John Day, my most handsome “roommate.” Thank you for keeping me focused on my dreams. In your loving embrace, I have always felt secure in me. You tend the fire of our family with an unfailing kindness and lionheart. You are a “yes” to each and every one of my “crazy” ideas.

This book and the company is as much yours as it is mine. But people don’t see the behind-the-scenes that makes this possible. So let it be known now, I am what I am because of you. Everyone who will benefit from this book, is because of you. Thank you.

Rayam and Niko, in a plot twist I gave you life, but actually you brought me back to life. I will love, resource and fight for you forever. Yet, this life is yours to make. From what I can already see in you, whatever you choose to design, will be magnificent.

Ditto to my nieces, Shreya and Aaksha Patel. Whoever said that daughters are the greatest boon to a family, was undoubtedly looking at the two of you. Today, we still live in a world where some people tell women they can’t. It’s changing. But if you ever encounter this lie, burn it in your bright.

Ameet Patel, by now the reader can see that I am surrounded by great men. That is what you are. I am proud of the life you’ve built. You are the younger brother, but have been there for me as an elder time again, without judgment in my rock bottoms and with admiration in my soaring. Thank you. Swathi Vijaykumar, I continue to be inspired by how you mother, how you care for your parents, brother and mom. You have one eye on the task at hand and the other other on the welfare of another and it is beautiful to behold. Thank you.

Brian and Dina Barnett, thank you for your enduring presence in our life. Brian, another good man. Your sweetness and supportive hand doesn’t just endear our boys’ souls, it does mine as well. And even though it is the saddest of circumstances, Dina, in you I witness the strength and grace that runs through the Ukrainian bloodlines—you love anyway, you give anyway, you smile anyway. Thank you for the light you are.

Juliana Farrell, thank you for opening my eyes to the possibility that life and work could be my own, through your program 40 Days to 40. I get to choose, and therein exists my power. Thank you for dying and birthing me, everyday. Your rare ability to story and craft an experiential arc that gets people the real change they yearn for, is why the word method can be added to Seeing Me. Thank you for the ceremony, working sessions, and coaching that brought this beauty to life. We’re just getting started.

Kristi Capurso, thank you for teaching me to take a stand. Full stop. I feel so seen in our working sessions, obsessing over every pixel, space and word, together knowing that everyone thinks we’ve lost our minds. Your influence shines throughout this book, most poignantly in your naming, “Dare to Design the Real You,” and “Seeing Me.” Your influence quietly benefits millions who have been touched by the teachers of this world. Their students will never know your name, but they are “ongoingly transformed” by you.

Dr. Timothy Dukes, thank you for holding the vigil of the numinous with me and holding up the mirror of truth. Devin Sizemore, thank you for structuring my wild, turning it into pages that reflect all the poetry and precision that is Ushi. I look at the book, and I see me. Thank you, Steve Gordon for pioneering a style of publishing that amplifies the highly effective ones and for standing as living proof of a CEO with integrity intact. Dr. Susie Carder, you are a woman’s woman and true mentor. Thank you for reenergizing my CEO identity, increasing the digits in my bottom line, and streaming your wisdom and sound strategy towards me.

Jodi Corbin and Haley Smith, Hayjo, thank you to my number one hype team for showing me the grace and grit of a Texas Woman, and your sisterhood through the early years of mamahood—helping me raise my boys, my book, and my company. And to your gents, Mr. Lee and Mr. Chad, whose only flaw is their choice in pro football teams, I am grateful my boys get to grow up watching men like you.

Monica Silva-Guittierez and Neka Pasquale, thank you for believing in me and giving me a chance when I was a gifted nobody. Nadia Carta, keeper of zeal, thank you for lifting my voice and gifts in the often arid air of Corporate. Amy Mahjoory, thank you for your BIG heart, and connecting me to the gems of this world. Montana Fisher, thank you for your systems-thinking and ever-ready, supportive attitude—an art form that has given me back time. Thank you to Shelby Ring for holding the cocoon and translating my essence into media form.

Judy Scott, thank you for showing me how to be a woman of the world. Thank you Carrie Moreno and Rama Duncan for your everlasting friendship, and for giving me another sphere in which I feel free to be the Ushi I am. Thank you, Theresa Lo, for recognizing me on the playground, and then inviting me to play.

To Dr. Tracy Verrico, Jess Riehl, Nish Patel, Dr. Pete, and Renee Scherzer, thank you for doing the work and reminding me daily of why I do what I do. To all my clients now and to come, thank you for showing up. If our paths cross, one thing is for certain, you have every reason to perpetuate darkness. But you don’t. You embrace your challenges, choose something different, break the cycle, dream into the new and now stand as living proof of what’s possible. Thank you.

To all of you, thank you. Look how many benefit from the contribution to one.