I might just be the poster child for jack of all trades, master of none. I wrote user interface and graphics software for 15 years mostly in the biotech industry but quit in 2003 when i stopped loving it. I now spend my time in ways i’m loath to admit that i can’t figure out. I write about my evolving understanding of self and the world, i occasionally create things (music, art, powerpoint diagrams of my worldview…), i travel every so often, and i teach and practice yoga nidra. [Update Spring 2008: There is no longer any mystery about how I spend my time. It’s all orgo all the time these days though organic chemistry is only one of five classes I’m taking as I plunge head-first back into academic life.]

I’m fascinated by the creative process to the point where the product has taken a back seat. Process over product is a practice and a guiding tenet for me. It’s no surprise then that art, when i attempt to make it, emerges out of playing with new materials and skills which has, at various times, included casting epoxy resin, gilding with gold leaf, bead-weaving, wood-working, image transfer, sewing, photography and construction with found objects, bamboo, glass panels, and for some reason, lots of brass machine screws. For inspiration, photographs, and statuary I’ve traveled to Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Vietnam, Thailand, Bhutan & India, and most recently, Spain & Vancouver.

While I am trained to teach hatha yoga (Willow Street Yoga’s 400 hour Anusara Teacher Training) my passion for teaching has been ignited by Yoga Nidra - a fabulously rich and feel-good meditation technique in which i have found a home. I study with a teacher that I am happy to have stumbled across many years ago in Berkeley California during my coding days - Richard Miller was teaching a weekend workshop that I mistakenly signed up for thinking it was a yoga workshop. I struggled through the seated meditation portion of the weekend but was blown away but the Yoga Nidra chunk. That was in 2001. As luck would have it Richard taught his first ever Yoga Nidra Teacher Training in Maryland in 2006 and I enrolled without hesitation. It was a mind altering experience and one that left me with no doubt that this was something I’d like to continue practicing and teaching for many years.

In the past year or so I have picked up and put down the idea of returning to school so many times it makes my head spin. Like many things in life, this one doesn’t feel as if it’s up to me and so I am forging ahead. In January 2008 I will take my personal study of psychology, philosophy, religion, attention, & creativity out of my living room and in to the structured world of academia. I can’t wait.

This website originated as a personal one, mostly as a venue for displaying my art. It’s transmogrification has been slow in clarifying but quick in crystallizing (if that makes any sense). I’ve struggled to settle into a profession following my departure from the software engineering so much so I’d begun worrying if I just lacked focus. My most recent attempt to choose a single direction came early this year as I explored the possibility of going back to school for a PhD in neuropsychology. The field completely fascinates me but in an anecdotal way - I love the stories of Daniel Goleman and António Damásio that provoke thought on free will, the role of emotions in decision making, and countless other human behavioral topics. My brain interests lie predominantly in the areas of consciousness, creative processes, cognitive functioning, and behavioral psychology but I’m still searching for the perfect fit for a PhD program. I was frustrated by my search for a fit in the current academic landscape and after broadening my search to include university departments of philosophy, religious studies, south Asian studies, theology, and psychology, a welcome epiphany has helped me recognize the common thread winding through my love of yoga, yoga nidra, music, art, aesthetic experiences, emotion, the brain, and behavior: the effects and benefits of contemplative practices. Thus the birth of a personal mission and the website www.contemplatethis.org. The illuminating key was finding a group of Brown University faculty’s articulation of their intention to develop a contemplative studies program.. If that floats your boat you might contact me as I’m interested in finding others who share my peculiar brand of meta-living.

You can contact me via email at info [at] sueborchardt [dot] com or by phone, 443 722 0189.