About
Nikki andrade
Recalling Our Dreams
is much easier than it seems
What Waking Feels Like
Method
The best part of my day is waking up in the beautiful place I find myself in, usually the Caribbean, next to a lover, my animals, and a warm cup of coffee. The first few seconds of my morning, while I'm still in bed, I habitually recall the journey I took overnight, with excitement. Like a little kid waiting for a Christmas present, I cherish these few seconds whether the gift reveals itself as chocolates or sour apples, I am thankful there is a gift at all. The gift of remembering where it is I went.
I mosey on outside to meet a warm breeze and a cleansing air. I sit. And I write. My pen moving sometimes in triangles, sometimes in gibberish, sometimes in eloquent stories - voices I’ve heard from other worlds.
I believe I am a magical human to love life so very much. Remembering the symbols, the animals, the spirits and the premonitions I’ve encountered in my nighttime adventures is something I so very much cherish.
And as the sun begins to show itself, every morning, I move on through my day, usually starting with an activity to connect me back to physical self. I’ll practice kundalini yoga, or I’ll go for a run, a stretch, a swim or to a fancy air conditioned gym to lift some weights. The best part of my day starts and ends here, in my body with myself.
My method is my method, it is unteachable, however the process in how I developed my method is. And so I don’t teach my method to others. I listen to theirs and what wants to come out. As writing is not so much about speaking as it is learning to listen to everything and everyone else.
Uncovering our true home
Purpose
The idea of purpose, and needing one, was presented to me when I was young through a reoccurring dream. It was a typical falling nightmare, but before I fell there was a presence, I perceived as masculine. And this presence seemed to take up the entire black space I’d find myself in and so I had no where else to go but down. I’d fall and fall and fall and when I finally would wake up I’d realize my stomach was in place but it wasn’t so safe to be young at all. In fact, the sooner I could grow up and escape that dream, the better off we’d all be, I told myself subconsciously.
My mother passed away when I was only fifteen years old, and her passing left me with a deep sense of encouragement to travel abroad. I started practicing bellydancing and was deeply inspired by music artists like Shakira, from Colombia. My journey into liberation began once she left, while I subconsciously started looking for her love everywhere I went. When one day I found it inside me, on a motorcycle trip through a jungle in Costa Rica, I heard her voice as clear as day. And that's how I knew I made the right decision to go on this crazy adventure; to live this alternative life connected to the unknown, the unexplainable, and frankly the unprovable.
She seemed to have died with so many unmet goals and dreams. I knew if I wanted to live my life wholeheartedly I’d have to live and work for myself, as she and my father did. Although the stressed they carried as small business owners was heavy, they also created an overwhelming sense of pride in our home. And it is this pride that has always inspired me to push further than my dreams could allow.
American Born, Internationally Sown
Mission
Instead of going to college for music I opted to study at Babson College for its renown and well recognized entrepreneurship program. It was there I met the concept of business models that focused on “people, planet and profit.” Business models where philanthropy could exist as the one true focus. It is here where I became fascinated with the idea of businesses in developing countries. If America was supposed to be “developed”, implying better, surely the opportunity in less developed countries could be explosive. These were the thoughts of my college diary entries. I was quite the conqueror with a saviors heart, I suppose.
This saviors heart I carried since as long as I remember until I experienced I did not need to carry anything, I only had to be my eternal blissful self.
It is here when we can experience what family, community, freedom and intimacy truly look like. I’m not so naive as to believe being in an eternal state of bliss is untouchable. However, I’m not cynical enough to doubt whats possible.
I believe especially now, that collective bliss, and living in cultivation of that collective bliss is what will drive humanity forward as we continue to expand globally. There are no developed or developing worlds where I come from. There is no American superiority or righteousness that needs to be settled or undone.
There is simply awakening, transformation and discovering what our collective purpose could be - when we all feel this free. My work exists is embody me in this eternal state of prosperity.
Collective Bliss
our Dreams are shared - That's why great stories feel like home. A place of peace we all crave to return to, only to meet ourselves all over again.