Today we’d like to introduce you to Gary Merel.
Hi Gary, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My life has been guided by a commitment to my own personal and spiritual growth. I am a certified life coach with 25 years of experience as a functional medicine practitioner at Ann Arbor Holistic Health. In 2022, I stepped away from clinical practice to devote myself entirely to the deeper work of transformation, helping people live with clarity, intention, and alignment.
As a young adult, I lived in a yoga ashram for several years, immersed in disciplined spiritual practice. In midlife, I moved to Ann Arbor to study with a spiritual teacher, a relationship that shaped me for more than two decades. Most recently, my connection with my current teacher led me to spend extended time in India. These were not casual explorations. They were commitments, immersions into the questions that define my life.
My path has included facilitating men’s work through the ManKind Project and the Path 2 Spirit Warrior Program. I have also trained with the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine in the therapeutic use of psychedelics and have also studied with indigenous traditions, including the Huichol, Shuar, Quechua, and Kallawaya peoples, always holding these tools within a grounded, ethical, and spiritually centered framework.
As a cancer survivor, I have faced fragility and the power of life directly. That experience stripped away abstraction and demanded authenticity. Today, I draw on decades of spiritual practice, personal inquiry, and professional experience to help others grow honestly, courageously, and with heart. This work is about awakening. It is about becoming fully alive.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
No one gets a smooth path. Mine hasn’t been either. The struggles, career misalignment, financial pressure, divorce, co-parenting, and surviving cancer forced hard choices and stripped away illusions about who I thought I was supposed to be.
In my thirties, I reached a breaking point. I was successful on paper but disconnected in reality. I had a choice: stay safe and slowly deteriorate, or risk everything for a life that felt true. I left a thriving career in the computer industry and committed fully to acupuncture school. That decision didn’t remove the weight of responsibility, it intensified it, but it aligned me with something deeper and more honest.
Cancer brought another level of confrontation. Facing mortality in real time is not theoretical, it’s clarifying. It cuts through noise and exposes what matters. Alongside the ongoing challenges of work and relationships, it demanded that I develop a different relationship with uncertainty and control.
I still face challenges. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is their impact. They no longer define my state of being. I’ve learned to live grounded in something steadier, rooted in being itself. From that place, difficulty becomes information, not identity.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Lean Into Your Life is a life coaching practice focused on helping individuals move from insight to action. I work with clients who feel stuck, misaligned, or aware they’re capable of more, but aren’t living it yet. My specialty is cutting through intellectualizing and helping people take grounded, intentional steps toward a more purposeful and aligned life.
What sets my work apart is its directness and depth. I blend practical accountability with introspective, often spiritual inquiry, challenging clients to confront avoidance, clarify priorities, and act despite discomfort. This is not passive coaching, it’s an engaged, results-oriented process that emphasizes personal responsibility, emotional awareness, and meaningful change.
Brand-wise, I’m most proud of the clarity and honesty that defines Lean Into Your Life. The message is simple but demanding: your life changes when you do. That ethos resonates strongly with clients who are ready to stop circling their challenges and start addressing them directly.
I want readers to know that my services are designed for people who are serious about growth. Whether through one-on-one coaching or written content, my goal is to create a space where individuals are both supported and challenged, so they can live with greater intention, purpose, and alignment.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
At this point in my life, I need to live a life with purpose and intention. Thus, the name of my practice “Lean Into Your Life”. To do that, I need to live a life of integrity, deep self acceptance, compassion and service to others. I need to always be open to opportunities of personal growth and not talk myself out of the very things that I need to grow. I need to continually risk for my happiness, growth and development. Any maybe, lastly keep close to the community of friends I have.
Pricing:
- 125.00/session
Contact Info:
- Website: https://leanintoyourlife.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanintoyourlife/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gary.merel
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garymerel1/
