It was more than just a dream come true!
Ten bright, intelligent and conscious women had said YES to my 7 Day ARISE Sacred Soul Retreat set in a idyllic and transformative setting, in radiant Portugal and it was really happening.
It was simply breath-taking to watch the life transformation unfold and observe how patterns, beliefs and energetic blocks, that had kept these beautiful souls back for countless years, simply dissolved and unraveled in the safety and light of unconditional love and ever expanding, infinite acceptance. Like so many of us, they too had been living with the handbrake on. It was humbling and beautiful to see how every block was removed so that they could finally experience the true love and power that they were.
For me leading this retreat and facilitating this life transformation, was a coming home in itself. I finally got to share the deepest lessons of life, love and transformation that I’ve collected and applied in my own life over the last 18 years and the results were awe-inspiring.
I’ve always been fascinated by life.
From early as I can remember, I’ve been intrigued to see how all of us, in all our uniqueness, seem to struggle in life. Although people said they were fine, and would give the brave smile that was expected, I always could sense the troubling sorrow just behind their beautifully painted mask.
The truth is, I felt it within my own life, too.
A persistent determination to be better, feel better, and be more. The whole while knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that there had to be another way but not being able to find this illusive golden gate that would lead to paradise. Sound familiar?
I tried so many strategies, as I’m sure you have. I started working really hard. I believed (falsely) that once I had a stable and successful career and income—THEN I would be safe and happy. I strived to create the ‘perfect’ relationship. I thought if I belonged to the “right” group of friends, all would be well. I looked for validation by being appreciated as a “good” spiritual person. The list of strategies I tried, and the false beliefs I carried, seemed endless. Although these strategies moved my life forward, and every step and lesson was valuable, they never seemed to fill this constant and ever present void that I had within me. Does any of this sound familiar, my friend?
I can only describe the void as constantly feeling as if I was ashamed of myself. It was fed by the belief that something was “wrong” with me. It was an unshakeable feeling that somehow I had been forgotten and abandoned. Not to mention the” I’m not good enough” sensation, that permeated my every waking moment. Any of this sound familiar, my friend?
You see it’s not just me, and it’s not just you. After years of working intimately with clients from every walk of life, I’ve found that all of us feel these feelings to some extent.
This lead me to ask—What on earth is wrong here?
What I’ve discovered is that every single one of us is on a unique and personal journey through this life. Because we all carry a specific vision, mission, talent, and varying life experiences, life leads us each down different paths as we all seek the way to come home to ourselves. Although there are different paths, I started seeing the same sequencing of patterns over and over again in my own life, and in the life of the women I serve as a coach, mentor or teacher.
After over 20 years in the personal development world, researching, studying and going to the seminars, and reading all the “right” books, I discovered one very important thing that didn’t come out of any of it. Here’s what I learned: “It’s not about developing into a better version of myself.”
The personal development path had me on a hamster wheel for many years trying to improve myself. The reason it didn’t work for me is because it’s based on the foundation of self-rejection. As I’m “working” on myself – I’m also locking into the belief that something IS wrong with me.
I’ve discoverd that the real journey home is quite different. It’s not about becoming this perfect person–it’s about unveiling the perfection who we truly are and unravelling all the lies that we have believed ourselves to be. We need to rediscover the love that we are; the light that we are, and embrace the truth that we are.
Once I discovered this for myself, I started supporting women in discovering it for themselves and having been doing so for the last 5 years. We have been finding that truth in their careers, in the businesses they want to create, and in the families that they want to have better relationships with. Mainly, I’ve supported courageous and conscious women in the relationship with themselves because everything is truly born from that place.
A.R.I.S.E. is a body of work that I’ve created to support this journey back to the love that we are. I now teach this powerful process to women in an intimate 7-day Sacred Soul Retreat, and a powerful 1-year program.
Allow me to walk you through the A.R.I.S.E. transformational 5-step process.
Awakening
We have all experienced an awakening. Sometimes they are mind-blowing experiences and sometimes they are just a sweet small whisper of understanding from our intuition that completely changes how we look at something. Whether big or small, I’ve seen that life is constantly waking us up. But waking us up to what became my next question.
I’ve seen that my awakenings have led me to these three understandings:
- This life is a purposeful journey
nothing happens for no reason and everything is leading somewhere
- I need to awaken to new parts of myself.
There needs to be partnership within the many different parts of myself, including but not limited to my higher self, my inner child, my intuition, my ego etc.
- There is a choice to be made.
I constantly have the power to react or to create with what life is bringing me
One of the most important awakenings is to my heart’s wisdom. Truly connecting to my deeper understanding and wisdom of my intuition and then learning to trust it more and more and have the courage to follow its guidance.
Remembering
Neale Donald Walsch beautifully stated, “We are not here in this life to learn, rather we are here to remember.” It’s critical to remember that we are a spark of the divine. We are to remember that we are love. We hunger for love! Every action, every word and and every desire drives us to be unconditionally loved and accepted and to be loved by others. I’ve discovered this may be true for the beautifully simple reason that we are LOVE.
To become this love that we are – we also need to remember the parts that we were taught, that are not in alignment with our true nature and therefore holding us back from our wholeness.
Integration
As we awaken to all that we are and remember all aspects that is truly us and also the beliefs that has blocked that from our reality – We then have to integrate that within our system. This means that I want to integrate that in a daily practice of who I show up as, everyday lives and who we show up as.
Surrender
This has to be my favorite step within ARISE although all of them are so critical and amazing. I’ve tried for a long time to live in control. I wanted to life to show up a certain way, I wanted people to treat me a certain way, I wanted to behave in a certain way. It never worked out and control never led me to nothing except exhaustion, frustration and disappointment. When I gave up control and truly embraced surrender in my life – the magic and flow of life that I had been searching for my whole life – unlocked.
I started understanding that there is a divine beautiful unfolding of life. The state of living in surrender is living without resistance. It’s about living without judgement. It’s living with the oneness and the harmony of life and when we can do that, everything opens up for us.
Emergence
I emerge after my process of awakening, of remembering, of integrating and surrendering; I finally emerge as the full expression of my authentic voice. There is alignment, there is wholeness and we fully come home to ourselves.
One of the hooks that kept me stuck for many years was that I would believe that I had to get “there”. I have no idea what there is and the destination would change based on the circumstances. What I’ve learnt in the meantime is that there is no there. We are ever expanding beings and there is NO ‘there’. There’s always more to discover, more to forgive, more to embrace, more to enjoy and more to learn. So, this is an ongoing ever changing and beautiful experience. The great news is it doesn’t have to be one of suffering.
We don’t emerge just once, we don’t awaken just once, and we certainly don’t surrender just once. I surrender on a constant basis and I’m always integrating all the new lessons and remembrances that life is showing and teaching me. The journey doesn’t end but once we know how to embrace the process, we truly are free to create and lead our lives to be one of joy, of service, of compassion and of being the love that we deserve to be in the world.
I wish you courage. I wish you wisdom. My deepest desire is that you answer the call to ARISE and be the force of love that I know that you long to be. You have a voice – one of love, one of light and one of power, and it deserves to be found, and it deserves to be heard.
