FEELING BLESSED

I like to think that I always feel blessed.

I would like to share why I feel so blessed today.

In 2007 I started to support my eldest daughter Rachel with her business vision of creating retreats for participants wanting to explore life coaching or people who had become qualified life coaches and would like to feel supported in their new businesses. Rachel started holding retreats at Wimbleton heights in Phillip Island.

Rachel had a vision when she brought her amazing house of these retreats. The house became affectionately known as Wimby.

Along with her vision came the extra vision that she wanted my expertise to assist her in her journey and Mario as my assistant.

From the beginning we always worked well as a team and I have always respected the fact that it is her business and I am there to support. Rachel has always been very generous and recognised my own gifts and passions that I could bring, that would complement the life changing skills that she has in her gift of life coaching.

When you think about 18 years ago, providing healthy, nutritional, vegetarian food, cooked from scratch was not the easy option.

Add to this that we also thought of the environment and cut down on the rubbish that was accumulated from retreats. We never used disposable cutlery, crockery. Everything was washed and dried for every meal. We also cut down on plastics and would transport our groceries etc in boxes and the only plastic containers that we used were ones that we used over and over.

Some of the retreats would have 12 participants.

Rachel and Michael who has been involved almost from the start. (Michael is accomplished in his own right and his own business now) and of course Mario and myself.

On top of this Rachel's generousity has always been on display at every event. She would invite extra people or past students to participate in some of the activities. Rachel would invite past participants of other therapists to offer extra hands on, and others for their own knowledge and experience. Rachel would also offer extra activities to her retreats. Massage, surfing, drumming and many other therapists. Rachel has always been so supportive to endorse and promote others. There were times when we would have 18-20 people for meals and of course there was always enough to go around and usually for seconds.

These 3 day events "unleash your secret power," became so popular that Rachel held quite a few every year. There were many students that returned time and time again just because they loved the event so much and respected Rachel's knowledge.

In 2009 I wrote a book based on the experience I had in nutrition and health and I wanted to share the recipes that I served at the retreats. I had many participants love the food and wanted the recipes. I had some beautiful people in life coaching including Rachel who encouraged me to create my first edition of "food for feeling fabulous." The book also included the meat options to some of the vegetarian options that I used for the retreats.

During this time I was juggling my own business and diversing into further education with pilates and yoga. We had adult children still at home and my step father's health had started to deteriorate. Mario's mum was in a nursing home from 2001 until 2019 when she passed. We would always visit every week. In other words, we had a very busy life.

In 2011, I wrote a 2nd edition with all the juicy bits from the 1st edition plus extra creations that I have included since the inception. Some of the new recipes have become even healthier with tweeting some of the original recipes or completely recreating new yummy recipes. Some have been created with new research for even healthier eating.

Move forward to 9 years ago, Rachel expanded her business into psychosomatic practitioner training and became a therapist. In true Rachel style she did not just become a therapist, she wanted to encourage others to expand their knowledge in this area. The qualification she achieved opened up a whole new dimension to her students and her own experience.

She could not only tap into the mind with life coaching but she could find evidence and healing the physical body with emotional trigger point release therapy and chakra rebalancing. All of this new knowledge became life changing to all who became associated with psychosomatics. Rachel became a leader in her field and she qualified to teach others to follow her path in psychosomatics.

The retreat that she now runs has become 7-10 days and at the end of 12 months, the participants will have the qualification to create their own businesses in this field.

Today I reflect and feel so grateful that I have been involved with these retreats for so long. I love the trust that people have placed in me.

From Rachel and Michael,

to the participants,

to people who have had eating intolerences and allergies,

to participants with injuries and disabilities who have trusted me to help them move their bodies in the yoga and pilates classes.

I would hold these classes on the decking.

Rachel trusted me to hold space for her and her participants every morning for 1-1 and a half hours in breath work, yoga, pilates, yoga nidra and sometimes just a chat on exercise and nutrition.

People who know me, know that I am never short of finding something to talk about.

In the last week, I have provided 14 meals, bliss balls, biscuits, slices, lots and lots of fruit inbetween.

The whole retreat was 90% gluten free, onion and garlic free, vegetarian and 90% dairy free. We had some participants that had intolerances and a sciliac, so we adjusted lots of the recipes to make these changes.

I feel like I have created more variety and moved towards less dairy to provide food that is wholesome and yummy without the heavy and sluggish feeling after a big meal.

I feel very satisfied that at 66, I have the energy, the support of Mario, the motivation and the good health to keep going with my passion.

So much love and gratitude.

I AM FEELING VERY EMPOWERED.

"You can do anything as long as you have the passion, the drive, the focus and the support."

"Follow your passion.

It will lead you to your purpose."

"Feel the power that comes from focusing

on what excites you."