The tapestry of wildflowers masks the once solid wall leading into the city. What has become of our world? Our sacred mother earth Laden with poison near and far Suffocating and dying a slow, painful death? Nature’s rebellion In all its guises Is not enough for us mere mortals to heed the call. The call to wake up To look up To halt and scream ‘Enough!’ To stop To withdraw To be filled with compassion For the innocent generations Who sit silently as stardust Awaiting the call to descend ..read more

Photo by Hannah Klingbeil on Pexels.com Thoughts rushing around my head. Emotions gushing around my body like a powerful and violent hurricane engulfing me in the process. Hello Anxiety. Hello Discomfort. Hello Fear. Just sit with these feelings I hear. No judgement, no fixing, no narration. Just sit with them. So I do. The four of us sit on a backless stone bench overlooking a lake, its water as still as the night. I start to embrace each one of them like you do old friends. Hi Anxiety. Hi Fear. Hi Discomfort. I want to ask them why they’re here with me, but I don’t. I exercise control as the ..read more

Photo by Brett Jordan on Pexels.com Everyone procrastinates every now and then, right? We all occasionally put things off that we don’t enjoy doing – that’s  not an issue. But when you regularly avoid doing things that are in your best interest to complete, if procrastination is a way of managing stressful situations,  it becomes a problem. Why? Because your tasks start to pile up which means you’ll end up working longer hours and can eventually lead to you feeling stressed and exhausted. I used to think that to overcome my procrastination, I would just need to motivate myself enough ..read more

For most of my 20s and 30s, my eyes and heart were tightly closed to the truth – the truth that I had spent most of my life distancing myself from myself, not really knowing who I was and not really knowing what I wanted. As I went through life accompanied by a lingering feeling of ‘’stuckness’’ – living a life that didn’t really make me happy, I never once considered or entertained the thought that this feeling was coming from a lack of self-worth. Nope! I honestly thought that if I could control what was going on in my outside world, I would fix my painful inner world. And believe me… I gave ..read more

Photo by Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash As a recovering perfectionist myself, I remember equating perfectionism with being perfect, but the truth is, perfectionism isn’t really about being perfect, it’s about feeling perfect. In hindsight, I realise that I spent many years confusing high achieving behaviour with perfectionism. You see, if you’re a high achiever, you’re a dedicated and determined individual with a strong desire and focus to accomplish whatever is important to you; once you achieve what you’ve set out to accomplish, you gain personal gratification from your success. You’re certai ..read more

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash For as long as I can remember, the people in my life (both at work and personally) always commented on how confident I appeared. And maybe on the surface I did come across as self-confident, but deep down, I believed I just wasn’t as good as other people. You see, on the surface, I seemed to have a relatively good life. I loved school and did pretty well, I was good at sports, I went to university, had a whole line-up of educational and professional qualifications under my belt, have always had a decent career, first in media, then in education –  but I ..read more

How strong is your sense of self? Photo by Eternal Happiness on Pexels.com I spent years not knowing who I was, what I liked, what I didn’t like, what I needed, what I didn’t need, what I wanted, what I was feeling… I could go on and on, but I think you get the drift. This lack of a sense of identity meant that I struggled with setting boundaries. Of course! How could I possibly know what my boundaries were if I didn’t have a clear sense of who I was? You see, when you don’t have a sense of your own identity and set boundaries that protect you as an individual, you are likely to draw your iden ..read more

‘’I don’t mind, I’m really flexible.’’ These words have been my mantra for most of my life. This might not sound like a bad thing on paper, right?  I was taught from a very young age that it’s important to be polite (nothing wrong with that in itself) and I agree that we should be teaching our children how to be polite, but when this politeness shows up because you don’t want to disappoint anyone, the need to please gets out of control and we become self-sacrificing martyrs instead of well-balanced adults. It’s the most human and normal thing in the world to want to be liked and ac ..read more

There’s so much to process as we wrap up 2020 and get ready for the new year. There have been challenges, sorrows, changes and lots of uncertainty. But there’s also been growth, transformation and insight as we collectively braved the first pandemic in our lifetime. Are you ready for 2021? Before we step into the new year, we need to let go of 2020 and everything it has thrown our way. It’s only by clearing out the old that we make space for new possibilities to enter our lives. I like to spend the last few days before the end of the year in quiet reflection in an attempt to consolidate succes ..read more

As a meditation teacher and spiritual empowerment coach, one of the questions I often get asked is, ‘how can I help my children meditate?’ The goal of meditation at any age is to calm and stabilise the mind, so as with any behaviour, parents need to demonstrate a commitment to deeper self-awareness first. If you model a meditation practice, your children will learn one too. Teaching children meditation and mindfulness is one of the most important tools you can give them, a tool which they can use for the rest of their lives, helping them to recognise stress signals from a young age and respond ..read more