Empowerment of the self is not about having power over anyone else, but you. We find our own power, by coming out of our heads, letting go of what we should or should not be doing and focussing on what we really, really want to do with our lives, finding your I AM presence by connecting with your heart. It is not about giving up anything, but the struggle. Struggle with relationship, yourself and life in general. The unknown can be scary, so we live with what happened in the past or what may happen in the future. The past will only be the same as the future if you keep doing the same thing (by living in your head with all the negative mind chatter). So how do we change that, we begin to let go with meditation which brings the awareness and insights into what needs to change. When we have awareness we can use it to our benefit, stop reacting in the moment, stop, listen, what is your heart saying, how can you get a different result? Respond with love and kindness to yourself, by allowing a different way of responding to others/life, letting og of the pain.

When it comes down to it everthing we desire is about finding freedom, freedom to be happy, travel, spend money, have good relationships, whatever it is for you. We often think, 'when I have done this or achieved that or bought that item, have that car or partner or job, I will find freedom!'

It just does not work that way, it might bring more of what you wanted for a while, but ultimately freedom is a state of mind, your perception of life.

If you find you are disgruntled and looking for freedom, stuck or generally finding life a struggle, step back, ask yourself - 'am I looking after me, by honouring who I am, appreciating who I am, every minute of every day?' If you are feeling this way, you probably are not.

Take time and sit with the question on your own for a while and really be honest with yourself, that is the beginning, find those areas of your life where it feels off and make changes that allow you more of a feeling of freedom. Meditate to release the mind chatter and find inspiration.

Ask yourself, 'what do I need to feel better in this area of my life?'

You will begin to like yourself more and as you work through your list and begin to allow yourself to put yourself first, and let go of telling yourself off, you will discover a lot of those difficult areas are easier than they were before. Keep looking at where you can bring about changes and your perception of life will gradually change - FREEDOM

With the Wolf moon on 21st January we moved into a new awareness of who we are, we are now able to access new truths and healing. In that healing we a began to realise everything has a purpose, nothing is hopeless or outside of our power, we have the power to manifest a life that is authentic, we can begin to demand authentic responses and integrity from everyone we come in contact with.

We begin to notice that others are a mirror of the things we are changing in ourselves and that the mirror is not a judgement, but a teaching of what we need to work on in ourselves to bring about better relationships with others and help us to appreciate ourselves.

We notice when we are not caring for ourselves as we should or have weak expectations of how others respond to us and we are then able to create a loving boundary for ourselves, so that others know what we expect from them, letting go of the guessing games which sometimes result in resentment and withdrawal.

We begin to rebirth and know who we really are. We are empowered spiritual beings, living a human life.

When we first set up our Retreat in Croatia, I had a vision of a place where people could come to find themselves and go away inspired to manifest/create the life they wanted and dreamed of. It started out that way and we inspired and helped many of our guests to find a new way forward.

But, I was the driving force and I drove myself to do most of the running of the retreat because it was my vision, my husband's interest had been the renovation project. I became burnt out, we returned to the UK worn out and feeling defeated in 2011 and tried in vain to sell our beautiful dream. It would not sell.

I began to see a new way forward with the retreat in 2017, my manifesting was not yet complete. The dream has now awoken in reality to become much more than it was before. A wonderful Shamanic healing retreat. Shamanism has been calling me for some years now, it is an amazing authentic way of living and healing ourselves and our planet and appreciating and healing the ancestral line. It has been around as long as human life and the wisdom is profound. I believe it is our way of healing everything.

We are not responsible for everyone elses happiness, but we are responsible for our own, we act in a way that brings health and harmony and wellbeing to ourselves. In doing this you attract what you need and enhance the lives of those you come in contact with.

Our boundaries need to be flexible and strong at the same time, that means you know when they are crossed and you do something to let the other person know this. If the same boundary is crossed again by this person, you will need to protect yourself for a while, by distancing and letting go of close contact with this person, let the other person know why this is not working for you and this then, allows the other person to work out how to change.

If you do nothing, you send a message that you are prepared to be abused or treated in a way that you do not feel comfortable with. This often encourages the other person to continually, test or override any boundary you have and continue to create a feeling of powerlessness, dis-ease, low self-esteem, low self-worth and lack of confidence in yourself, which in turn creates procrastination, confusion and lethagy and even depression and lack of respect for your right to chose.

The other person often, needs to have explained what does not work for you, sometimes they just don't know.

You owe it to yourself and all those who love and respect you and even those who don't yet, to uphold your boundaries.

Once you take your courage in your hands (feel the fear and do it anyway) and express how you feel about the situation, without blame, for example, "I need you to check with me before you arrange......" then, everything becomes so much better in your relationships.

You reclaim your power and everyone benefits.