In the last of an inspired 3 – part blog about her life, work and future plans, it was an honour and joy to interview Loraine Van Tuyl; our very own #Emerging Proud Mowgli!

Loraine Van Tuyl’s signature Soul Sanctuary Alchemy holistic model is an intuitive, 1 size-fits-all technology of self-healing that especially appeals to spiritual warriors and pioneers yearning to:

•  tip the scales of consciousness.
• live a dreamlife that’s sanctified by an inner mystic rather than sabotaged by an inner critic.
• align with earth wisdom, re-divine themselves, and practice BEING at least 1 degree more PRESENT and grounded in wholeness than in wounding, and enjoy a 180 degree shift in well-being.
• move from hurting & hiding their magic and wings to healing & leading their mission and callings with grace and guidance from the sacred 7 directions.
• establish a new status quo where our awakening will be as natural, common and wonder-filled as a butterfly emerging out of a chrysalis.

To find out more sign up at: THE SACRED HEALING WELL

Just after I’d prepared this blog I was listening to a random Spotify playlist and this came on…a message of confirmation from the Universe for you Loraine ❤

There are no words to describe the gratitude I feel for people like Liisa; cultural strangers and only ever meeting online, and yet still somehow deeply connected… Liisa’s difficult experiences  have emerged into an overriding desire to support others going through turbulent transformation processes, and the beauty of this shared desire is that it connects those of us who feel it at a soul level.

Here Liisa describes the journey that has led her to set up SEN Finland:

Much has happened in Finland since the Launching of the #EmergingProud campaign that Katie Mottram initiated in October of 2016…

When I first heard of Katie and we became friends on fb in springtime 2016, I was still feeling quite alone with my experiences of Spiritual Emergency from 10 years before. It was only a couple of years earlier, that I had heard the term ”Spiritual Emergency” in first place. The newly found peers involved in the campaign and in groups like Shades of Awakening and the Shamanic View of Mental Illness brought me for the first time the feeling of belonging, validating, sharing and understanding. It is quite impossible to put in words how much it meant to me!

As Katie told me about her plans to arrange this campaign, I felt that I definitely wanted to be part of it and wanted to contribute to the change in seeing mental distress as a possible transformation process instead of traumatising it with a stigma of illness.

It felt very natural and empowering to jump in the flow of events and it was so incredible to notice, how things just evolved and everything seemed to resonate in synchronity with the process – accelerating it, adding new aspects and contacts in my life. At the same time it became very stressing emotionally, as I was returning back in time, evaluating and analyzing my own process very intensely. Soon I found myself in a strong, new emergence/-y episode, after ten years, going through a very turbulent and disturbing process accompanied by severe insomnia of several months.

I feel surviving through this period without psychiatric intervention was completely due to the support of my newly found peers who gave me hope and a new sense of trust. Especially I owe enormous thanks to Mick Collins, whose interview with Katie I had seen in the campaign, and whose experiences I felt so closely resembling mine. Mick, I am forever grateful for the compassionate support you offered me, when I contacted you in sheer panic! I also want to give my heartfelt thanks to my dear husband and those few friends who tirelessly supported me. Getting in deep touch with my own vulnerabilility once again made my urge to bring these issues up, to work for more compassionate world, even stronger.

Mostly due to my own process lasting the whole winter to the spring, the first EmergingProud Day last May remained a very small-scale event here in Finland. Small, but not without effect! The resulting events and ”after-effects” have been quite remarkable! Even though we were just some one dozen people gathering for an EmergingProud and Crazywise film screening and discussion here in my little hometown, Nurmijärvi.

On that day I brought up an idea of forming a Spiritual Emergence Network in Finland. That I knew, nothing like this existed here before, even if there is a multitude of different kind of mental health related associations. We saw a great opportunity here for collaboration with the already existing communities. So, the slow process of finding people and groups who resonate with mental health and spirituality issues began. I made contact with ISEN (International Spiritual Emergence Network) and we started the joining process to establish a local SEN in Finland.

My searches soon brought some results and I found some wonderful and active individuals around the country, who had just waited for someone to take initiative. I heard, that a dream of this kind of community had been there for a long time, but the energy for putting it up earlier was just not there yet. So it was very clear: NOW is the time!

Since last autumn we have now started a fb-page and a discussion group; a web page in collaboration with ISEN; a face-to-face peer support group in Helsinki together with another mental health actor Taho ry. We have made new, and worked on translating written material in Finnish, like the Crisis Guide made by ISEN and some ACISTE made material. There is a small library building up for the network members, about Spiritual Emergence/-y and related issues. Also there is in the air several possible book projects in Finnish. The co-operation with other groups and networks around Finland and worldwide is slowly increasing…

Our SEN Finland ”big launch” event is going to be on the EmergingProud Day, on the 12th of May.

We are arranging a seminar called (freely translated) ”Meaningful Madness – Crisis as a Possibility for Growth” at Lapinlahden Lähde. The venue is a former well known psychiatric hospital in Helsinki that nowadays is a location of many different mental health associations’ volunteer events and activities. We’ve got very well-known and respected psychologists/psychiatrists as speakers on the event that is focused in reframing mental distress as a possible transformational process. In addition we are going to have a ”So-Me” based sharing as a workshop, where all the seminar guests can participate in one-to-one or a small group story- and experience sharing. It is possible also to watch experiencers’ stories on EmergingProud film, if sharing face-to-face feels uncomfortable for someone.

I feel so happy and grateful for all this, for all the new friends I’ve got, for the worldwide growing networks, for the slow but steady movement towards respecting wholly human experience in the mental health field!

To find out more about the Finnish SEN and the work of Liisa and her team, CLICK HERE

A HUGE gratitude shout- out to you Liisa, for all you are doing for the movement, we love you! ❤

The Visionary Spirit: Awakening to the Imaginal Realm in the Transformocene Age by Mick Collins

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY!

The Visionary Spirit offers a vision of hope which points to a new era of emancipatory living that Mick Collins calls the Transformocene Age. In a masterfully crafted manual, Mick Collins draws on the wisdom and knowledge of the imaginal realm, where dreams, myth and synchronicity help us to re-align to the natural world and to our innate wholeness. He describes a  transformative process, from the Anthropocene and our current scale of planetary destruction, to a new era of wisdom and balance.

Drawing inspiration from diverse fields such as the sacred feminine, indigenous wisdom, daimons and near-death experiences, this book is enlivened by fascinating, real-life stories of people who have engaged in deep processes of psycho-spiritual change. The Visionary Spirit is a radical manifesto for soulful and creative living. At the end of each chapter there is an exercise, providing opportunities for experiential reflection, aiding the reader on their personal journey.

This is not just a deep exploration about human transformation, it is a radical proposition for new ways of living creatively, spiritually, harmoniously and responsibly on planet Earth.

“…a wonderful contribution to the activation of our total human potential for these troubled times” Dr Arnold Mindell, Founder of Process Oriented Psychology

CLICK HERE TO ORDER YOUR COPY!

Such an honour to have Mick as a friend, Mentor and proud Emergee in our community; this book is genius and sets out a vision for the Transformocene Age; the Utopia that could be being birthed through the chaos of our current times. Mick is a true Visionary Spirit! Couldn’t recommend this book highly enough for providing hope; grab your copy! ❤

Heather from Minnesota thankfully realised that there was more going on for her empathic daughter Ellie than the Western medical system recognised. Now able to walk their spiritual healing journey together as a family unit, here Heather describes the rocky road that led them to this unity…

I am the parent of an 18-year old amazing Daughter. We have experienced quite a journey as a family and I know that we are meant to share what we have learned with others. At the age of 14 after returning home from a 5-month stay at an Inpatient Residential Treatment Facility for; Depression, Suicidal Ideation, Anxiety, ADHD – Inattentive, Optional Defiant Disorder my Daughter said a statement that would change everything. She said to me “Mom, I want to go off all prescription medications”. She no longer wanted to feel numb. I didn’t answer right away at that moment because that was a big request and one that we didn’t take lightly. It took me a few weeks before we came to our decision.

Our journey with the “mental health cycle” started when my Daughter received her initial diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder at the age of 8 years old. We took the mainstream medical route of prescription medication and therapy. At age 10 she received more diagnosis and at 13 she entered a depressive state and spoke of harming herself. This is when we felt we had no choice but to send her to the Inpatient Residential Treatment facility for help.

While she was away for 5 months working on herself I was able to experience what I call my “spiritual awareness”. I used this time to focus on what I needed. I was researching different holistic modalities and attending spiritual classes. As the heart-center of the family I was tuning into my intuition, shifting my vibration, and practicing self-love. This “awareness” shifted the entire vibration and feeling of our home.

I was awakening so that when my Daughter returned home she would be able to speak her truth. The combination of me intentionality caring for myself and my Daughter’s speaking her voice provided us the step out of the “mental health cycle’.  We moved from a traditional, medicine approach to a holistic approach, our eyes were opened to some very beautiful spiritual gifts they hadn’t seen before. (We did have the guidance of a Doctor as she was taken off her prescription medications in a safe manner).

So, at the age of 14, my Daughter was experiencing her spiritual awakening. At first, her gifts were creating fear.  She heard voices, saw dark images, and felt negative energy around her. I think partly due to her lower vibration coming off prescription medications. We were lucky to have people in our life that shared tools and taught us about protection. It has taken her a few years to accept the bright light that she is and that these experiences are part of her journey.

I look back now and realize that since my Daughter is an Empath she was feeling all the energy of others and that was causing her anxiety. Her diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder was because she is here to question and make a change, not that she was trying to disobey. Her ADHD – Inattentive is because she is creative and a daydreamer. And lastly, her depression and suicidal ideation were because she wasn’t being understood and felt lost.

It is my intention to let other families know that more children are being born spiritually gifted. We “society” often don’t know what to do, so we take them to the doctor. Like I did. This commonly ends up with our children being misdiagnosed or misunderstood. We don’t consider the spiritual perspective. We want to fix or label. Our children are coming to heal and they are powerful, we can’t ignore. They need our support and understanding.

About me: I live in St. Paul, Minnesota with my husband and two children; Ellie (18) and Lucca (11). I am currently writing a book about our journey releasing Fall 2018. The tentative title is “Our Sacred Children; Being an Awakened Parent for the Spiritually Gifted”. Here is a link for more information www.heathernardi.com/book-launch-2018/

As Coach, I help parents create deeper understanding and connection with their children.  As a best-selling author, inspirational speaker, and Coach (CHLC), I am establishing new ways to look at mental health, creating holistic and spiritual methods for deepening parental intuition and supporting our sacred children. I use my own personal experience navigating the mainstream mental health system and successfully exploring holistic treatments to help other parents of children diagnosed with mental illness recognize and foster their child’s special spiritual gifts. Through my programs, speaking, workshops/events, and books, I empower parents to support their own sacred children in a loving and accepting space.

I draw from my extensive education as a coach and spiritual practitioner to create specialized tools and programs parents can use to connect with and nurture their sacred children.  In addition to being a Certified Holistic Life Coach, I am a Certified Coach in Self-Esteem Elevation for Children, Certified ThetaHealer®, and a Flower and Gemstone Essence Practitioner. I also hold certificates Indigo Studies, and Self-Love Guidance.

You can find me at www.heathernardi.com or contact me at h.nardi@comcast.net

Welcome to the #Emerging Proud community Heather and Ellie, we feel blessed to share your story and give hope to other parents and young people who may be struggling ❤

Dr Nicole Gruel from Sydney, Australia #Emerges Proud to share the profound personal experience that was to set her on her life’s mission…

It’s hard to say exactly when an awakening starts and if it ever ends, but I shall nonetheless try to describe here a key experience that forever altered how I walk the world. To give some context, I grew up in a very open-minded household with well-travelled off-the-beaten-track parents. When I was 7 years old, I asked my father, “What God do I believe in?” His response, “ Anything you want to, darling” was both a great blessing and a curse. It was a blessing in that it was up to me to find my own answers. And for this same reason it was also problematic, setting the tone for my inner and outer worldly quests for much of my early life and well into my twenties.

Also, when I was 14 years old I had a near-death experience by drowning whilst white water rafting in New Zealand. In the following 6 months I lost three family members, including my father, all at separate times. These death experiences I later came to understand were a type of initiation into the non-ordinary realms. Although I was far too young at the time to understand and process all that grief, it nonetheless became a formative time and key to experiences that have followed.

Jump ahead to when I was about 30 years old and was having my regular womanly cycle, which was often accompanied by a day of extreme sensitivities and feverishness because of a sudden drop in blood pressure. Yet, this one day something was different. I was at home and started spontaneously moving in and out of altered states of consciousness. This lasted for three days. I remained feverish throughout this time and although my loved ones suggested I go to the hospital, given what I then knew about non-ordinary transcendent experiences (NOTEs), I decided to surrender to and be with what was unfolding, agreeing to go to the hospital if need be.

I’d describe those 3 days like a waking dream where I was at times aware of the ordinary world, and other times I was in non-ordinary realms. It was a layered journey that was somewhat both shamanic and yogic in flavour. During those days—though I was physically incapable of moving beyond the couch—I visited the deep lines of my ancestral tracks and took part in resolving unresolved matters that were having an effect on my life at that time, I processed grief and pain that had been locked away in my body for years quietly awaiting a time to voice itself, I was taken on spectacular visionary journeys, and I encountered a wild array of archetypal content. It was like peeling the layers of the onion of my being.

The 3 days crescendoed when the peeling of layers sped up and became more and more refined. I had trudged through the heavier psycho-emotional-somatic-spiritual molasses of my life and now the layers were thinning. Now the experience was getting to the core of me. Each layer at this point was an identity. For example, one layer was my professional identity. Yet when I tried to mentally grasp at that layer and that piece of my identity, it was torn away. On and on this went, faster and faster, with the tearing away of any identifiable features of self happening as soon as the thought would come. It was frightening and I was grasping desperately. Then my name. That too got ripped away. Then I was just a girl on the couch. That too got ripped away.

Then, just like that, there remained nothing but a speck of light. That’s it.

One single pinprick of light.

And with that the experience was over. I could rest.

From that time onward, life has been different. Looking from the outside, nothing much seemed to have changed. Yet internally and on all levels of my being a revolution had occurred. It was a reset button that enabled me to see the world and life upon it through new eyes. Those changes have, over time, made themselves manifest in the choices made and how I be with each day and each encounter. There have been other extraordinary experiences since, but that one brought me to the core of this being that I experience myself to be. That knowing continues to inform all that I am and all that I do. 

Dr. Nicole Gruel is an author, life coach, specialist in NOTEs (non-ordinary transcendent experiences), and descends from a long line of samurai. Her books have been featured in leading Australian wellness magazines and have inspired people around the world to dive deep and take soulful action. She combines experience in teaching, international development, healing arts, counselling, Eastern philosophy, depth and transpersonal psychology, sacred ceremony, and creative expression to inspire grounded personal transformation and intentional collective action. Her greatest joy is igniting innate love and wisdom so people can get on with enjoying phenomenal relationships, live all they desire to be, and make a positive impact. Find out more via Nicole’s website:

 www.thenotescoach.com

We’ll be finding out more about Nicole’s work over the coming weeks, with a feature on her academic research into the transformative potential of NOTES, and finally diving deeeper in an Emerging Proud interview! We are so grateful to you Nicole for all that you do to support those going through these processes, and to normalise NOTES ❤

Dear Emerging Kind Friends,

I am seeking UK and global collaborative event organisers for the 2nd International Emerging Proud day on Sat the 12th May to ensure that our message delivered is as loud and impactful as possible. Would you like access to a FREE event template and resources and help to change the paradigm in psychiatry together?

 It’s easy and FREE to organise an event! 

This year’s event is all about reducing stigma through hearing people’s stories…

 ‘So –Me’ story sharing events will take place in public community spaces in multiple locations all over the world in order to re- frame mental illness.

Volunteers who resonate with having experienced their own crisis as a catalyst for a meaningful life transformation will engage in conversations with interested strangers in public places all over the world, with the aim to change perceptions that experiencing emotional distress can actually lead to the start of a new, more positive and authentic life…

I’m interested; What do I need to do? 

▪ Go to http://www.so-me.org.uk and register your name and location

▪ Source a venue to hold your event; preferably in a public place, e.g. library

▪ Recruit Volunteers who are willing to talk about their personal transformation story

▪ Prepare all of the material needed for your big day; Volunteer Profiles etc

▪ Promote your event to your local community using this ‘trending topic’

‘Reframing mental distress as a possible transformation process’

▪ On Sat 12th May hold your SoMe Emerging Proud event; ENJOY!

▪ Return feedback from your Message Board after the event to take part in the research evaluation and the Emerging Proud 2018 International Report

What exactly is involved in an #Emerging Proud  SoMe event? 

 At an event there are three SoMe spaces: The Wall, The Chat Room and The Message Board.

 The events are based on social media concepts, but are live and in- person!  

 The Wall is where SoMe volunteers display their pre-written ‘profiles’. These are A3 sheets, printed and laminated, containing some basic information including their interests, favourite books/films etc., along with a quote they have written about the experiences they are prepared to share. This quote must comprise 140 characters or fewer, similar to a Tweet on TwitterTM. Event organisers help volunteers to create their profiles beforehand, and visitors to the SoMe event are invited to look through the profiles and choose one a SoMe volunteer to talk to in the Chat Room.

The Chat Room is the space where SoMe volunteers and visitors sit down and talk. Profiles can be used to prompt and stimulate the conversation, which can be challenging but always respectful. Once the conversation has finished, the visitor is asked to visit the Message Board.

The Message Board is a space where visitors can evaluate their experience, also in 140 characters. Once written, their message is added to the board, which creates an ongoing, ‘live feed’ evaluation of the event and attracts other participants.

The outcomes from each event location Message Board will be collated after the 12th May to produce the 2nd International Emerging Proud report.

  Why are we doing this? Predicted Social Impact;

 ·      Raised public awareness of the positive transformation potential contained in crises

·      Increased public ability to listen to subjects they may find challenging

·      Increased communication in local communities

·      Increased hope for those who may be struggling with mental health issues

·      Decreased prevalence of suicidality

·      Research study outcomes – A Research Professor has agreed to support the event and help produce an evaluation report on the Feedback from the day from all locations involved. We will therefore have tangible academic outcomes to use to influence change.

 I am keen to work in collaboration and would welcome your input in a way that feels authentic to your own organisation or personal experience; you can make your event your own, as long as it’s run under the same ‘trending topic’ on the 12th May and follows the guidelines of the SoMe event template…

What are you waiting for? SIGN UP HERE! 

In solidarity for the shift,

Katie ❤

John’s story is the epitome of how the trauma of a difficult start in life can catalyse transformation. John, also fondly known down under as the Mindfulness Mentor, now dedicates his life to supporting other people to transform their lives. A huge warm welcome John to the #Emerging Proud family! ❤

Gooday from Downunder! I was born in 1952 and experienced physical and mental abuse as a child. By the age of twelve, I was also sexually abused by a neighbour. By age fourteen, I was wagging school and out of control. By age sixteen, I was homeless, living on the streets and in trouble with the law. I spent time in youth detention and, with the help of an excellent mentor, was able to get my life on track. At age twenty-one, I got married and started a family, life was good.
At age thirty, and on my Dad’s 65th birthday in 1982, I died and was revived after a horrific truck accident. I believed that there was a reason why I was alive and started a quest to get answers. Despite extensive study into ancient history, cultures and religions, all I got was mental and addiction disorders.
My life fell apart, not so much because of substantial physical injuries, but because of the fifteen years of mental suffering that followed. My mind was like a drunken monkey, very busy and all over the place! I experienced psychosis later that year and spent time in a psych ward. I was diagnosed with mental ‘illness’ and prescribed medications. I had similar episodes in 1984, 1987 and 1992; the only thing that stopped me from suiciding was a tiny whisper that kept saying ‘There’s a reason… you’ll get through this!’
By 1997, I was rock bottom. Mental health professionals told me that I would never be cured, that I would have to take medication for the rest of my life and that I would never work again. I was ashamed that I had mental ‘illness’ and refused to talk about it or get help from outside the ‘system’. It was my dark secret. That was when I got my ‘miracle’. An old friend, who I hadn’t seen since before my accident, knocked on my door and told me his story. Two days later, I experienced a Spiritual Awakening and my life slowly started to change. No more depression and no more medications!
I now call that chapter of my life, my fifteen ‘dark’ years. It was a roller coaster of feelings, emotions and experiences. I value my ‘dark’ years now because I overcame many fears and learned heaps of life lessons. My quest for knowledge and answers continued. I now know the truth about what happened to me. In 82, 84, 87 & 1992, I experienced what is known as Spiritual Crisis or Emergency. I had no way of knowing what was really going on until my old friend shared his story. It was that story that led to my Spiritual Emergence in 1997. I got my life back and have never looked back, except to see how far I’ve come.
I also now know that bipolar is a gift. It’s not a gift that you would wish on anyone, that’s for sure! But when you wake up to what’s really going on, it is life changing. I have had times of ‘mania’ in 97, 03, 09, 13 and 2018. These are simply times when I am totally inspired. I require no medication because I am in control of my mind rather than my mind controlling me. Today, I live with both peace of mind and clarity of mind. Never lose hope my friends, there was a time when hope was all that kept me alive. Be well and remember… You are Not your thoughts!
Love, Joy & Peace Always!

More about John, An Author, Mindfulness Coach, Shaman and all round awesome human! …

I am an Australian Mindfulness Master, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Psychotherapist and ACT Therapist (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy). I am also a modern day Shaman and Spiritual Healer. I have vast experience mentoring people (including youth) who have been diagnosed with mental ‘illness’. I have put my heart and soul into gaining the knowledge and experience necessary to fulfil my purpose and have achieved great success. There are three main reasons for my success:

1. Lived Experience

Throughout that time, I felt that there was a calling on my life, something driving me. I wasn’t always unwell, there were times when I was well enough to function. In 1986, I completed my first course in counselling as a volunteer with the Smith Family. This connected me with my calling and I also completed Front Wheel Counselling in 1990 and Youth Counselling in 1996. I was happy helping others but, like all of us, I was still struggling with unhelpful and negative thoughts.

2. Knowledge

The skin of knowledge is love, as your knowledge grows, so does your love! I value my ‘dark’ years now because I overcame many fears and learned heaps of life lessons. My quest for knowledge and answers continued. I now know the truth about what happened to me. In 82, 84, 87 & 1992, I experienced what is known as Spiritual Emergency. I had no way of knowing what was really going on until my old friend shared his story. It was that story that led to my Spiritual Emergence in 1997.

I got my life back and worked again. I fulfilled a childhood dream and opened Shearers Cue Sport which was a pool hall in the main street of Wagga Wagga. My counselling skills got a workout in those excellent years between 2003 and 2009. Teens especially benefited from my one-on-one sessions. They didn’t realise that they were being counselled which I believe was a huge factor for my successful mentoring.

Early in 2009, my wife and I decided to move to a warmer climate due to her asthma. What would I do? I searched my heart and decided to surf the internet to find out the latest news in mental health. What I found was a book called The Happiness Trap by Dr. Russ Harris. It was about ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy) which is a mindfulness based therapy. I started a personal mindful practice and was trained by Russ as an ACT Therapist.

We moved to Grafton later in 2009 where I started working as a part-time youth mentor with Juvenile Justice and also started my part-time business called Mindfulness Coach. I felt driven by my purpose, so I started what was to become over 9,000 hours of intensive study. I researched the many aspects of mindfulness as well as learning valuable techniques in hypnotherapy and psychotherapy. I gained much knowledge and wisdom before retiring from Juvenile Justice in 2017 to focus on my mindfulness work. Today, thanks to a sound mindful practice, I live with both peace of mind and clarity of mind. I have the answers I was seeking, but my quest for knowledge will never end.

3. Wisdom

Knowledge comes from learning. Wisdom comes from living. I will always be very passionate about my purpose which is sharing my wisdom. On 11-11-11, I launched a facebook page called Mindfulness Mentor which now has over 650,000 ‘likers’. In May 2014, I invited Australians with mental suffering to an online event called Mindfulness Day. (1st Sunday in May) 4,700 people attended the month long event and it was hugely successful with hundreds of lives transformed. The event became my first book Mindful Actions.

In 2015, I founded mindfullyMAD.org (mindfully Making A Difference). My vision became our vision as many others joined me. Our vision is world mental health without medication. Our mission is love, peace and happiness through the practice of mindfulness. Our objective is to lobby for mindfulness in schools. Our focus is prevention of mental suffering and suicide. It is also a place to find a mindfulness mentor or tell your story.

In 2016, I founded the Mindfulness Mentoring Institute to train people to be mindfulness mentors by way of a certificate course called Keys to Mindfulness Mentoring. Mentor means a wise and trusted counsellor, teacher or coach. Parents and GP’s have also found the course to be very valuable.

In 2017, I launched my year long mentoring service called Mindful Insights. It is aimed at people who have a heart to help others but need to work on themselves first. It is the culmination of my vast experience, knowledge and wisdom packed into 52 weeks. The first 6 weeks is devoted to having a good look at yourself. The next 33 weeks is learning how to develop a genuine mindful practice. The last 13 weeks is learning the skills for Mindfulness Mentoring.

Be Mindful… Pause… Connect! 

Mindfully Yours with Love, Joy & Peace Always! – John Shearer MM

Hannah Hardy came along to the CRAZYWISE film screening this weekend and felt inspired to share her story…

Hannah’s psychic experiences as a child didn’t concern her, it was the Western culture in which she was raised that made it into a problem. This is such a common theme, and Hannah has channelled the pain of her enforced childhood denial into setting up a service for children so that their natural abilities can be welcomed and nurtured.

Thank you so much Hannah, you most certainly should be very proud ❤

Hannah explains:

The vision of children.

It felt natural to me as a young child that I could travel beyond my body, that I could see and commune with spirits and I could see the hidden suffering in others. This truth felt safe to me as it was just that, the truth beyond our illusion. The difficulty arose when I realised that I was seeing things and experiencing things which others could not. I had no peer support and my family (apart from my father who is also very psychic) began to stigmatise my view of the world.

I remember being about 7 and realising that I needed a special nature of community support, but had no vocabulary to contextualise what I needed. As there was no fear connected to my heightened vision, I felt that I was experiencing something very special and felt a deep sense of sadness for others around me who were trapped in their own illusion of what they concieved reality to be, as I experienced it as expansive, connected and all loving. To survive amongst my peers I chose to play the game and conform to what society told me was normal.

Over the years incredible things happened which quietly confirmed my higher guidance such as several events in which my life was saved miraculously. For example, my guides telling me not to get the train I was intended to go on (the Potters Bar incident), someone in a pub trying to swing a chair at my head and it miraculously rebounding in the air. Another time I had my children in the car and was coming up to a give way with a blind corner and my guides told me to stop several meters before the line. At that moment an enormous lorry appeared from behind the blind corner and would have smashed into the car had I gone up to the line. I feel blessed that my life has been filled with this magic and these miracles.

I chose to conform and it got me through, but not satisfied, feeling a sense of incompleteness and lack.

In 2012 whilst living in France my young cat had an intestinal problem and the vet wanted to put him down, I was told to take him home to say goodbye and to bring him back in the morning. I cried with my cat and not knowing what I was doing I was guided to open my heart and to send my cat love. In the morning my cat had transformed, he was sprightly and glowing. I took him back to the vet who did the checks and scans. When the vet returned he looked amazed and just said “What have you done?!” my cat was cured. This event showed me that my higher vision was not an illness but a gift which began my journey in healing

Trauma healing.

We all have our own truths, as these exist they are real and need to be given the safe space to be seen and released. I visualise this as going to a still lake with a pebble, you throw the pebble in and it creates a ripple effect. In modern medicine they often deal with the outer ripples (often masking the problem). Through energy healing I am able to get right to the centre, to the point of impact, to bring the pattern back to alignment and flow. To allow the energy to flow with ease rather than ‘dis-ease’. In my healing practice I use muscle response to allow the higher self of the person to guide me to energetic blockages with the intention to support the person back to alignment so their energy flows harmoniously through all levels of their being. Trauma is held in our energetic memory, this trauma can be held from childhood, from past lives. And from our collective trauma.

From working with many people and witnessing many miracles, I increasingly understand that my role is to hold safe space of non judgment for the soul to witness itself and flow through. Many traumas are stored in our subconscious and act as ‘safety blankets’ meaning that we have carried them around for so long that we believe that we are defined by them- but they are just patterns which can be released. The more I clear my own hidden traumas and the traumas of others the more I realised that we are clearing collective patterns and that we are all connected in consciousness.

The power of compassion and connection.

This takes us back to the simplicity of healing, creating a safe space to remember compassion and connection, which can emerge anywhere at anytime, we have the power in this moment to change our past, present, future and our collective consciousness.

The building of community.

Due to my lack of peer support as a child I founded The Free Spirit School, a visionary group to support the avatars of tomorrow in a safe held space. The children range from 7-11 and I amazed at the ease, grace and joy in which they connect to their higher vision and share this with their peers. Normalising their higher vision, exploring ways to encourage compassion and connection and ways in which they are able to help themselves, others and to connect with their life purpose. We explore Indigenous spiritual cultures and how they connect the personal to the universal, we invite highly experienced holistic practitioners and it feels such a powerful experience in supporting the children to ground and trust in their own higher truth.

Hannah Hardy is a prize winning artist she is a shamanic healer. She has founded The Free Spirit Network and The Free Spirit School for the visionaries of tomorrow, which is about to be launched as a book and online course with a percentage of sales being donated to Survival International.

Stories heal. Hearing Demi’s story through her songs was all it took to turn Abbie’s life around, and now she wants to do the same for other young people who might be struggling like she was…

Here Abbie tells her story:

Growing up I was bullied. I began to self harm and feel incredibly suicidal, it was something that I would think about every day, from what car I could jump in front to what building I could jump off. It sort of became a way of life for me. I didn’t realise then but I had depression, I just thought there was something wrong with me as no one was talking about this kind of thing so I felt completely alone. This happened right up to the age of 18.

One day in January 2014 I was sitting in the car with my mum, Skyscraper by Demi Lovato came on the radio, it was the first time I’d really listened to the words, I was choked up, there was so much depth in those lyrics that I’d never heard before.

Later that night I was feeling triggered, I was numb and needed to cry, remembering how Skyscraper had made me feel earlier I searched it on YouTube, I cried. The words were so powerful to me. At the side were suggestions, Demi Lovato’s Warrior. I listened to this wonderful song and I just broke down, how could someone I’d never met be able to sing all the words and feelings I’d ever wanted to be:

‘Now I’m a warrior

Now I’ve got thicker skin

I’m a warrior

I’m stronger than I’ve ever been

And my armour

Is made of steel you can’t get in

I’m a warrior

And you can never hurt me again’.

Another suggestion came up of Demi’s Believe In Me, I clicked it, once again she sang the most powerful lyrics but this time is was everything I was feeling right now, all those words I just couldn’t say:

‘I don’t wanna be afraid

I wanna wake up feeling beautiful

Today

And know that I’m okay

‘Cause everyone’s perfect in unusual ways

You see I

Just wanna believe in me’.

One more suggestion came up at the side, ‘Demi Lovato opens up about cutting’

My world was turned upside down by this video, how could this Disney princess silently go through so much? That night I realised that if Demi could go through all this and more in the limelight then I could too and come out better. That night I didn’t hurt myself.

Of course it hasn’t been an easy journey, I relapsed a few times. I met Demi in September 2014, she was sweet and hugged me tight.

I relapsed again in the October of that year, but I have not hurt myself since, I am proud to say I have been self harm free since October 17th 2014.

In January 2015 I posted a video of my story to that wonderful song that made so much difference; Warrior. Is has racked up around 50 thousand views and I am so proud.

Ever since then I have been making videos online on my Facebook page Abbie Foster’s StayStrong. Spreading the messages of recovery & positivity far and wide.

I also work with a few charities such as Fixers, Respect Yourself, The Missing Kind,  The Being Me Campaign & more. I am also working with the BBC radio and online to share my story.

Thanks to Demi and her story, I am able to make a difference & I am forever thankful to her for this and much more.

Without her opening up I wouldn’t be here and that I’m sure of.

I want to continue making a difference as much as I can, I want young people to know that their lives will get better & they will feel stronger. Just like I did.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Have a beautiful day 💕

Abbie 
Abbie Foster’s StayStrong

Well done Abbie for your dedication to help relieve suffering ❤

Follow Abbie on Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/AbbieFostersStayStrong/

and YouTube