This is a heartfelt open letter of gratitude, to the 9 amazing people who put their faith in us and participated in our first Mindful Leaders Retreat, Byron Bay, in October 2016. You were strangers when you met, and after three days together came to call yourselves the Byron 9 – bearing no resemblance of course to the fateful Bali 9 – but forever connected through that experience. My gratitude also extends to the magnificent women with whom I collaborated to deliver the retreat – Kirsty Nugent, our yoga and meditation guru, Pip Taylor, our nutritionist and guide through all things pro-biotical, and Zoe Hudson, who fed us the most delicious, healthy and creative meals.
While I was your facilitator, and your teacher for a few days, what you don’t realise is how much you taught me, or how much faith you have restored in me in not only the power of dreams, but the power of the human spirit.
It’s been a few weeks since the retreat and it’s taken me this long to process what happened and put that experience into words. What I once thought to be true, but now have witnessed and know to be true, is that under the right conditions, when our basic needs are met and we allow ourselves the opportunity rest, we come back to our true nature. Our first nature, the one we are born with; to be curious, patient, kind, funny, creative, intuitive, heartfelt. I observed you seek meaningful connections with one another. You were enthusiastic and participative. You were generous, patient and kind. You were accepting, had a sense of humour, and laughed (boy did we laugh)! And most importantly, by your own testimony, you experienced moments of pure contentment.
Clinton and I founded workwellgroup as a means to live a more fulfilled life. To follow dreams, to be fearless (which, paradoxically, scares the living s..t out of me!). It’s one thing to have a dream. It’s quite another to put your time, focus, energy and investment into it. If the definition of courage is to feel fear, but do it anyway, our last 12 months have been Herculean.
To see the retreat – just an idea 12 months ago – come to fruition – to put everything we’ve learned from having already worked with some amazing organisations and in books from some of the world leading thinkers – Martin Seligman, Daniel Goleman, Dan Siegel, Jim Collins, His Holiness The Dalai Lama (the list goes on) – into practice and see it land in such unpredictable and astonishing ways in the your hearts and minds – was poetry. It was alchemy. Not only did I witness your change, but I felt my own change unfold, and that was my unexpected gift.
Let’s not forget that by just arriving in Byron Bay took you a long, long way on your journey. The smells of ocean and forest, the sounds of birds and breeze, watching palm leaves rustle, absorbing the changing quality of sunlight throughout the day. Being so closely connected to nature changed our sensory awareness in ways that were profound. Our senses – dulled through the constant onslaught of backlit screens– once again became enriched and finely tuned. It brought us back to the present and allowed us to flex our capacity to appreciate beauty. Since being mindful is about being in the present moment, an astonishingly beautiful environment played a big role in helping us find it.
What I now take great joy and inspiration from, is that you have gone home to your families and workplaces, and are sharing something of your experience with others. You are empowered with new language, new awareness, new ways to appreciate your own capacities and to influence others in positive ways. You have the potential to change the mindset and daily lived experience of people you work with, and ultimately make the world a better place. I am humbled by your feedback, and I look forward to seeing how your journey unfolds.
With love
Steph
2017 MINDFUL LEADERS RETREAT DATES RELEASED
20-23 March & 9-12 October
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