What matters to me and why I do what I do
Inspiring a Love for Nature – Being born in Central Australia and raised by elders with a fierce love for Nature, my core mission is to inspire this same love in others. I want to help people fall in love with Nature and develop a spiritual relationship with their “larger body”, the natural world around them of which they are a part. Many years ago I had a profound visionary experience where I was taken into the belly of the earth to meet Gaia, Mother Nature, who pushed white quartz crystal shards into the palms of my hands and said to me “Go forth daughter-sister mine, Heal the People, Heal the Earth”.
Healing Divisions ~ Finding Wholeness & Balance – By healing the People, I heal the Earth. When we resolve our wounds and recognise our Oneness with the rest of Nature, it’s easier for us to have a more loving, respectful relationship with all of Nature. When we think of ourselves as being separate from Nature, this creates divisions and conflict within us and in the world around us. Healing is about wholeness, making whole. My mission is to build bridges and repair the rifts that separate us from ourselves, from each other, and from this beautiful world we live in. Often, the repairing of divisions requires diplomacy, compromise and the balancing of opposing points of view.
Respect for Ancient Wisdom – First Nations people and ancient cultures have a special kind of wisdom that modern Western society is lacking and tends to be dismissive of. Some of what I’ve said so far about love for Nature, about the great web or tree or river of life we are all a part of, is a good example of this wisdom. It’s a wisdom that tends to be more right-brained by nature, more holistic, creative, feminine, organic, metaphorical, and abstract – a wisdom that isn’t easily understood or readily valued by science, government or mainstream thinkers. While I love science and prefer that my spirituality be grounded in practicality and good psychology, I find the short-sightedness of the dominant mechanistic, reductionist world-view inherently frustrating, so I’m determined to inspire respect for the ancient wisdom of First Nations people and Eastern spiritual healing systems! I hope to do this in part by translating some of this ancient wisdom for mainstream thinkers, using language and concepts the general public is more likely to understand, respect and value.
Kindness and Compassion with Healthy Boundaries – Part of my motivation for healing and helping others comes from the empathic, compassionate values instilled within me by my family, especially my mother. Kindness matters to me! I find it very easy to imagine walking a mile in another person’s shoes, even when that person isn’t human. It can be painful for me at times to see a lack of kindness and empathy in the world around me, especially when it’s expressed as intolerance and prejudice towards minority groups and anyone who is different. So I’m motivated not only to be kind in my service to others, but also to hopefully inspire kindness in others: towards themselves, others and Nature. The best kindness comes with a healthy measure of detachment: it’s important not to get tangled up with others and end up compromising our kindness towards ourselves by being martyrs with no self-respect and self-care.
Advocating for the Inner Child and the “Light” in enlightenment – One of my most important spiritual teachers doesn’t even “exist”, from a mainstream Western point of view. My spirit guide Tomas is an invisible friend who helps me access my inner wisdom and deeper instincts, one of which is the sense that spirituality works best when it comes with a generous sprinkling of childlike playfulness and light-heartedness. In spiritual circles, we talk a lot about negative ego and all the unnecessary drama that comes from taking ourselves too seriously (a very adult thing to do). I’m happiest and most balanced within myself when I’m in touch with my inner child, and I find this works well for my clients and students too. I teach adults how to listen to and work with their inner child so they can heal their childhood wounds and find joy, because I don’t want to see these wounds inflicted on the next generation, handed on down through the line, over and over again. I want to see children and the child in all of us feeling loved and being loving, feeling safe and extending support to others, flourishing and thriving, laughing with joy, spreading light and warmth in the world around us!