For the last 35 years of my life I have been on some sort of diet – eating all that I wanted with very little thought to the contents or origin of my food, or the calorie or fat quota of the intake – always knowing that my next “diet” would be starting on Monday. From Jenny Craig, to no carbs, the Israeli apple diet and the 5/2 to identify a few – you name it I have been there, hoping to have enough will power to get me through the course I intended to chart, and never really knowing how to succeed – and the one time I did get there, I managed to undo all the good work over the next few months.

I now see this behaviour not only (and tragically) in my daughter, but also in so many of the women around me that I hold close to my heart. A treadmill of hope and failure populated by small bouts of short lived success. A course that I was destined to chart for the rest of my life suddenly changed when I discovered the power of my mind. A short course in what can best be described as Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP,) gave me an insight into just how powerful our thoughts are, essentially if we believe – it will happen. I, through some training and understanding, began to harness my own mind – curing myself of a lifetime of asthma, hay fever, ongoing headaches and an allergic reaction to horses – all through a learned ability to harness my thoughts and my mind.  I had begun a journey (albeit late) that was to change so much of who I was and how I behaved, and very quickly I applied this to my wellness.

ARO HA in the South Island was my first wellness retreat, that I intrepidly and very tentatively embarked on, surprised at how I had to push myself, extend myself, so far out of my comfort zones – and I LOVED it! A journey of physical extremes, Raw food, mindfulness and learning simply saw me hungry for more.  Gwinganna Wellness retreat on the Gold Coast was next, similar but different, and the learnings were extensive.

I started to remove things from my diet – they all felt so senseless, and the new food I was eating left my body feeling so good. I dropped sugar, coffee and alcohol (well nearly – I still love a social red.) I learnt things about my body, about my mind and my food – the weight dropped off with no real conscious effort, and I knew I’d found a solution to a problem that has been part of my DNA. All that was needed was a mind shift, an introduction to a new normal and to get that I’d had to immerse myself in a relevant environment demonstrating best practices, hence the two wellness resorts – ARO HA and Gwinganna.

And the start of this new journey is Te Atawhai – our own wholeness venture that is about creating new normals, enabling us to harness the incredible power of our minds and make changes that enable optional health and life styles choices. A place that will extend, educate and challenge all that we thought we knew – a place that embraces nature, through activity, environment and food – a place that I want to share with so many others, busting apart all that we thought we knew, and applying simple strategies of positive change.