BRINGING AMAZING “PERMISSIONS” TO LIFE

Photography by Tanita Seton Photography

I FIRST HEARD LIZ GILBERT SPEAK AT THE ULTIMATE GIRLS WEEK AWAY, AN AMAZING ANNUAL RETREAT, THIS YEAR HELD IN THE STUNNING BEAUTY OF A PRIVATE FIJIAN RESORT.

The most powerful woman in any situation is the most relaxed woman in the room.

Other than being a bestselling author I knew very little about Liz Gilbert. I quickly learned that she’s an impressive woman, someone who speaks with a vulnerability that reflects not only the wisdom but also the humility learned from both success and devastation. Suddenly she gave a quote that etched itself into my memory bank. “The most powerful woman in any situation is the most relaxed woman in the room”. I’ve been teaching mindfulness for over 4 decades, I teach the importance of the relaxed, non-judgemental way of being. I had never considered relaxation as an implement of power. It would take the words of Liz Gilbert and a worldwide pandemic to teach me that it was.

With Liz as our guide we wrote two long, unapologetic, fact-filled and heart felt letters. Each beginning with “Dear <name>, this is <topic> and I would like to tell you…..”, each to be shared with those around us. The first topic was fear. I tensed as memories of opportunities lost or spoiled by fear rose from the darkest recesses of my memory and poured onto the page. The sharing was quiet, long held fear laden secrets whispered between new friends. The second letter was from enchantment, or as Liz defined it, love. Time to focus on all the things that bring us heart felt joy, the things that we might not do enough, the things we should do more of and that fear might hold us back from. Fear set aside, this time the sharing filled the room with the excitement of joyous potential.

With each letter written and shared, Liz highlighted what we were all beginning to realise. While our enchantments were all so vastly different, fear, despite our various backgrounds, nationalities and ages, was universal, it was, we discovered, variations on very similar and familiar themes.

Liz shared that it is only when we can recognise our fears and face them from a place of relaxation, can we hope to silence them, and it is only in silencing them that we can truly hear the voice of enchantment.

Our final exercise was our permission slip. Beginning with the words “I am the head teacher and I give <name> permission to ………”, we revelled in the amazing things that others were giving themselves permission to do, raising our voices after each offering and joyously shouting ‘Permission Granted’, smiling as the room filled with offers of support that would help bring amazing permissions to life.

3 weeks after I returned from Fiji the corona-virus blanketed the planet. As difficult as the sudden forced changes were, I smiled in the knowledge that as much as my world was contracting, thanks to technology it was also expanding in ways I’d never considered. One morning, as I was lamenting that the ‘permission’ I’d granted myself in Fiji had been put on hold, I realised the depth of the lesson I had learned from Liz Gilbert. I had always been taught ‘5 long slow breaths to calm the beast’. I was taught that the beast was the challenge, something separate to myself, something to be faced. As I thought of Liz’s words, I realised that the beast is not something separate, it is something within us all, the real name of the beast is fear. I also realised that the room in Liz’s saying is not a room at all, but a metaphor for life. It

doesn’t matter if your ‘room’ is filled with a thousand people or you are in that room alone, relaxation will always silence the fear, and as Liz so rightfully shared, it is only when the fear is silenced, can we truly hear the call of enchantment. “The most powerful woman in any situation is the most relaxed woman in the room”. Thankyou Liz Gilbert, I have truly become one of the most relaxed, and most powerful women in my room.

Bron Roberts

For almost 20 years Bron has been sharing her passion for positive health and well-being with organisations around Australia and in the USA. As Australia’s only Certified Humour Professional, a Laughter Yoga Wellbeing Master Trainer, Skilful Mind mindfulness instructor, and with a bachelor of Psychological Sciences and a graduate diploma in Humour as a Therapeutic modality, Bron takes her audiences on fun and laughter filled adventures through the worlds of behavioural neuroscience, positive psychology and emotional intelligence, in ways that shed new light on stress reduction, resilience building, increased motivation, connection, celebration and gratitude. Bron is also the Chief Happiness Officer at Let’s Laugh, a social enterprise dedicated to supporting communities in need, runs Australia’s oldest and largest community Laughter Yoga Club, is the mother of 2 wonderful adults, and is owned by a very old and often very grumpy cat.

Spark Joy through Self-Love My Journey to becoming a World Class Retreat Specialist

I REMEMBER CLEARLY THE MOMENT I ‘STEPPED INTO’ THE WOMEN I WAS HERE TO BE. I WAS IN A HOTEL IN SAPA, VIETNAM, THAT FELT AS IF THE RUSSIAN MAFIA RAN IT.

Photography by Tanita Seton Photography

Iwas on a 3-month pilgrimage I did), that I was stepping onto the after seeing Eat, Pray, Love path of my destiny and to live a life of written by the amazing Elizabeth passion. Gilbert. I left on the day of my 40th birthday with my two sons, It had been a tough few years, my who were then 12 and 7. They had marriage had broken up due to been fighting for what seemed domestic violence. A few months like forever, and on this evening, later my then ex-husband had a

I had had enough. I went into the horrific work accident that left him bathroom and shed all of the pain with ongoing injuries, including the and trauma from my body, mind total loss of his left arm and other and soul. Little did I know (or maybe related health issues. Because of who I am, I supported him and the children through this. I also had a string of not so healthy relationships throughout this period. So to say I was a little broken is probably a good description.

I was also a social worker, and after 20 years of working in the industry, I was burnt out. I had everyone else’s trauma sitting on my shoulders along with my own. It was on my own pilgrimage, sitting on the bathroom floor that day sobbing in that hotel in Vietnam, that I knew things had to change. That something had to be different, and that I could not go on like that. I came home ready to make a difference and a change — but really, I didn’t have a clue what that was.

What was I passionate about? I could only really think of one thing and that was travel. That thrill of going to a new place, seeing new sites, smelling new smells, getting on an aeroplane in one dimension and getting off somewhere totally different. So, I completed a travel agent course, which I hated with a vengeance — so maybe that wasn’t it for me? Then my new love, whom I had known seven years previously asked me, “Why don’t you run retreats full time?” Bingo! That was the answer. Why had I not thought of this before? Retreats were what

I was truly passionate about. I had been running them in some form or another, in youth groups and Girl Guides, since I was about 16 years old. So an idea was born, something more than time away with other women discussing life in places like Bali and Queensland. These retreats would be about watching layers shed from a person’s soul, that had been plastered on through circumstance and other people’s actions. It was about holding a space of magic that ebbed and flowed to allow a transformation that can be monumental in someone’s life. I was transfixed once I put words to this form, and allowed myself the space to imagine what this could be. My eyes and face lit up when I thought and talked about this. For the first time in my life, I had something that I was truly passionate about.

As women we often choose everyone else before ourselves. Sure, we talk about self-care in the sense of dinner with friends, weekends away, massages, getting our hair done. But what do you truly do for yourself that takes more than just a minute in your busy life? What is it that you do that keeps the passion for life alive, that nurtures your soul and keeps that magic sitting in the forefront of your actions?

That is why retreats, in my opinion, are so important because they look after you in a way that is sometimes not possible otherwise. They hold the space for you to clear your head, to give some room to

dreaming and not have to think about

cleaning the bathroom, cooking dinner or picking up the kids from school. It is time just for you to be you, in every way.

My advice for anyone who does not know what lights them up is to explore, find out, talk about it to others until something is sparked. Do this, so that you know what sparks joy in you. So that your life is filled with a whole string of new possibilities. The possibilities that come after are endless, and who knows you may even find yourself hanging out on a tropical island with an amazing woman like Elizabeth Gilbert.

Liesel Albrecht

Liesel Albrecht is more often than not known as The Retreat Queen, her vision is to create extraordinary experiences that give women from around the globe, permission to be themselves while learning about different cultures, connecting with inspiring female leaders, & providing a supportive community that celebrates everything that it means to be woman. Her core values focus on Culture, Inspiration and Awakening which means that every retreat is built with these in mind, every aspect is carefully crafted by her right down to fresh flowers and welcome gifts on arrival, to special experiences popping up during the retreat.

Liesel is walking towards her big visions and lives and breathes them every day – working with celebrated women in the motivational arena she ran her first Ultimate Girls Week Away with her hero Elizabeth Gilbert as her keynote presenter earlier this year.

Liesel believes that dreams do come true – you just have to work hard and dream big and you will see them sitting there on the horizon getting closer and closer.