SPONSORFEATURE
COVER STORY
HEATHER ATKINSON
Health Coach for over 35 years shares her journey through life thus far
A
s I look back on my journey through life I’ve come to realise that where you begin is never where you have to end up everything constantly changes and evolves. As a teenager and for most of my adult life I had a very limiting belief about my own ability and my position in life: where did I fit in, where did I belong and what was I meant to be doing? I was amazed at how quickly life went by and how many challenges rose up. When things went wrong I noticed whatever it was didn’t last too long and my go-to statement became.... this too shall pass! I’ve since come to realise that everything good and worthwhile sits on the other side of hard work. However, it took me until my late forties to understand what that really meant and looked like and how I could play that out. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve always worked hard. I’m a grafter, I do everything to the absolute best of my ability and I’ve always had a fire in my belly to push the boundaries in all areas of my life. Still I often felt I was going round in circles; no matter what adventure I went on or what job I found myself in, I felt there was something amiss.
6 - SAVVY WOMEN ISSUE 3- savvysocial.org
That was then and this is now.... also became a statement I’d refer to. I naively believed I could dismiss my childhood beliefs,patterning and experiences, thinking they’d disappear as I got older. My goal was to leave home as soon as I could and to not end up like my mum who was horribly stressed, unhealthy, angry and frustrated. I decided that my way out and the way to have a different life was to spread my wings and travel, have no responsibilities and to live a life of freedom. Of course, you need money to do that. So I left school at the earliest opportunity, aged 15 - I didn’t wait for the exams as I was in a hurry to get on with life! I did my apprenticeship as a hairdresser (I could make your hair curl with some of the pranks we got up to! excuse the pun) By 18 I’d finished my apprenticeship and was working as a nanny in London. I had no idea at the time that the job was going to lead me onto the next chapter of my life. By now my thirst for adventure had really got a grip and the next10 years saw me travel round America and Canada in a 1970s combi van. I youth hostelled, backpacked and drove thousands of miles in search of the next view, next mountain to climb, lake to swim in and culture to experience. I’d cracked it - I’d found freedom! I didn’t know it at the time but that freedom was temporary.
