It was the summer of 2016, I was in the middle of my Enlightenment exhibition, this particular exhibition had followed a year and a half of constant, successful exhibitions all over the South East of England.  This particular exhibition saw another sale of work and a commission gained, however I had noticed that although my career was going very well in the exhibiting forum I still was not happy.  I should have been feeling on top of the world, the success I was achieving as a professional sculptor should have made me elated.  This realisation made me evaluate and try to identify what it was that I felt was still missing.  I have a loving husband, our gorgeous little Westie dog, a beautiful little bungalow, a successful career, family and close friends, this still wasn’t enough to fill this empty void I was feeling.

 

The Geese Project was brought to my attention by a friend, she happen to be working nearby to where the Geese Project were based.  She gave me a card and said to think about making an appointment.  I have had counselling before, however this never really helped me much, so I was a little apprehensive, my friend had told me that The Geese Project used more of a holistic therapy approach.  I have always been interested in the alternative medicines and therapies, so this resonated with me.  I made the call and booked an appointment.

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My first appointment showed me that this was going to really work for me.  My counsellor had such a different approach to working through emotional blocks.  It helped that I really got on with her too, she would work with such therapies as MLP, CBT mindfulness and visualisation.  I began to slowly peel away the onion skins to reveal what was holding me back from true happiness.  The more I worked on myself, the more I discovered about myself, I identified a deep seated belief that I was not good enough, a need of approval with all I did and a realisation that I feared going blind and being left alone.  We have worked together to slowly lift away these limiting beliefs, I never realised how disabling your own thoughts and beliefs can be, in fact I now know that the only thing that holds us back from our full potential is the limiting, restricting beliefs that we put upon ourselves.  When you begin to look at those beliefs and work on where they came from, you can begin to understand them and show yourself the compassion you deserve.  Compassion will begin to dissipate those old beliefs, this allows you to replace them with more kind, positive, nourishing and nurturing beliefs and thoughts.

 

Self development for me has been a fundamental pathway to release myself from my restricting ways and open myself up to all possibilities.  It helped me recognise my inner self, to be kind and loving with myself, to accept my blindness and the beauty that lays within it, to accept using a long cane which for many years was my nemesis, this in turn has giving a sense of freedom and trust that has giving me such elation and independence.  There is no way I would have got to that point with the cane without working on my self development.

 

For me, self development is like a tool box, I can dip in and out of it whenever I need to, it’s a constant reminder for me to celebrate my beauty and all of the multi facets of myself.  To connect with my inner self and trust my own intuition. To find compassion with those around me that I may be struggling to understand.  To reach out to others with some of the amazing techniques I’ve learnt through my self development work.  It has opened me up to who I really am, all the things I love to do, to believe in myself whole heartedly.  I now know that this is a lifetime of work to keep myself happy and healthy but I can now understand myself on a different level, this helps me keep myself topped up and I recognise when I need to work on something.  Our mental health is so important, its all very well having a healthy body, but if you do not have a healthy mind you will never experience your best life.

 

 

I can strongly recommend self development as a route to dealing with any emotional pain you may be feeling.  There are many ways to find support in this way, please click here to visit the Sight Loss Organisations page for some useful resources.