My journey took me to New Zealand in 1996. Along with two of my children and their partners we purchased a property on the South Island in beautiful Golden Bay and Anahata Retreat was born. Although Anahata Retreat is now fully a residential yoga centre, it evolved, as I did, like a butterfly through various stages of development and adaption. Since my mid-twenties I had been very focused on health and wellbeing, however, I had never been involved in the development of a sustainable seven-hectare property, including an organic veggie and medicinal herb gardens. Here are the steps I took to progress from a cocoon to a butterfly.
Step 1. Form a company and come up with a five-year development plan.
Step 2. Take a two-week residential Permaculture course.
Step 3. Participate in two, six-week courses focusing on the study of plants as food and medicine with a wise and knowledgeable garden guru.
Step 4. Change my perspective of everything I thought I knew and open up to learning about and working with Nature Intelligence.
Step 5. Initiate and coordinate the project of developing a very large organic garden with Nature Intelligence and my newly learned Permaculture knowledge.
Step 6. Begin hosting Permaculture courses at Anahata Retreat led by some amazing pioneer Permaculture Gurus. With 25 practicing participants the gardens and property began to flourish in a positive way.
Step 7. Take a four-week Permaculture teacher’s training, Design for a Sustainable Future…a huge learning curve.
Step 8. Host and teach more Permaculture courses at Anahata working along with students.
Step 8. Build my own straw bale studio.
Step 9. Head to Australia to become a resident at Satyananda Yoga, Rocklyn ashram in Victoria to begin my three year yogic studies.
Step 10. Spend approximately two+ years at Rocklyn coordinating their huge organic garden while completing my yogic studies.
Step 11. Evolve, evolve, evolve and begin writing Nature’s Creation, Knowledge & Guidance through Healing Plants.
I believe that we are the food we eat and plants are our medicine. We brush our teeth every day, we bathe regularly but often we forget to nurture and take care of the one body we occupy for a lifetime.My new book and insight cards, Nature’s Creation, Knowledge and Guidance through Healing Plants is loaded with wonderful information on medicinal plants and their uses.