If you asked me 11 years ago if I thought I would marry a man with a child from a previous relationship, my answer would’ve been “no”. I say that with the utmost respect, but children were never my thing. I was never clucky or wanting to hang out with children and didn’t believe in having kids outside of wedlock.

Yet here I am, 11 years on, married with a step-son. 

Firstly, you can't predict a trauma or how you react to it. So being resilient is one of life's teachings that can help you through most traumatic and challenging times. In my next event I'll discuss ways to build resilience and why it is so important and useful in almost all parts of our lives - both personal and professional.

Another old saying that relates to trauma is "it'll either make you or break you". Throughout my journey I have definitely "broken" more than once. I'm not ashamed to admit that I became the victim and blamed the world for what was happening to me. I had no idea why this happened to me and found myself questioning if my life was worth living at times. This is fairly common for survivors of trauma and is a heavy load to carry. But once I realised there was only one way out of this funk, there was no stopping me. 

In my opinion superficial lust is a growing narcissistic trait that is spiralling out of control - especially in our kids. But how do we shelter them from that? The fact is that we can't.

But what we can do is raise powerful individuals. I've learned so much from my parents who had me at a young age. I learned that everyone has a path and we really need to allow them to find that path on their own, and the only way to foster that environment is love - unconditional and forever flowing love.

When I was diagnosed with Depression and Generalised Anxiety Disorder I thought I was a fruit loop and didn't really understand what it meant. One of the areas I struggle with the most is self-care. In my opinion I am worthless and unaccomplished. This trait is common with the perfectionistic and those with unrelenting standards - which I'm learning can kill your soul from the inside out.

We live in a world where photos of my breasts
will bring more attention than words of empowerment and motivation
Where young girls objectify themselves,
yet become surprised when immersed in sentiments of fake adoration.

I'm writing this during a long weekend. While writing shouldn't be considered "work", I sometimes feel that I always need to be working towards something. Yet even during a 4 day weekend, I cannot sit still and relax. It's such a problem that I require professional help to assist me with relaxing, slowing down and listening to my body.

Is that you too? Do you not know how to relax? 

I've been lucky enough to share my adventures with many people and it's fairly safe to say that I only surround myself with the best of friends. You'll never see me rolling with a huge posse, or inviting people to my birthday that I've only met once - I choose quality over quantity.

Throughout my journey I've learned a lot about energy, where it comes from and how we spend it. I've realised that I have wasted a lot of time on "friends" that added nothing to my life, and if anything, brought me down. My dad once told me that you've lived a good life if you can count your true friends on one hand.

At 28 years of age learning how to walk is definitely not on the list of things to do. But that wasn't going to stop me from doing City 2 Surf!

You would think that learning to walk again as an adult would be a piece of cake. That you could get up after brain surgery and 4 weeks of being bed ridden and just remember how to put one foot in front of the other.

Unrelenting standards: The underlying belief that one must strive to meet very high internalised standards of behaviour and performance... Typically results in feelings of pressure or difficulty slowing down; and in hyper-criticalness toward oneself...