Savoir Vivre Vignettes
What to Expect at a Retreat: What Turns Ordinary Retreats Into Life-Changing Experiences?
The counterintuitive secret to getting everything you need from your retreat experience What to expect at a retreat? Your retreat contribution isn't about being the loudest voice or the perfect participant—it's about showing up authentically, creating space for others while...
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How to Keep Your Ducks in a Row When You’re Getting Divorced
Sometimes the best thing you can do is let your ducks waddle wherever they please while you focus on not drowning in the pond. A Tsunami in a Duck Pond Picture this: You wake up one morning thinking you're the...
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Writing Memoir Together
Most of the women who attend my Writing and Walking the Camino de Santiago retreats are writing a memoir. I've been wondering why? No mind-numbing crime stories? No tales of passionate love? No bone-chilling horror stories? Nope. 90% are in...
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Living Intentionally
How can You Live Your Life More Intentionally? The Short Answer: Living intentionally means making conscious choices aligned with your values, regularly pausing to assess what truly matters, and having the courage to say no to what doesn't serve your...
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20 Things I Wish My Retreat Guests Would (or Would Not) Do
Transform Your Retreat Experience: A Host's Insider Guide to What Works Picture this: You've spent months crafting the perfect retreat experience. Then reality hits like a surprise thunderstorm – someone's using the sacred singing bowl as a cereal dish, another...
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The Scarlet Specter’s Social Hour
How Daniela Inherited a Mansion and Accidentally Became Best Friends with a Jazz Age Ghost Who Really Needs to Work on Her Interior Decorating Skills When I inherited Great Aunt Millicent's Victorian mansion, I thought my biggest problem would be...
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Why Boundaries Are Crucially Important During Life Transitions
The Truth About Boundaries: Your Questions Answered Boundaries during life transitions are like wearing a life jacket in turbulent waters—they keep you afloat when everything else feels like it's pulling you under. They protect your energy, preserve your sanity, and...
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Anxiety is a SuperPower
Can It Help Us Cope During Life Transitions? The Short Answer: Anxiety isn't your enemy—it's your internal GPS system recalibrating. When properly understood and channelled, anxiety becomes a powerful ally that heightens your awareness, sharpens your focus, and guides you...
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Self-Awareness: our Superpower during Life Transitions
How can self-awareness help us survive major life changes? The Short Answer: Self-awareness acts as your internal GPS during life transitions, helping you understand your emotions, recognise patterns, make aligned decisions, and transform uncertainty from a threat into an opportunity...
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Self-Awareness vs Mindfulness during Life Transitions
"I always get anxious when facing uncertainty, and it usually shows up as overthinking." I asked Claude, "Why are life transitions so disruptive? He replied, "Going through life transitions typically cause: 1. Identity and Purpose Confusion The old sense of...
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The Empty Nesters Advantage: Your Best Years Are Still Ahead of You
How decades of parenting prepared you for the most purposeful and meaningful chapter of your life Question: By the end of the year, we'll be empty nesters. I dread it, I don't know what I will do with myself once...
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You ARE Good Enough
A Revolutionary Perspective on Life Transitions Here's a truth that might sting a little: You're probably overthinking your life transition. Yes, you – the one who's been good enough to build empires, close million-dollar deals, and navigate corporate politics with...
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What You Give Is What You Get
The Wild, Weird and Wonderful Alchemy of Generosity Or: The Goat, the Gucci Bag, and a life-enriching Cappuccino It started, as many seriously strange stories do, with a cappuccino. Picture this: a honey-hued morning in Gascony (the French Tuscany), the...
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They Do Not See You As You Are, They See You As They Are
Or: The Mysterious Case of the Billionaire in Birkenstocks It was supposed to be a weekend of quiet reflection. A stealthy “silent success” type—let’s call him Stephan—had recently sold his third AI-adjacent startup for an undisclosed sum that rhymed suspiciously...
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Retirement: Who Am I Now?
The Short Answer: You are still the same person you were before your retirement, the one who always gave your all—but now, your time is yours. You get to slow down, speed up, and change course. No deadlines, no rules—just...
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Tha Camino Chronicles Day 7: Midlife Crisis Epiphany
From Midlife Crisis to Midlife Mission How Sophie Discovered Her Crisis Is Actually Her Calling Sophie discovered that the end of the Camino wasn't a destination at all – it was a doorway, and she was standing at the threshold...
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Debunking the Devastating Myths of the Empty Nest
How Our Empty Nest Transformed Our Lives (and Left Us With All the Cookies) "Honey, remember when we used to trip over LEGOs and wonder if we'd ever have a quiet moment to ourselves? "Sarah chuckled, raising an eyebrow at...
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Purpose-Driven Travel
The Controversial Truth About Making Your Journey Matter Purpose-driven travel isn't about collecting passport stamps or posting sunset photos on Instagram. It's about showing up as your authentic self, contributing meaningfully to the places you visit, and returning home fundamentally...
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Third-Age Crisis: Too Healthy to Retire and Too Broke to Quit
Your Sunset Years Look More Like a Solar Eclipse on Your Bank Account A "third-age crisis" is what happens when you're 65-70 years old, staring down the barrel of another 20-30 years of life, and realising your retirement savings won't...
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The Camino Chronicles Day 6: Reinvention
The Unexpected Companion When Starting Over Means Starting Together Sophie thought she was walking toward the end of her reinvention journey – until she discovered that some beginnings look exactly like endings, and some strangers carry the keys to futures...
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Second Act Success: 10 People Who Rewrote Their Stories After 50
10 extraordinary people who proved that wisdom beats youth every time – and the surprising science behind why second act career changes after 50 are more successful They said it was too late. They said the ship had sailed. They...
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Fired at 50:The Executive’s Guide to Strategic Reinvention
Getting Fired Might Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Your Career The Short Answer: This is not the end—you're just being redirected. At 50, you have two decades of experience, hard-won wisdom, and the chance to build something...
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The Camino Chronicles Day 5
The Solo Mile, One Step at a Time Sophie discovered that learning to walk alone wasn't about being abandoned – it was about building the foundational bedrock for everything that comes next. Building Firm Foundations, One Brick at a Time...
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Camino Chronicles Day 4
The Body Revolution In the moment between Armand's collapse and the arrival of the ambulance, Sophie discovered that resilience isn't about being strong – it's about being present when strength fails. A Masterclass in Radical Resilience Yesterday, our intrepid pilgrims...
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The Camino Chronicles: Day 3
The Pivot Point Sometimes the most courageous thing you can do is admit that your dreams need updating – and Sophie's phone call proved that courage comes in unexpected forms. Day 3: Wisdom lies not in stubborn adherence to old...
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The Camino Chronicles: Day 2
The Compass That Points Inward Armand had carried the compass for forty years, but until today, he'd never realised it had been pointing the wrong direction all along. A Compass becomes a Catalyst Yesterday, we met two souls beginning a...
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A Stage Four Diagnosis
He was unprepared to die because he'd never really figured out how to live. Q: "I've just been told that I have a life-threatening disease. I've heard that knowing your life purpose can help during difficult times. Well, this is...
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The Camino Chronicles: A 7-Day Storytelling Series
Two Souls, One Path: Sophie and Armand's Life-changing Adventure in the Southwest of France More and more, I find myself using storytelling as a medium to pass on insights, probably not altogether surprising as my first love, even after 8...
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How Do You Cope With This Mind-numbing Divorce?
#BruisedButNotBroken Series Question: "I'm going through a divorce and trying to make sense of it all. I've heard that knowing your life purpose can help during difficult times. Can someone explain how knowing my life purpose might help me cope...
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What is Success? What a Dying CEO’s Final 48 Hours Taught Me
Success is not how high you have climbed, but how you make a positive difference to the world. - Roy T. Bennett The morphine drip wasn't doing much anymore. Richard Hartwell, CEO of Meridian Industries—a name you'd recognise from your...
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