Trailblazers’ Stories: not-your-average Blog
Here you’ll find more than 450 full-lenght articles, most 4000 words+, about subjects that would interest people who are navigating huge life changes, challenges and crises and are starting the next chapters in their lives. Most articles feature the story of someone who had to cope with a life-altering crisis. Maybe you’ll find the story of someone who survived the exact same crisis as you are facing? You can use the search function below to find inspiring stories:
Here are the main themes:
1. Retreats – Stress Dissolvers & Direction Finders – The transformative power of retreat experiences for people navigating major life transitions, career pivots, and personal crossroads. Explore how stepping away creates space for clarity, renewal, and intentional next chapters.
2. Horses – Partners in Transformation – How equine-assisted learning can accelerate emotional healing, build self-awareness, and guide stressed professionals toward their next chapter with wisdom that only horses can provide.
3. Navigating Life Changes, Challenges & Crises – Practical strategies and emotional support for weathering life’s storms—from unexpected upheavals to planned transitions. Learn to navigate uncertainty with resilience and emotional adaptability during pivotal life moments.
4. Burnout & Stress Management in Transition – Understanding why life transitions amplify stress and burnout risk. Science-backed approaches to managing acute and chronic stress when you’re already navigating significant personal or professional change.
5. Life Purpose – The Foundation of New Beginnings – Discovering and reconnecting with your deeper purpose during times of change. Explore why clarity of purpose is essential when reinventing your life, career, or identity.
6. Emotional Intelligence, Empathy, Self-Awareness & Mindfulness – Developing the inner resources that make transitions smoother. Cultivate emotional maturity, self-compassion, and mindful practices that support you through life’s most challenging passages.
7. Reinvention and Reconstruction after a Major Life Change – Navigate relationship shifts, empty nests, health scares, career pivots, redundancies, retirement, relocation, professional success without fulfillment, and find clarity for your next chapter.
8. Grief, Loss & Legacy – Honouring what’s been lost while creating meaningful legacy. Process grief from death, relationship endings, or life chapter closures, and discover how loss can transform into purposeful living.
9. Nature, Sustainability & Slow and Solo Travel – Reconnecting with natural rhythms as an antidote to modern overwhelm. Embrace sustainable, intentional living that supports well-being during life transitions and beyond.
10. Writing, Reading & Storytelling – How words heal and transform during major life changes. Explore writing your story, reading for solace and inspiration, book reviews, and storytelling circles as powerful tools for processing transition.
Margaretha Montagu
Hesitating at the Crossroads: A New Beginning Picture this: You're standing at the edge of a dense forest, the path behind you swallowed by mist, and the road ahead twisting into who-knows-where. Life can feel like that sometimes—especially when you're...
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Margaretha Montagu
Mother Hunger: Walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostela can provide Answers to your Questions A couple of my retreat guests this year, who came to my little farm here in the southwest of France, primarily to walk the Camino...
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Margaretha Montagu
I have always been a morning person, so I was not too seriously inconvenienced, in my fifties, when I had to start over and create the mother-of-all morning routine to help me manifest the life I wanted to live, from...
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Margaretha Montagu
Harness Your Unique Strengths to Build a Thriving Business In a world that often glorifies the extroverted hustle, it’s easy for introverts to feel overshadowed. Networking events, public speaking, and constant social interactions can seem like insurmountable hurdles. However, being...
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Margaretha Montagu
How Cupcakes and a Houseplant (called Fred) Helped One Woman Conquer Imposter Syndrome Life's most profound lessons often come at inconvenient times and from unexpected sources. As we work our way through crises, challenges and changes, we encounter experiences that...
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Margaretha Montagu
Or As Neither of the above? As a business owner, it can be useful to know if you are an extrovert or an introvert, as each category has its own strengths and weaknesses. Extroverts and introverts approach the starting and...
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Margaretha Montagu
Discover How Nature Can Save Your Sanity (and Your Startup) "Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across...
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Margaretha Montagu
Flipping Fears and Leaping Over Obstacles with a Growth Mindset - How Cultivating a Growth Mindset Can Propel Your Business Forward Running a business is no walk in the park, no matter how long you have been in the running....
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Margaretha Montagu
Leveraging Your Brain's Filtering System for Career Success The Reticular Activating System (RAS) can play a crucial role in advancing your career by enhancing focus, awareness, problem-solving and decision-making. Ever since I was a young doctor working in an extremely...
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Margaretha Montagu
Ever wonder why you feel more irritable and less productive despite working harder? On the point of collapsing from exhaustion, I realised something crucial: my relentless pursuit of success was costing me my health. I discovered that rest, quality as...
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Margaretha Montagu
From Self-Doubt to Self-Confidence Imagine standing on the precipice of a significant career milestone, your achievements lauded by your peers, when suddenly, an insidious voice whispers, "You're a fraud." This is the haunting reality of many people with imposter syndrome,...
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Margaretha Montagu
How Introverts Can Benefit from Adjusted Mindfulness Techniques If you are an introvert, you might find it difficult to master mindfulness. Mindfulness is a powerful practice that can offer significant benefits, but introverts may face unique difficulties when trying to...
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Margaretha Montagu
. Picture this: a serene lakeside cabin, nestled deep in the woods, where the only sounds are the whisper of the wind through the trees and the gentle ripple of water over cobbles. For an introvert, this is paradise. Now,...
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Margaretha Montagu
. Every Tuesday evening, my Camino de Santiago retreat guests and I go to a local bistro to support the still-flagging local economy, post-Covid. Most of the options on the menu include duck, in some form or another, but the...
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Margaretha Montagu
Strategies for Women Rebuilding Their Lives During Major Life Events I felt a bit of a fraud when I started writing this article. Who am I to give others advice about financial independence? I was going through a major life...
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Margaretha Montagu
Did you know that nearly half of successful people reconsider their career paths after a major life event? In an age of transformation, discover how personal stories of triumph over adversity are reshaping our understanding of true achievement. As you...
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Margaretha Montagu
Coping with Life Changes, Challenges and Transitions Series Theresa stood in the middle of her living room, surrounded by piles of paperwork from years gone by, dusty stacks of old newspapers and magazines, bulging boxes of "fat" clothes and "thin"...
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Margaretha Montagu
I want to start this email by thanking all those wonderful people who have written to me after my last email: I can’t tell you how heartwarming it was to receive your encouraging responses. The consensus was: "You do You."...
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Margaretha Montagu
Having experimented with the Law of Attraction and having been thoroughly disillusioned more than a decade ago, I have had little time for the idea ever since. Recently, a friend mentioned Human Design, and knowing nothing about it, I decided...
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Margaretha Montagu
Relax, Rejuvenate, and Rediscover Yourself at a Sanctuary in the foothills of the Pyrenées Mountains A retreat should be a refuge: somewhere you can escape to, a place where you feel safe, seen and heard. I mentioned that I run...
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Margaretha Montagu
Experience Vintage Charm with Modern Comforts I host old-fashioned retreats. An old-fashioned retreat is one with a rustic charm reminiscent of a bygone era, where guests can escape the modern world's fast pace and engage in traditional activities like nature...
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Margaretha Montagu
How Private Retreats Can Revolutionise Your Well-being I have been hosting small group Camino de Santiago hiking retreats for more than a decade, here at my house in the southwest of France. Last week, I came across this post in...
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Margaretha Montagu
Don't Fake It Until You Make It, Face It Until You Make It The Case for Authenticity in Leadership and Life What this is: A compassionate dismantling of the most overused advice in business, written by someone who learned the...
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Margaretha Montagu
A Moving Meditation for Stress Reduction and Inner Harmony In our modern world, filled with constant noise and distractions, a "new" trend has emerged called "silent walking," and it's all about escaping the chaos that surrounds us. I had to...
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Margaretha Montagu
What this is: A practical guide to treating emotional injuries with the same urgency and skill you'd apply to a physical wound, because your feelings deserve better than a stiff upper lip and a bottle of wine. What this isn't:...
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Margaretha Montagu
#MoreMeaningfulMondays Series It's Monday morning. Again. Ever wonder why Mondays feel like such a drag? You're definitely not alone! There are actually a few reasons why Mondays can be so tough: Weekend Bliss Contrast: Think about it – weekends are...
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Margaretha Montagu
Cultivate Physical and Mental Wellbeing this Summer Good morning! I wish each and every one of you un très bon Dimanche! It's FINALLY summer here in the southwest of France - we had one last horrendous storm on Wednesday night...
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Margaretha Montagu
You've built something meaningful. And yet, you're scanning every meeting, every social gathering, every interaction for proof that you don't belong. An imposter. Out of place. Here's the uncomfortable truth: if you're determined to find evidence you don't belong, you'll...
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Margaretha Montagu
When asked what I do, here in the deepest rural southwest of France, I usually reply that I host retreats, onsite but also online, for those who can't escape to the south of France at the moment, to help my...
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Margaretha Montagu
. Since the pandemic, I have been working on making my retreats available online. I thought onlining the Camino de Santiago hikes would be the most difficult part, but it turned out to be the easiest. There already exists virtual...
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