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
The Short Answer: Yes, But Pack More Than Just Your Boots Sometimes the best relationship advice comes not from a therapist's couch, but from attending a couples hiking retreat, walking a muddy trail where your partner's true character emerges—usually when...
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Margaretha Montagu
Summary: You've meditated your way to enlightenment, manifested abundance until your vision board caught fire, and inner-worked yourself into a therapeutic coma. So why are you still stuck in the same job, the same relationship patterns, and the same bank...
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Margaretha Montagu
Quick Summary Are you enabling or empowering those around you? To Enable someone is to hand them a fish. To Empower someone is teaching them to fish, then helping them build their own fishing boat empire. One creates dependency; the...
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Margaretha Montagu
This article highlights a woman's extraordinary professionalism, memory, and poise under intense pressure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=300t2DS3VdQ What is going on here? This clip shows the moment Maria João Pires realises that she’s prepared the wrong concerto, and then how she seamlessly switches...
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Margaretha Montagu
There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. Nelson Mandela In Short Here's the uncomfortable truth wrapped in a comfortable sweater: That...
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Margaretha Montagu
The TL;DR That Might Save Your Life Your self-worth is your life's GPS—and most of us are navigating with a broken compass. We manifest what we think we're worth: we don't attract what we want, we magnetise what we believe...
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Margaretha Montagu
Summary Time isn't a magical bandage – it's more like that drawer where we stuff broken things, hoping they'll somehow fix themselves. Spoiler alert: they don't. While time can dull the sharp edges of pain, it takes intentional work, not...
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Margaretha Montagu
The Sharp Summary Distraction from stress is like chocolate cake for breakfast – deliciously tempting, occasionally necessary, but hardly a sustainable life strategy. While temporarily dodging life's curveballs might give your nervous system a breather, chronic avoidance turns you into...
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Margaretha Montagu
Quick Summary Life's most persistent myth meets reality's messiest truths. We'll explore whether there is a grand plan or if we're just really good at connecting dots that don't exist. Spoiler: both answers might be right, and that's the point....
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Margaretha Montagu
A Camino de Santiago Walking Retreat for Stress Relief In an era where burnout affects approximately 70% of professionals annually, finding effective stress management solutions has never been more critical. This retreat in southwest France's sun-blessed Gascony region offers a...
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Margaretha Montagu
In Short Ever heard, "I am not your therapist" on a retreat? Not all retreat hosts are therapists. They can be, with all the qualifications needed behind their names, but many are not. I do have the qualifications, but therapy...
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Margaretha Montagu
Quick Summary Hosting a retreat at home sounds easy – intimate gatherings, no venue rental fees, complete creative control. But before you transform your living room into a meditation sanctuary, consider the hidden challenges: blurred professional boundaries, neighbourly relations, insurance...
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Margaretha Montagu
We have another Wordweavers meeting (one of my two writing groups) today and the theme that we have to write a 1000-word story about is "Black." Both reading and writing have long been effective stress management strategies for me, so...
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Margaretha Montagu
Summary: The Paradox of Healing Others While Healing Yourself Hosting retreats as a wounded healer isn't just beneficial—it's transformative. For the host, it offers personal growth and professional empowerment, and the profound joy of witnessing transformation. For participants, wounded healers...
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Margaretha Montagu
An Unconventional Book Review I’ve always believed in lifting other writers up—and one of the ways I do that is by sharing book reviews. I focus on the books that have truly shaped how I live, work, and support people...
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Margaretha Montagu
Quick Summary Tackling time management mistakes isn't about squeezing yet more into your already busy day—it's about creating space for what matters. This article explores five critical mistakes that transform productivity systems into stress machines: the multitasking myth, perfectionist planning,...
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Margaretha Montagu
Summary In our achievement-obsessed culture, we're conditioned to believe that being the smartest person in the room equals success. But here's the uncomfortable truth: intelligence without purpose is like a Ferrari without a destination—impressive, but ultimately pointless. Understanding why you're...
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Margaretha Montagu
Quick Summary Choosing your best retreat: a hotel/resort retreat or a home-hosted retreat? Hotels offer polished professionalism, extensive amenities, and worry-free logistics, while home retreats provide intimate connections, personalised attention, home-cooked meals, and authentic experiences at a fraction of the...
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Margaretha Montagu
A Woman's Guide to Travelling Confidently to a Camino de Santiago Walking Retreat Quick Summary Solo female travel to a Camino de Santiago walking retreat in Southwest France is easier than you think. This guide shows you exactly how to...
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Margaretha Montagu
Quick Summary Solo travel isn't just about seeing new places—it's about discovering who you are when nobody's watching. This guide will help first-time solo female travellers move from fear to freedom, offering practical tips, emotional support, and the confidence-building tools...
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Margaretha Montagu
Summary High performance without recovery isn't sustainable—it's self-sabotage in slow motion. This article explores why our obsession with constant productivity is actually undermining our long-term success, health, and happiness. Through the compelling story of Lawrence Edgar, a high-achieving executive who...
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Margaretha Montagu
That’s not ambition. That’s your body begging for a reboot. Summary We've been sold a lie about exhaustion. Society tells us that bone-deep tiredness is a badge of honour, proof of our dedication and ambition. But what if that isn't...
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Margaretha Montagu
The Credibility Gap - the invisible barriers that persist in our modern world Quick Summary The credibility gap is real: Women's expertise is questioned more frequently than men's, even in fields where they excel Voice and tone matter: Women face...
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Margaretha Montagu
Discover how walking 10–15 km daily transforms your brain and lowers stress. Learn the science-backed benefits of steady outdoor walking. Why the Camino de Santiago in southwest France is an ideal stress reset. Hear stories from retreat participants who reclaimed...
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Margaretha Montagu
Summary To be yourself at work isn't about showing up in your pyjamas or sharing every personal detail with colleagues. It's about finding the sweet spot between professional competence and authentic expression—bringing your genuine strengths, values, and personality into your...
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Margaretha Montagu
The future belongs to those who can integrate human vulnerability with technological power Our imperfections are features, not bugs, in an increasingly automated world The Question That Defines Our Future In a world where artificial intelligence can write poetry, diagnose...
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Margaretha Montagu
Key Points: Vulnerability creates deeper connections and trust Society's binary thinking about strength vs. softness limits our potential Embracing both creates a magnetic presence that others are drawn to This integration requires practice, self-awareness, and intentional courage Opening Pandora's box...
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Margaretha Montagu
Quick Summary: The Heart of the Matter Kindness without boundaries isn't kindness—it's enabling. True compassion requires the courage to say no when necessary. Firm boundaries aren't walls—they're bridges. They create space for authentic relationships to flourish. Self-compassion is the foundation....
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Margaretha Montagu
Time to Stop Settling For Less Than You Deserve Quick Summary: Your Wake-Up Call Settling is a silent dream killer – it masquerades as safety while slowly suffocating your soul Your "next chapter" isn't waiting for perfect conditions – it's...
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Margaretha Montagu
What 20 Years of Research Reveals Subtitle: The surprising science behind why people who travel regularly test 5-10 years younger than their stay-at-home peers (and it's not what you think) Quick Summary New experiences literally rewire your brain, creating fresh...
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