‘Transforming the world one empowered woman at a time’. That’s Jenny Garrett’s mission. One way she achieves this is by running the Happenista retreat. After having a 1-to-1 consultation with me herself, Jenny invited me along to facilitate a collage workshop on the retreat. It was such a privilege to work with Jenny, Jackee Holder and the women who attended; on what proved to be a truly inspiring weekend. Every collage created that weekend tells something of the story of the woman who created it. One of the women shares her story here:
“I attended a workshop with Andréa of UnglueYou®, as part of Jenny Garrett’s February 2017 Happenista weekend retreat. Not having worked with scissors, paper and glue in my adult business life before, I wasn’t sure what to expect. But Andréa sensitively and expertly guided us to use our instincts to build up a collage of visual images and text. To create a strong and very personal image of our identity, goals and expressions.
Reconnecting
The images were surprisingly relevant, despite the very varied selection of magazines which we were presented with to sift through (I will now look at rugby and cycling magazines with a different perspective!) and the final product of my collage produced some extraordinary and fascinating results.
Amongst all these random images I found two of my most inspiring heroines, and pieces of completely unrelated text. But which when put together within my collage, reminded me of some of my early years ambitions and desires which I realised that I had perhaps become disconnected from of late. I also found myself drawn to images of nature and light and realised how important my home environment is, to my well-being and happiness.
Letting Go
As important as what did make it into my final collage, were the images I discarded. I had just come out of a very difficult and stressful work environment and one of the first images I found, was one that I connected with my old boss who had been such a negative factor in my life for some time. Originally intending to place “him” in the collage to remind me what I would not put up with any longer; I found myself able to decide, by the end of the process, that I did not in fact need him there after all. This has served as a useful mental visualisation any time I need to be reminded of where I have come from, and where I am going.
Looking Forward
It was such a joy to be able to share mine and others’ collages and to talk through both what I had learned from my own work, and to give some feedback on what other participants had produced, and learned in the process. The entire workshop was hugely supportive and positive and I feel that I have made some lifelong friends too. I look at my collage every day and seem to find a different section or text to focus on each time which takes on more meaning and relevance, as each day passes. I feel inspired to achieve so much!”
Thank you, Nicola M
Solicitor, Businesswoman, Entrepreneur, Mum of 5 and Grandmother of 2
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