I’m a doer. A person who favors action over talk. But I’m also highly sensitive and lean more towards introversion than extraversion. I love nothing more than feeling connected to others but need a lot of alone time to decompress. For years these were not details I would have shared with the world! I only expressed the safer parts of my personality. The parts that made life easier and were likeable by most people: The playful part; the experience seeking traveller; the organised ‘people person’.  This made for a simpler existence but by my mid-thirties I felt a tremendous sense of disconnection. After I experienced the loss of my brother and the breakdown of a relationship, I felt lost and rudderless in the world. I knew I had to find my way back to myself.

​It took a lot of work and courage to bring my whole self out into the world and feel a sense of connection again. A sense that I was fully present. My life a dynamic mirror of my complexity not a flat screen projecting an easy to comprehend image that tells only part of the story about who I really am. I believe that we erect screens like this to protect ourselves from the judgement of others, but we only end up hurting ourselves in the long run. Because these screens prevent us from being fully engaged in life and connected to those around us.

​The essence of Inner Surfer is based on the biggest things I’ve learned through becoming a life coach and writing a book (for the last ten years!) about my journey back to my whole self. Life coaching taught me that disconnection happens when we suppress our values and hide our true selves from the world. Becoming a life coach taught me that there is no sense in trying to control what’s external from ourselves because we can’t, not really. All we can do is control our responses to what happens in our external lives.

The process of writing my book (which is to be finished by the end of this summer) revealed the power of nature, adventure and meeting like hearted and different minded, souls, in finding a way back to ourselves. Inner Surfer is the product of years of exploration, discovery and experience. And the many lessons I have learned and the many ways in which I have grown.

If this resonated with you on any level I invite you to join me at the next Find Your Inner Surfer retreat I’m running with Seamus Mc Goldrick. It is happening in Strand Hill, Co Sligo on 21-23 June, you can register here.