A story of a wild and spirited girl

There once was a little girl who was a wild and free spirit. She roamed streets of her father’s small village in Laconia, Greece. Her hair was always in tangles; she regularly wandered around in underpants but little else.

That girl played practical jokes on the people she met. She had grandmothers looking out for her around every corner. She refused anything for breakfast except a glass of milk, a tendency which would follow her into later years. She regularly dunked water over her little friend George’s head whenever his mother was trying to give him a bath.

That girl was me, and I was two years old.

At the time, I was living with my grandparents in Molaoi, a half hour from Sparta.

And by all accounts, I hadn’t a care in the world. Joy drove me and a wandering spirit that saw grace in every person I met.

That little version of me wanted nothing more than to explore the cobbled pathways and dance and play.

I wish I could remember her.

Then life happened.

I returned to Australia. I didn’t speak English at first. I started school. I internalised messages of brokenness and struggle (helped ably along by undiagnosed ADHD). I experienced myself as lacking and others as judgemental and hard to please. I stumbled by accident into a career that looked good on paper but was someone else’s dream. I faked it and faked it. Never felt I got to ‘make it’.

The whole time I wondered, is this it? (This can’t be it). There’s got to be more.

I did courses and coaching. Therapy and self-development. Got tarot readings and reiki healings. Started writing. And all those things were helpful and wonderful and good. But I approached all of it from a place of perceived brokenness. I thought if only I could finally figure out what had cracked, I could fix it. If only I could 'succeed’ (whatever that meant) I’d be happy. Then, and only then, would everything be okay.

Maybe you know this story. Maybe it’s yours too. (Isn’t it exhausting).

Then in early 2025, a scratch across that old, broken record. I got made redundant from my job. And suddenly the possibility of something different opened up like a window to a place I hadn’t visited in years. In those early days of my new life, every time I meditated, I would get the message that ‘joy is the path’. And every time I’d answer with: yeh, nice one. That doesn’t make sense!

Because haven’t you seen what’s happening here? The world’s on fire. Everything is melting.
And besides, don’t you know I’m broken? What do you MEAN joy?

But the message was persistent. It wouldn’t leave me alone.

It kept coming up again and again and eventually I stopped ignoring it.

It led me to create the Joy Spiral.

At first I didn’t even know what I’d made. I just knew it felt right. And I knew I had to test it. I brought together a group of courageous and ready women, and it surpassed even my expectations. I couldn’t quite find the words for the magic that happened in that room. But one of the women who did the program sent me an email after the pilot was done. She said:

“I came to this program with an inner knowing I couldn't quite explain. I didn't know exactly what I was searching for, only that there was something within me waiting to be uncovered. From my very first conversations with you about the program, that knowing began to come alive… what became clear is that Joy Spiral isn't a self-improvement program in the conventional sense. It isn't about becoming someone new. It's about creating the conditions to reconnect with who you've always been. It asks you to bring your whole self… honestly, courageously and vulnerably and trust a process that somehow feels deeply familiar, as though you're remembering something rather than learning it for the first time.”

That’s it right there. It’s not about fixing. Not about struggle.

It’s about reconnecting to who you’ve always been. It’s about giving yourself permission to stop fighting what is waiting to shine. Life is a thing that happens to all of us and we all carry with us our experiences, both good and bad. But who you really are — the person beneath the layers and the years — is already there waiting to be released. That person carries gifts and medicine that we all need.

And the pathway to that person is JOY.

If this is ringing loud bells, and this story has lit something inside you, register your interest here (no obligation) and let’s have a chat.
We kick off again in late August! You can find out more here.