UPDATE - Tara S - "I have grown into the person I wanted to be"

Signing up to a dating site the other day made me realise just how far I’d come in the (almost) 2 years since the Retreat. The single word I had chosen to describe myself on my profile was “Adventurous”. You will understand how big a change this is when I tell you how, pre-retreat, I was hiding from life through sheer fear.

I am sight-impaired and in my forties. I had always played it safe. I hadn’t travelled abroad alone before the year of the Retreat, I was hugely intimidated by men and didn’t have friends I could socialise with on weekends. I existed in a very small bubble and my mental health was suffering because of it.

I knew that had to change and the Retreat was the biggest factor on that journey by far. It altered my mindset and made anything and everything possible. The following year I organised a trip for 4 of us retreat women to go to Barcelona; somewhere I’d long dreamed of visiting to see the Gaudi architecture. I started my own blog after writing for someone else. I overhauled my home, my diet, my fitness, my wardrobe, my appearance and it continues. I not only seize opportunities, I create them. I am supported by friends that inspire me - one of which I am going to spend time with in the Scottish Highlands in 2 weeks’ time.

What means more than any of these amazing changes though, is that I am not the timid, scared, woman I was before the retreat. I have grown into the person I wanted to be and deserved to be. In short, I am no longer letting life pass me by.

My next big adventure will be a trip to Australia next year and I can hardly wait.