Blue Blessing Book

In October 2018, I was struck with the almighty blow that is herewith affectionately titled “THE VISA DEBACLE”

In a nutshell, I accidentally overstayed my spousal visa and had to leave the UK, my home, Warren, my job and all my clients not knowing when on earth I would be allowed back into the country. It was also right in the midst of a planned Yoga retreat in Bali – that I was leading! It was a pretty stressful life event.

In all that stress and chaos – which I shared online via Instagram, I received such an incredible amount of love, support, kindness, encouragement and “holding thumbs” from people all around the world. It really was something quite incredible and the impact that it had on me – feeling so much kindness and care from essentially ‘strangers!’ has never left me.

When I was back (stranded) in South Africa I remember remarking to my parents and friends how I felt SO grateful to have such a wave of love and support from my online community at what was essentially a pretty shitty time. I started to think of ways that I could pass on this feeling of support to others who may not have the same kind of online community that I feel so privileged and honoured to have!

I thought to myself that wouldn’t it be really cool if I created some kind of traveling book – with simple words of love, encouragement and “you’ve got this!” written from strangers to other strangers around the world?

I was drawn to a beautiful blue book that I spotted in a small boho boutique in the Natal Midlands and decided to buy it to get the process started. I gave the book to my mom and to a close friend for them each to put a message in it – and then shared on instagram that I was looking for anyone who wanted to get involved – and – if you wanted to be part of the floating book exchange – to please send me your postal address.

I received many postal addresses from far and wide – South Africa, The UK, India, Canada, The USA and Germany.

Things got pretty chaotic after that as I was trying to deal with having to pull out of a yoga retreat in Bali (ie: i had no passport to travel!) and organise and fly a new yoga teacher over to cover for me, whilst also trying to get cover going for all my UK classes.

I eventually made my way back to the UK and – as you can imagine being 43 days away from my life, business, teaching/classes I had a lot of ‘catch-up’ to try and get through!

Coupled with this – was the feeling I had of “I’m not really sure how this whole book thing is actually going to work?!” Are people going to send the book back to ME each time, and I will send it to the next person? Do they send it on to each other? How will I keep track of where the book is so that there is some level of accountability in this? What if people are not willing to send internationally? I surely need to take some pictures of this so that people can see what it is I’m doing?! Do I need to make sure people with the same country/continent send the book to each other? How can I get people to post about it when they get it so that we can keep track of where the book is and where it’s been?

So I had a lot of questions about it- which I didn’t have the perfect answer to – and, as you may know, the feeling of NOT HAVING EVERYTHING PERFECT, CAN OFTEN LEAD TO INACTION.

And that is exactly what happened with me.

A few weeks ago, right before Christmas, I learned that one of my friends from high school shot and killed herself.

We were not exceptionally close at high school, but were definitely friendly towards each other. It completely shocked me to hear what had happened, as I felt I had just engaged with her via my instagram page – and sure enough, the Sunday before it happened (which was a Thursday) she had messaged me in response to a ‘Sunday Story’ that Warren and I had shared.

After learning about this news, I scrolled back through my messages from her. About 11 months earlier she’d asked me what the best way to get in touch with me was – I had given her my UK phone number and email address and told her to get in touch with me any time.

I also scrolled back in my messages from her and saw that she was one of the people who had sent me her postal address to be added to the list of names to receive “The Book”.

I honestly felt so ashamed scrolling back through those messages.

So filled with shame that I had let my need to have everything “figured-out”, and everything “perfect” get in the way of me taking ACTION and simply putting what I had out into the world for others to share in.

This idea of taking imperfect action to just GET your stuff, your offerings out into the world – ESPECIALLY if it could potentially help someone else has really been massive for me.

I have a lot of resistance to “marketing” (don’t want to be that person), but this has really made me realise the necessity of shouting from the rooftops what it is that you are offering people – and just getting it out. *** Which is why you may hear me shouting from the rooftops, over and over, about my Voyage to the Soul Immersion in April ***

Because how dare I let my own resistance and fears stand in the way of something that could REALLY help and change someone’s life?

Make no mistake, Yoga is not a cure-all: in some cases medical intervention and professional help is vital… BUT in the same breath, Yoga, and what I am offering, truly can have the power to shift something deep within you, to open the door of possibility to a new way of living in relation to yourself. And I truly believe that.

So after that shocking and tragic wake up call, I got off my ass, opened my email folder with postal addresses – wrote a cover page for the book and shipped it off to the first person on the list.

I haven’t figured it all out yet – we will see how it evolves. I’ve titled it BlueBlessingBook – so you can follow along with that hashtag (#blueblessingbook) on Instagram if you want to track where it goes. You can also put your email into my email list below, if you are not already on it as I will be sharing updates there too.

If you feel you need, or want, to receive and pass on this book, please email me che.strawberries@gmail.com or use the contact form to send me your postal address. (Please use the subject line BLUE BLESSING BOOK so that I can find it easily.)

You won’t know when you will receive the book, but hopefully it will come at a time when you need it.

If you want to come and join me in April on the Voyage to the Soul Immersion, I would LOVE to have you. This is a 4 day women-only immersion – where we will be using art, yoga, movement, breathwork, groupwork, celebration and meditation to LET GO (!!!!) of old stale baggage that is weighing you down, to re-energise you, to re-connect you to yourself, your soul, and your reason for being here. Please get in touch via the methods I’ve mentioned above.