I don’t quite know where it began, but something led me to Secret Garden. As a child I loved the idea of there being a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, and I loved the magic of it – that you could never find the pot of gold because the end of the rainbow kept on moving. Now, looking back, it’s as though my life has been the rainbow (although it hasn’t always felt like that!) and Secret Garden the pot of gold.
Secret Garden has, for me, the same air of mystery and wonder as the rainbow and the pot of gold, and that energy is always there – in workshops, in one to one sessions with Joy – but Secret Garden is also very, very real. This “secret garden” is in you and me, but you have to really want to find it, otherwise you might overlook the door hidden behind a huge tangle of overgrown bushes and thorns – or one day you might glimpse a door, but feel overwhelmed at the seemingly enormous task of clearing a path to it. Or you might be in too much of a hurry and, apparently, not have time to investigate. You might give up. You might not even be interested.
But I would wish for everyone to experience the gifts that Secret Garden has to offer. I was just an ordinary woman whose relationship with Life has been transformed by workshops and one to one sessions with Joy. I am still an ordinary woman, but now… well, there is something about me…
I am not interested in climbing Everest, or trekking to the South Pole. I have no goals like making loads of money or becoming famous or successful. But I am an intrepid explorer of body, heart and soul – just for the fun of it! Just because it is what I love to do! And I live very much in this “real”, everyday world of ours with all its challenges and stresses and speed and lack of consciousness and nonsense.
For most of my life I simply did not want to be here. Too difficult. Too painful. And I felt miserable and inadequate when I measured myself against everyone else and what they considered important. I resisted everything – and felt impoverished and exhausted all of the time.
However, Secret Garden is showing me how to surrender, relax, give thanks, and let Life take me where it will. This isn’t about putting my feet up, or sitting blissfully in meditation all day long. The challenges of relationships, family, neighbours, jobs, money, technology are all still there, and the ups and downs of everyday life, but I relate to it all now in a totally different way. There has been real healing and transformation, and I am astonished at the changes in me. Everything feels so much easier (even when it isn’t) and so much more joyful!
In Secret Garden we are loved, supported, accepted. We are encouraged, welcomed, celebrated. We are let be, just as we are. The exquisitely held space creates a deep sense of safety and trust. And these days, in the deepest part of my being I feel loved – anyway – I feel safe and held, and I have come to trust Life. A deep knowing is there, even when things feel impossibly hard.
In Secret Garden there is Light and Love in abundance – but I am not talking about a New Age version of Light and Love. The Light shines into our darkest corners and reveals what has been hiding in the shadows and limiting us (and sometimes it is excruciating and hideous). Everything that emerges is welcomed with such Love.
I have experienced a kind of loosening and an enlightening on every level, and a rearranging of physical cells. I have had experiences of something unbearable dissolving in a moment, never to return.
The look of my everyday world hasn’t changed much, but the feel of it is quite different. I am learning to embrace my life in all its weather and all its rainbow colours, and I don’t feel I am searching for anything any more. And I have discovered the pot of gold – and it wasn’t over there, at the end of the rainbow, but inside me all the time.
If you want to come and find out for yourself and reap the deep and tangible benefits for your life, visit secretgarden.co.uk and book your place on a course now! I highly recommend them! There are weekends and days, and the wonderful ongoing groups are the spine of it all. Hope to see you there!
Rachel Irvine-Fortescue 17 March 2013
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