WHAT IF THE ANSWER WASN’T TO ‘DO LESS’?

 At approximately 8:47 on Saturday morning, with doors opening in less than an hour, the drinks fridge shelf gave way.

One second, it was full of all these beautiful bottles from Wild Fermentary. The next, there was this massive bang, bottles were flying out of the fridge and smashing across the floor, and I could feel myself getting so close to tears.

Not because it was the end of the world. It was just drinks. It was fixable. But when you have spent weeks holding a million tiny moving parts in your head, getting everything ready to host your first RISE weekend, it was one of those moments where your body goes, oh my goodness, I cannot hold one more thing.

I could feel that familiar rush of overwhelm start to take over. I got a little bit teary, I am not going to lie, and then Mum just looked at me and said, “It’s okay, we’ve got this.”

So I stepped away, took a few deep breaths, let the girls clean it up, and got on with what I needed to do to get ready for the morning (which in the moment was super challenging to even receive but I told myself I had to). In the end, only three bottles had broken, everything was reorganised, and aside from one other little faux pas involving me leaving the worksheets at home, that was kind of it.

One of the girls said to me, “This is initiation. You’re just expanding your capacity to regulate when shit goes wrong.” and honestly? She was right.

Because I was just about to host this weekend all about nervous-system regulation, expanding your capacity, being able to hold more of the life you say you want. This was an opportunity to embody that regulation does not mean everything has to be calm, controlled or perfect before you can feel okay.

So, there I was, five minutes before my own event started, standing in front of a pile of smashed glass with a choice. I could spiral, or I could let myself be supported, trust that it would be handled, and keep going. I took a deep breath and chose the latter.

Then RISE began…

I genuinely do not know if I have words big enough for how incredible that weekend was. It was honestly one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.

From the moment everyone arrived, there was just this feeling in the room. The gorgeous goodie bags on the seats, the food, the women coming in a little nervous and a little unsure of what to expect, the conversations starting to unfold, the tenderness, the laughter, the depth of it all. It was everything I hoped it would be, but also more than I could have imagined.

On Saturday, we moved through the heart of RISE. We talked about the ways so many women have been taught to keep going, keep pushing, keep holding it all together, even when their body is waving every red flag it possibly can.

Because that is the thing, most high-performing women do not just wake up one day and decide to stop because they are tired. They keep moving. They keep running on the hamster wheel. They keep holding everyone else, keeping the plates spinning, doing what needs to be done, and wondering why their body seems to be getting louder and louder in the background.

One of the analogies I shared was that we are home to trillions of cells. Every single one of them is responding to the environment we create inside our body. And if the message your body is constantly receiving is, we are under pressure, we do not have enough resources, we need to stay alert, we cannot slow down, then of course things begin to shift. Your energy, your cravings, your hormones, your digestion, your recovery, your ability to feel safe in your own body.

Your body is responding to the very real physiological changes that make you feel like your inner light has gone dim and you’ve gotta keep pushing through or it will all fall apart.

Which is why RISE was never designed to be another wellness day where we all ‘hit reset’, do some yoga, take a few photos, then go home and promise ourselves we will start again on Monday. It was about giving women a new lens through which to understand themselves. Their nervous systems, their female biology, the conditioning that has taught so many of us to abandon ourselves in the name of being good, capable, helpful women and that’s truly what we dove into. My workshop and guided inner work was the perfect set up for the ladies to be able to drop in deep into breathwork.

To be clear, this isn’t lie down, breath and relax (although that option was totally available to the women). It was the opportunity be held in a deeply transformative process that works somatically and can release stuck trauma and emotions in the body. It is one of my favourite healing modalities so I absolutely had to have an expert lead the ladies at RISE.

I was about midway through co-facilitating with Haze (our incredible breathwork leader), when I had to keep myself from tearing up, I was suddenly overwhelmed with unexpected emotion…

For context, when you are holding a breathwork space, you are not separate from the energy in the room. You are holding the container, yes, but you can also feel it. You feel the shifts. You feel the release. You feel people letting go of things they have likely been carrying for far longer than they even realise.

I could see these beautiful women processing and releasing so much, and I just felt this immense wave of joy. Not because I was doing something for them, but because they were showing up for themselves. They were willing to let themselves be seen, to feel, to soften, to be in their bodies, to choose something different.

The message that kept coming through for me was, this is your gift. How lucky are you to be here, holding space for this, creating these containers, witnessing this?

And I just felt so deeply grateful.

The last time I co-facilitated breathwork was at a retreat in San Francisco. During that session, my arms started moving wider and wider, like I was holding this giant invisible ball that kept expanding. The message that came through then was also so clear: you can hold it all. You have the capacity for it all. You can hold it all.

It kept repeating itself over and over.

At the time, I did not really know what it was all leading towards. But standing in that room on Saturday, with these women I care so deeply about, it all made sense.

The capacity is not about doing more and more until you finally prove you can survive it. It is not about holding everything alone.

It is about learning that you can be supported inside the things you are being asked to hold. Which was such a huge lesson for me across the weekend too.

In my last diary entry before RISE, I wrote about receiving support. About how, as an eldest daughter and someone who is very used to being the capable one, my instinct is always to make sure everyone else is okay before I let anyone help me.

But Amie, my sister-in-law-to-be and genuine angel in human form, was my right-hand woman all weekend. I did not have to worry about the check-ins, the platters, the little details, or whether everyone was being looked after. She just took care of it. Mum was there helping me get the goodie bags ready and making sure everything was sorted. Jess was there helping with the set up and teaching the yoga. My beautiful friends stepped in where they could, the sponsors gave so generously.

And because I let myself receive that support, I was able to actually be present. I was able to host. I was able to lead, to hold space, to have conversations with the women in the room, and to be fully there for the work.

At the end of Saturday, I was thanking everyone before they headed home and I just burst into tears, happy tears, because it really is such a privilege for someone to allow you into their journey. I do not take that lightly. ever.

Then Sunday was just as special in a completely different way.

It was our private day for my clients, and there is something so beautiful about having that extra space to go deeper with women you have already been walking alongside. We started the day with them taking a plunge (quite literally into the cold ocean water) a lesson in getting comfortable being uncomfortable, strengthening their capacity. 

On the walk down, everyone was nervous (as expected), it was cold, it was early, and there is always that moment before you get in where your brain starts listing every reason you do not have to do the hard thing.

But they did it.

They got in the water, they stayed for ninety seconds, and they came out buzzing. Watching them realise, in real time, that they can do hard things was honestly so cool. Sometimes you need an experience that lets your body go, oh. I am safe here. I can do this. I am more capable than I thought.

We came back for yoga with Jess, little smoothie bowls from Bowl & Arrow, more deep work, another beautiful meal from Bowler Bowler, intentionality, goal-setting, and yes, maybe a dance party or two.

There was so much talk about how we want to move through the rest of this year, because you do not need to wait for a new year, a Monday, or some magical future version of yourself to begin making changes. You get to choose again today.

By Monday, I was definitely wiped. I had also gone and done a heavy training session, which felt amazing, but I also gave myself the space to integrate, process it all and let it sink in.

The wild thing is, I walked away from that weekend feeling recharged.

I have co-facilitated events before and left exhausted, fried, feeling like I had over-given and over-poured from myself. This time, I didn’t. I felt full, grateful, like I had been given just as much as I had given.

I have already been asked when we are doing the next one, which is honestly the biggest compliment and such a gift (watch this space). 

More than anything, this weekend was a reminder of what I am here to do. This work matters to me so deeply. The opportunity to bring women together, to help them understand the body they live in, to feel what it is like to be supported, to give themselves permission to go deeper, to take the plunge, literally and metaphorically, is just incredibly powerful. I am so grateful I get to be part of it, and I am truly so excited for what comes next!

Much love,
Sheree xo