Laying in bed in the small hours of the morning, after a rough night with her little one, Avalon was scrolling LinkedIn when she read about the The Collective and realised that it was exactly what she needed.
It was the title that got my attention. The word ‘Calm’ feels like it's rarely used unless it's in a negative space, for example, calm down.
I thought to myself, calm sounds nice because all I seem to do is take more on, I wanted to slow down this train it felt like I was on, that I couldn’t control."
One of the most powerful things I realised, once I had joined the The Collective, was it wasn't just me, I wasn't alone. Life is hard and realising we’re all going through it and then talking about it and processing, is what really makes the difference.Starting a Friday with the The Collective call helped me feel like I had the energy to get through the day and what it held.
I loved the grounding exercises, starting a Friday with the The Collective helped me feel like I had the energy to get through the day and what it held. I also loved the Hell Yes list, knowing that I have the choice to say No to the things I don't want to do. It gave me permission to ring-fence my sacred time, like my lunch break. I realised I don’t need to cram everything in. I also really enjoyed the Oracle Cards. It wasn't something I would have ever looked at, I would have rolled my eyes walking past them in a shop. But they provided a basis for me to think about my feelings differently and how I could process them.
Penny's lived experience really made a difference for me. Where I've done different programs of the same sort of nature, it’s felt more preachy than real, but Penny has the experience you can relate to, it makes you realise change is possible, even if it's on a small scale to start with.
The biggest thing is I'm now more conscious about what's going on in life and when things are getting out of hand. I can acknowledge that life can be hectic, but now I know that I don't need to get caught up in it.
I'm much better at letting things go that would have gotten me stressed before.
