In April 2016 I went on my very first cruise. I must admit I was very unsure about how I would go as I suffer from very bad sea sickness, to the point where I feel sick just walking along the sand as the tide is coming in. But it was a cruise that my good friend Jackie White from Being Divine organised and so I really really wanted to go.
The cruise was a Spiritual Transformational Journey of Self Discovery. Who could resist that type of cruise?
So off I went, with 7 other women to transform my spiritual self discovery, totally unsure of what I had got myself into, but willing to give it a go and see what happened.
Day 1
We set off from my house at 6.15am in a mini bus, went and collected the rest of the women who where leaving from Bendigo and headed to the Melbourne Airport. On the way to Melbourne in the Mini Bus, Jackie presented us with a bag of goodies, which was very exciting.
The bag contained – a cap, a Dr Seuss book, a Journal, a pen, a Crystal Pack, an Essential Oil Pack, a Mindfulness Colouring Book, a Chakra Healing Test (to monitor our progress throughout the journey), a puzzle & activity book, a Daily Timetable, Pencils and a little Angel.
Once our excitement from getting the pack abated, Jackie read us a story called ‘Oh, the places you’ll go!’ by Dr.Seuss. It was great to experience.
When we got to the Melbourne Airport, we ventured off to check our luggage and have some breakfast. Checking luggage and going through the security checks is something that I don’t really enjoy doing, in fact I find it quite tiring.
After we had something to eat we made our way to the departure lounge and boarded the plane. It was great to all sit together and the Stewards were amazing. They were very interested in what we were doing and where we were headed.
Arriving at Sydney Airport saw us connect with the 8th person of our group and head to the P&O Transfer lounge, where we boarded a bus to be transferred to the ship.
We had hoped to be boarding the ship at Darling Harbour, but it was not to be and we boarded from the White Bay Cruise Terminal. As this was my first overseas trip it was quite an experience going through customs and 
learning all that we had to do. It was great to have the support of Jackie to get us through it.
Around 4pm we headed through the harbour and out into the deep waters. If you would like to look at some photos of this you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a scroll through.
That evening after we settled in we had a little cocktail party for the 8 of us, just so we could connect and get to know each other further. At this stage I had started to feel sick.
We decided to go and look at the spa and book in our massages that Jackie had arranged for us all. When I got to the spa I really wasn’t in a good way and decided to have acupuncture to help with the sea sickness.
I had never had acupuncture before and so was a little bit worried, but knew that I had to try anything to stop from being sick. When the needles where in, I felt amazing and could have concurred the world.
After the acupuncture we went to tea and had a lovely meal. Jackie then handed around affirmation cards (which we did everyday) and she also distributed to us a challenge that we had to complete for the next day. It was interesting how we all reacted to this, fear, uncertainty, but also quite determined to achieve it.
Each day at dinner time we were given a new challenge for the next day, things like – sit on the deck an have a conversation with a passenger about their childhood – or – give compliments to three people you don’t know. They were all designed to push us outside of our comfort zones and grow a little bit more.
Day 2
The 2nd day wasn’t a good day for me, we all got up and did a dawn meditation, which was amazing. But then I spent the day vomiting. I had an injection for the sea sickness and then swallowed tablets all day. I slept most of the day and missed out on so many activities, but there was nothing I could do about that.
Day 3
Day three I was feeling much better, didn’t get out of bed until mid morning, s
o missed out on the morning activities, but had lunch out on the deck with the rest of the group and enjoyed the afternoon sun.
Around mid afternoon we attended a workshop that Jackie put on for us. She put on a daily workshop, but this was the first one that I could attend. Each day the ‘lesson’ was different, from affirmation writing, to learning about oils and crystals. They were great and informative and really helpful with our spiritual journey.
That evening we went to an Italian Restaurant called Angelo’s, it was great, the food was yummy and the staff were nice and cheerful and entertaining. The ship had 5 restaurants and a place they called The Pantry which had about 9 different places where you could get food from. Everything was included in your price except the top 2 restaurants where you had to pay a surcharge.
Day 4 – Noumea
This day was our first encounter with land since we set sale. As we were getting off there was a welcoming from the native people to Noumea, we then looked through their local market and just generally looked around.
Nouméa is the capital of the South Pacific archipelago and French territory New Caledonia. Located on the main island, Grand Terre, it’s known for its beaches and its blend of French and native Kanak influences. The Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Centre showcases Kanak heritage, and the Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie has exhibits from across the Pacific region. The Aquarium des Lagons introduces local marine life. – Thanks Google
Then
Jackie had organised a special surprise for us. We jumped in a bus and went up into the hills of Noumea to Cat Davies place – Ayurveda Rasayana. Where we learnt about Ayurveda eating and how to balance our body through eating correctly and being more healthy. We all learnt so much and took so many notes and we are all keen to start applying this method to our lives.
Ayurveda is an Indian health practice thought to be more than 5000 years old. It consists of a number of disciplines, including aromatherapy, diet, herbal medicine, acupuncture, yoga, massage, meditation and balancing of energies. The word “ayurveda” is translated from Sanskrit to mean “the science of life”. – Thanks Google
We finished the afternoon learning hand massage and then we did a meditation, before getting back on the bus and heading back to the boat.
That evening was at another restaurant with awesome food and company and discussions about what we had learnt and how we are going to apply it all.
If you would like to see pictures of our day on Noumea, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look
Day 5 – Lifou
Day 5 took us to Lifou. To get onto the island we had to go by tender. Tenders are basically the life boats. When we docked at Lifou we walked down the pier and into their local market. We looked around there before getting on a bus and doing the Malaysian Island Tour.
Lifou is a commune of France in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia in the Pacific Ocean. – Thanks Google.
The Malaysian Tour was great, we got to see the traditional hut that is used for ‘council’ meetings and smaller versions of these are also used for sleeping in. Most of the places don’t have a ‘house’ but they have several buildings, the sleeping quarters (like the tradtional hut), a kitchen, a toilet/bathroom/laundry.
After looking through that traditional hut and learning about more about what goes on, we then went to an area around the back where we were shown how to cook one of their traditional meals called the Bougna – Bougna is a traditional feast dish of the Kanak people of New Caledonia. The word “bougna” comes from the Drehu word “puhnya” meaning “bundle”, “pack”.
Bougna often contains taro, yam, sweet potato, banana, and pieces of either chicken, fish, crab, prawns or lobster. The contents are wrapped in banana leaves and are then buried to cook in a ground oven, which uses red-hot rocks heated by fire. After about two hours of cooking, the banana leaves are unearthed and unwrapped, and the contents are eaten.- thanks Google
We then got to see inside their local church. We just missed out on seeing a wedding being held in the church. I was a bit disappointed in this as I would have loved to have seen what they wore for a traditional wedding in Lifou.
We then headed back to the marked and the pier, where we were going to go swimming and snorkelling for the afternoon but it started to rain and by the time we got back it was pouring down. So we went back on the boat and did our workshop and meditation on the boat instead of doing it on the island.
If you would like to see pictures of our day on Lifou, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look
Day 6 – Mare
The 6th day saw us land at Mare. Once again we got off the boat via a tender and were greeted on shore by a local natives group performing for us.
Maré Island (French: Île Maré) is the second-largest of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The island is part of the commune (municipality) of Maré, in the Loyalty Islands Province of New Caledonia. – Thanks Google
This island was beautiful, although very primitive. The bus that took us to the beach was old and dirty and the toilets had a lot to be desired. But the beautiful beach made everything else seem insignificant.
Here we swam, ate, snorkelled. We did a mediation sitting in the sea and then we did a workshop where we gathered things we could find and created a word that represented us all. Our word was ‘Grateful’.
We had a fantastic time, got very sunburnt and didn’t really want to return to the ship. But back we went and then after having showers we attended our yoga session. We did yoga 5 times during the trip, but as I was sick the first two days I only ended up doing 3.
If you would like to see pictures of our day on Mare, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look
Day 7 – Isle of Pines
We had high exceptions for the Isle of Pines, everyone had told us how great it was, that it was the best of all the islands. The weather was awesome, but there was a huge swell so getting to the island via a tender was a bit scary, but we did get there, an hour later than expected, but that was ok.
The Isle of Pines is an island located in the Pacific Ocean, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France. The island is part of the commune of L’Île-des-Pins, in the South Province of New Caledonia. – Thanks Google
We jumped on a bus, that was much newer and nicer than the one from Mare, and did a tour of the island. This took around an hour and a half. Then we had lunch, swam, snorkelled and just chilled out. We did a meditation under the trees before heading back to the boat.
This was our last island stop, which we were all really sad about as it meant that our trip was coming to an end. We had 2 days left on the boat before we had a day of travel to get home.
If you would like to see pictures of our day on Isle of Pines, you can go to my Pinterest Page and have a look
Day 8
Day 8 was about coming to terms with our trip ending. We did a workshop, meditation, yoga and completed our challenge for the day. I also had a massage. The massage was amazing and made me feel so relaxed.
We sat around talking and connecting and genuinely just enjoying each others company.
Each day of the trip we did meditation, here is what they were
- Dawn meditation,
- then.. (I don’t know as I was sick).
- A meditation with Cat in the Mountains of Noumea
- Meditation in our conference room on the boat – was meant to be a beach one but it was raining
- Sea meditation
- Forest meditation
- Sunset meditation
- Moonlight meditation
Day 9
Day 9 was basically the same as Day 8, yoga, workshop, meditation, dinner. We were all very much aware that this was our last day and we had to spend time packing, buying photos the ships photographer took and spending as much time with the group as we could.
We loved sharing with each other the different ‘animals’ that the house crew left in our rooms each night when they turned down our beds. They were made from towels. We had an elephant, monkey, rabbit and dog.
Day 10 – going home
The last night on the boat was not a good one, they had 6 foot swells and the boat just rocked and rocked and swayed and swayed all night. Things crashed and banged and it was quite scary, but we got through it and were up early packed and ready to disembarked.
This day was the reverse of our first day, we got off the boat, went through customs, caught a bus to the airport, flew to Melbourne, got a bus home to our house. And although we had an amazing time, it was great to be home.
We have all come back from our spiritual journey more connected with ourselves, more relaxed, more focused and ready to take on life and make ours better, happier, healthier and more connected.
If any of you every want to go on a retreat, I would suggest you get in touch with Jackie White from Being Divine and go on one of her retreats, it was truly amazing.
Do you ever get that feeling of being overwhelmed? Of having so much to do that you don’t know where to start? We all get it from time to time and we all handle it in different ways. Today I am feeling overwhelmed and I wanted to share with you how this has come about.
Sunday’s is usually my day for focusing on sonyanoonan.com or askthebookkeeper.com.au. I sit at my laptop and work for hours and hours on either or both sites. I don’t have kids to worry about on a Sunday and I don’t have anywhere to go (usually). Yesterday I entered into a different vibrational level, I could feel it. I have this feeling of wanting to move forward, its like an energy pulling me forward. I started talking to people about all my dreams and wishes and hopes. And at the end of the day I went to bed totally exhausted.
Today I woke up, sat at my computer to begin my ‘normal’ Sunday, but something happened. Instead of working on my websites I decided to do my ‘homework’ that I had from my Creating Financial Freedom course that I am doing with Julie Lake. 2 weeks ago we had to vibrationally spend $1,000, I had done this but only roughly so I did it again. Then last week we had to vibrationally spend $10,000, I had once again only done this roughly so I revamped this as well. Well I started to and them my mother came over to drop some things off. I went outside to greet her and she started asking me about things I wanted to do around my house, so we spend half and hour talking about all the renovations I wanted to do.
When she had left I came back inside and sat at my computer to start again, but I was too worked up to sit quietly and work, my mind was running overtime with all the things that I want to do around my house. So I got out a notebook and pen and started to write all my idea’s down. Got halfway through and started feeling really overwhelmed by things.
Things that I want to improve in my life that are making me feel overwhelmed
- Dynamic Bookkeeping
- Ask the Bookkeeper
- sonyanoonan.com
- Renovate my house
- Landscape my yard
- Improve my finances
- Lose weight
- Get Fit – run a marathon & ride the Tour de Cure
- Be able to travel extensively throughout the world
I feel that for me to be able to achieve all this I need to do the following:
- Work full time on Dynamic Bookkeeping
- Work full time on Ask the Bookkeeper
- Work full time on sonyanoonan.com
- Spend hours reading and learning about renovating
- Find $100,000 for renovations
- Spend hours reading and learning about landscaping
- Find $20,000 for landscaping
- Take control of my finances
- Learn how to be financially free
- Count calories
- Learn to cook healthy meals
- Run everyday
- Overcome all injuries that I have to be able to run
- Ride my bike every day
- Get a passport
- Plan my travels
- and anything else that I have forgotten
Blocks that are making me feel overwhelmed
I have so many areas of my life that I want to ‘improve’, there are so many changes I want to make so that I can ‘move forward’, but I have so many blocks around these areas. Let my tell you about a few.
Dynamic Bookkeeping
Dynamic Bookkeeping is the bookkeeping business I have with Renea. As you read from my post Friday, I am working towards improving this and making it a business that is self sufficient so that I am not feeling so overwhelmed by it. But blocks I have around this are:
- I am not good enough to run a successful business
- I don’t have the time
- Its all really hard
- My clients control me instead of me controlling them
Ask the Bookkeeper
The plans I have for Ask the Bookkeeper are huge. I know that it will be a really successful site once it is up and running, but it is going to take time and I really don’t have the patience for taking time. I am teaching myself as much as I can about web design, social media marketing, blogging etc etc. But I still have blocks around it:
- I don’t know where I’m going to find the traffic to send to the website
- I don’t value my knowledge enough
- I don’t have the time
- I don’t believe people will want to know what I have to share
sonyanoonan.com
This site was set up as I kept ‘hearing’ that I had to do it, that I had to share my knowledge, my passion, my journey with people, so that they could connect with me and either start their own journey to happiness or help me on my way. The blocks I have around this are very similar to Ask the Bookkeeper:
- I don’t know where I’m going to find the traffic to send to the website
- I don’t value my knowledge enough
- I don’t have the time
- I don’t believe people will want to know what I have to share
House Renovating
Over the years I have started renovating many areas of my house., but nothing has ever been completed. Every room of the house has been touched in some way on the renovation bug, but non of them have been completed. My house actually looks worse now than it did 18 years ago when I moved in. Here are my blocks around renovating.
- I don’t have the knowledge to renovate
- I am not physically capable of renovating
- I can’t afford to pay someone to renovate
- I have no idea where to start
- People will judge my choices
- I don’t want to be cheap with my renovations, but can’t afford to buy expensive either
- My dad should be doing this for me, he helped my sister build 2 of her houses
Landscaping
I hate gardening – well that is what I keep telling myself, although if i was asked to renovate the house or landscape the garden I’d take the garden any day. My garden is very much like my house, lots of areas of it have been started, but none have every been finished. Here are my blocks around renovating.
- I don’t have the knowledge to landscape
- It is to physically hard
- Its too hot
- Its too cold
- I can’t afford to buy anything I need
- I can’t afford to pay someone to do it
- Paying someone to do the gardening is not right when you should be able to do it yourself
- Gardening is a man’s job, I shouldn’t have to do it
Lose weight
My weight has been typical of most women, up and down like a yoyo for years. I have established that there is a direct connection between my weight and my emotional/mental health. I will be beginning my next journey of weight loss real soon, but I will not be concentrating on losing weight but instead on improving my emotional/mental health. The blocks I have around weight loss are:
- Its to hard
- I have to starve myself to lose weight
- I have to work out two to three hours a day to lose weight
- I have done it before and put it back on, who says it will stay off this time?
- I love eating food
- I just need a cook to cook for me and I will be right
Get Fit
I would love more than anything to run in fun runs and ride around the bay or in the Tour de Cure. But I really don’t enjoy being out there slogging it out and being unfit and out of shape. The blocks I have around getting fit are:
- I am too fat
- I have knee troubles
- I have shoulder issues
- I can’t run properly
- I’ve never been able to run
- I’m not very good a sticking with it
- I am a people person and so want to share this journey with someone, but no one wants to get fit with me
Travelling throughout the World
Travelling is something that I have always dreamed of doing, but have never believed I would ever do. Here are my blocks around travelling:
- I don’t have a passport
- I don’t have the money
- I don’t have anyone to do it with
- Its a waste of money
- I don’t have the time
- Its a waste of time
Conclusion
It keeps coming to me that in order for us to have things we want we need to go and get them, they will not come to us without some type of movement forward. I feel that I am a genuinely lazy person and the main struggle is that I have to actually get moving so that these things will come to me. I am convinced that you have to work hard at things and that it will always be a struggle. I am needing to let go of this, things can come easy, you don’t always have to work hard at things, just work at them.
While typing this it has also come to me that it all comes down to Self Love, if I loved myself enough all of this would come to me easily and I wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed.
Question: Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed? What are your blocks around moving forward?
This week has been a tough week for me. My dear Renea has been suffering quite badly with her Bipolar this week. She is struggling with not wanting to live. I know that one of the triggers for this is the pressure of our business, she denies it, but when we were talking earlier this week the tears just flowed and she poured out all the things that she either needed help with in the business or things that were causing her the greatest stress. To have what I already know confirmed by Renea herself was not only heartbreaking but also enlightening…
So on more than one occasion during Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I begged the Universe to give me the answer to my problem. I know that me begging the Universe to make Renea better wont work unless Renea wants to get better (and when your are on a Bipolar Depression you really don’t want to get better, I understand this), but I begged the Universe to give me the solution to making our business less stressful for her.
The summary of our business is:
- I just want to work part time in it as I have other interests (sonyanoonan.com and askthebookkeeper.com.au)
- Renea just wants to do the work
- Renea struggles with staff management
- Renea struggles with dealing with clients issues
- Renea is feeling overwhelmed with the work load
- We both want to keep the business and not sell it.
After begging the Universe for a solution I sat with myself and established what I believed needed to happen, this is what I come up with:
- We need a Part-time Admin Person
- We need a Part-time Business Manager
I wrote out what I thought we required those people to do. Then I sat with Renea and asked her specific questions around what tasks she thought we needed someone to do. Then Renea and I talked about my thoughts and she asked me how we were going to come up with the money for these positions and how we were going to find the people to fill those positions. In the past I would have worried about her concerns and probably even agreed with them. But I am learning and although those thoughts briefly crossed my mind I let them go and told Renea that we had to trust in the Universe to provide us with the solutions we needed.
I was then talking to a friend and telling him my situation. This friend of mine, I respect so much. He is a phenomenal business man whom I have learnt so much from. He asked if he could have a coffee with me so we could go over some things. I never pass up an opportunity to have coffee with him as I learn so much from such short conversations. So today we had coffee and I wasn’t disappointed.
We sat down and went over what I had worked out this week with Renea, myself and our business. He helped me summarise it and then helped me sort out a plan of action. He agreed with my observations and he also added a few of his own. We worked out an action plan for the next 3-6 months and also a starting point. At the end I sat there looking at what he had typed (I’m very impressed with his typing speed 🙂 ). I can’t remember if I said it out loud or to myself, but I can remember thinking/saying – Wow, if I implement this I will be a REAL Business Woman…
Then something else happened to truly blow my mind – he offered to help me implement it, to be my Business Manager until it was sorted and we had found the right person to take over. At the time I went – Oh, ok cool. But later when I was telling Renea about the meeting I said to her, could you imagine how awesome our business would be if we accepted his offer to help us? I mean he is such a phenomenal business person, to me its like Steve Jobs or Richard Branson or Bill Gates offering to be our Business Manager.
The more I thought about it, the more I got excited about the idea, then the excitement turned to fear – what if he seen how bad I have actually been at running the business, what if he realised I wasn’t a very good business person. So I sat with that for a while and realised it was just myself judging myself and he wasn’t the type of person to judge or think poorly of people. I have also had to do some work around the fact that this is big time now, if I make this decision to put a Business Manager on (even if it isn’t him) then I am making a commitment to myself to step outside my comfort zone and become what I consider to be a TRUE Business Owner, a TRUE Executive. Am I up for it? I’d like to think I am. Am I scared? Most definitely? Am I going to do it? YEP!!!!
Can you see what has happened here for me? I put it out to the Universe to help me solve my problem, I let the plea go and although I put the request out a few times, I didn’t focus on it. And a few days later the Universe has provided for me. Thank you Universe, thank you phenomenal business person 🙂
Now its your turn. Find something you truly want and connect with it, ask the Universe for it and see what happens 🙂
Question: Has there ever been a time when you have made a plea to the Universe and it has responded in a way that you would never have dreamt of?
