MPower Spirit Winner!
MPOWER Spirit Award
It is now Wednesday and I am still totally overwhelmed with my whole MPower Awards experience . I am writing this not only to share with you but also as a bit of diary entry because I never want to forget last weekend.
As I drove down my road I cranked the volume up on the car stereo and I mean I cranked it UP, UP! The sun was shining, I was singing (read squawking, I cant sing) along to my old fave tunes and I felt utterly me and utterly free. The past weeks had been all very busy and a little stressful. All my energy was focused on my family, personal and work goals, my energy channelled to create uplifting positivity for myself and my family. Today was a day and a night when I wasn’t going to think about any of those things………….. today was a day where I could listen to loud music, take my time doing what I wanted and get excited about going out for the evening, talking to grown ups, being inspired and wearing a lovely dress.
The microwave on wheels I was driving got parked and I hauled my 32 week pregnant bump over the road with ALL my bags (mainly filled with an array of different soft drinks hahaha) and navigated my way to the Crown Plaza Hotel…………After google mapping which direction to go in and it trying to take me through undergrowth I decided to just head for the giant World Resorts complex. Yessss I had struck gold….there was my hotel. After a lot of faffing around I had taken 5 steps around a corner and there it was hooray!
The grounds of the Resort complex were beautiful so I had planned to just 'dump and run' (dump my stuff in the room and head out for a walk), maybe a spot of yoga on some grass, read a passage or two from a book or write up some notes on a project I am working on. Instead I got into the room and pretty much stripped of...It was sooooo hot………...I am pretty sure the aircon was pumping out warm not cold air.
After a bit of chillaxing I wondered off and out under the limitless blue skies of Birmingham. I felt as if I was on a holiday abroad as I walked past people socialising and dining alfresco. The sun was turning everything golden, my skin, the flecks on top of the water and my glasses were definitely allowing me to see life through a Rose Gold tint. It was such a pleasure to just meander around taking in all the new sights. One that I really enjoyed was that of a statue, called 'Beyond All Limits'.
It was actually designed with Help For Heroes in mind but to me, at that moment it reached out to me personally. I felt that I was beyond my everyday, beyond all of my daily routines and responsibilities and beyond my worries. I was in a bubble, an MPower bubble that was beyond all limits. As I stood and gazed at the statue I thought about how important it is to feel limitless. How important it is to value your dreams, ambitions and goals. I felt a zing of excitement at the prospect of meeting lots of new people, women who had obliterated 'limits' to achieve their goals and dreams.
Tonight was the first time I had ever been away from my 3.5year old son for the night. It was a big deal for us all. Id never felt that I could leave him as he breast fed, suffered with silent reflux, woke frequently and relies on routine to help keep him calm…...but we seemed to be at a point where it was all coming together and I knew that Daddy & Ren would be ok!
I was excited, excited to get ready at leisure on my own (without having to draw tigger stripes on a cute little face squished up next to mine at the mirror), excited for the uninterrupted sleep and lay in I would get......(which I actually didn't end up getting)! I flicked the Glastonbury coverage on for some background vibes, popped a bottle of non alcoholic sparkles and bust open a box of chocolates Brad had bought me…….NOW I was ready to get 'ready'.
Loads of MPower Mamas had met in the Crown Plaza bar so I crammed my new sparkly heart shaped 'LOVE' bag with make up, phone, business cards, crystals etc etc and headed down to join the pre-party, party. It was so lovely to see some familiar faces, to have a catch up with Gayle (the founder of Blossom & Berry) and to meet up with an old friend…….this was the calm before the true magnitude of the event was to reveal itself.
The Vox is a stunning location and the dreamy summers evening was adding to the glamour of the reception drinks. Set at the top of the World Resorts Complex with floor to (ridiculously high) ceiling windows overlooking the grounds I felt like I could be in New York. There was a free bar (which I made good use of with my tipple of fizzy water and apple juice hahaha) and space for guests to mingle and meet.
Hearing people stories was incredibly inspiring and it is so clear that personal experiences are utterly ingrained in heart centred businesses. It is what seems to be the catalyst to stepping out of the 'norm' and into the unknown, the new, the transformational world that is running your own heart centred business. The auditorium was filled with beauty as women talents, success and love shone from all directions.
The reoccurring message was BELIEVE, believe in yourself, your ideas and your ambition. I adored listening to Saffron Jackson (Founder of Zuree Ltd Dolls) speak about her business, inspired by her desire to find a doll that represented her daughter and unable to do so she decided to do it herself!
I was so excited to be nominated and I put a lot of thought, time and effort into writing, re-writing, reading, changing and re-writing my 'Spirit' entry. As I went through the process I started realising how valuable it was just writing this entry for myself as well as my business.
All finalists were emailed asking them to be prepared with a little 3 sentence speech incase they got the opportunity to address the room as a winner. I wrote mine on a piece of card in the hotel room before and popped it in my bag. I did this not because I was convinced I was going to win but more because I felt that it was another valuable lesson, another thought process that would be useful even when just chatting to people or posting on line.
My category was introduced and I felt my stomach flip (not just the baby in my 32 week pregnant belly). Then the moment passed as the two highly commended names had been read out and mine had not been one of them. My nerves went away and I was excited to hear about the winner and find out all about them. Nichola started to introduce the winner and people began looking at me with excited eyes. It couldn’t be me! After all there were people here that were employing loads of other women within their business, women here that were designing and making new products, women here who were……………. and then I heard Nichola say 'ripple affect' and then I knew, I absolutely knew it was me and I couldn’t believe it!
The room became a blur and I could just see my Mentor Gayle's face beaming at me from her table. I thought I was going to cry, then I realised I had to stand up and walk all the way to the stage. I felt as if I had no strength to get up. I don't know what I looked like as I walked to the stage…...I was probably staggering around, but it honestly felt as if I was gliding, floating, drifting effortlessly past all the happy face. I could hear the clapping hands and the fan fair music but in a muted tone……….OH MY GOSH this was real, this wasn’t positive visualisation this was actual reality happening right now!
Winning my award has meant so much to me because I believe in Mpower and this category so strongly. I now feel a wonderful responsibility to go 'Beyond all limits', to use this momentous occasion to propel me into my dream scape so that I can start to pull more of my dreams into reality and continue to make a positive ripple in the world around me. I nearly didn’t listen to my nomination, I nearly didn’t submit my enter because I thought………….am I working towards curing some dreadful disease? No. Am I in talks with world leaders about a global peace plan? No. So, if I wasn’t doing anything this spectacular why would I deserve to win an award? Then I realised, Yes, of course we need all of those spectacular feats of wonder and kindness, but we also need day to day, ground level inspiration, support & love. That is me, that is Little Lotus Baby.
Little Lotus Baby is helping to 'change futures, while raising the generation of the future'. Being a heart centred business means not only nurturing those that I teach but aiming to inspire beyond my studio. The planet is an ever-changing landscape of reality V's cyberspace, so it's important that we teach our children more than the traditional core academic subjects. Children need to learn about themselves and we as parents can aid them by advocating that Love is not a weakness but a strength. This is at the core of #lovenotcontrol which inspires positive lifestyle enhancements to benefit a whole family. This vision is packaged within the tangible practises and teachings of massage & yoga and I have BIG dreams in the pipeline…………….. watch this space!
