A dear friend gave me ‘The Secret’ a few years ago and I have watched it regularly ever since, putting it’s suggestions into practice. I believe this is what helped bring about a wonderful series of events which I will describe below. Chiefly I believe that since watching The Secret, I attract events, people, and experiences into my life through appreciating the idea of what it will feel like in the future when these things happen and having faith that they will happen. Thank you Rhonda and The Secret team and everyone who helps to promote the ideas from The Secret to help other people realize their dreams.

Back in Feb/March 2016 I began to read the wonderful book ‘Heal Thyself’ by Saki Santorelli. He is the director of the world-renowned University of Massachusetts Mindfulness Centre in the US, founded in the 70’s by Jon Kabat-Zinn. While reading the book I kept thinking “What a wonderful place, what an asset to the world. It would be wonderful to visit the Centre one day.”.

A week or so into my reading of the book, my boss asked me to write an abstract for a presentation and book chapter to submit to an academic conference. I work for a University in the UK. I agreed and began writing. After writing a short while, I became curious as to where the conference would take place. I was amazed to discover it would take place at MIT University, Boston in the US, about a 50 minute drive from the Centre!

The abstract was accepted and my boss and the rest of the team agreed that it should be me who attended, as I had done the most work on the abstract. As you can imagine I was absolutely delighted!

Over the next few months I made travel plans which included fulfilling a twenty year dream of visiting Jamaica, home of a longtime hero of mine, Bob Marley. I started to realize however, that the Jamaica trip and a 2-day conference would mean I only had 1 day left to visit the Centre on Saturday the 17th of September. My first thought was “What are the chances it will even be open on a weekend?” I checked the Centre website and to my delight and astonishment there was only 1 event listed for the whole year! It was a 1-day Mindfulness-based Self-expression (MBSE) retreat on Saturday 17th September. It was being run by a professional artist, Janet Slom, who is also a trained mindfulness practitioner who developed the MBSE approach.

The event was right up my street! I have been interested in meditation and mindfulness for 15 years or so, since I met my ex-husband and his family who are Buddhists. However, due to my active nature I have always found being still, being restful and sitting meditation very challenging. The idea of bringing together self expression, creativity, movement, art etc. together with mindfulness sounded magical to me and incorporated my many interests. I signed up immediately! The administrator upon seeing my UK address, emailed me. He wanted to make sure that I realized it was an in-person event, not online. I said yes, no problem, I’ll be there!!!

I attended the retreat. The finishing time of course fit in exactly with my evening flight time back to the UK. At the retreat I had the most powerful, almost alchemic experience. We did a mix of individual and group work all based around creativity and mindfulness. The people I met were all lovely, interesting and open, including the wonderful teacher Janet. IT is a month on and I am still feeling the benefits.

I’m so grateful for the experience of the retreat as well as the whole trip, which I refer to as my ‘Jamerican Adventures’. It almost feels like a dream, so many happy memories!

Wishing all your dreams will come true, like mine. Stay positive, keep visualising and appreciating and keep the faith! x