What I learnt after 11 Days living & learning with Monks in Nepal

 Landing back home after 11 days living with monks in Nepal, completely offline (no phones, no emails, no contact with the outside world). Mostly in silence and meditation. Gosh I could drop in deeply!

It was powerful to step away fully, knowing life and work would keep flowing without me. To give myself to this experience 100%, with an open heart and mind - all with the intention to give and serve in a deeper way.

I wanted to share some knowings I received in the space & stillness (it's a long one! Was hard to pick what to say but I will be recording a podcast soon!).

1. You are consciousness: Witnessing the Mind and it’s distractions / distortions

Everything you see & experience is filtered through your mind’s perception. Nothing is real, cement or material in itself outside of you - your mind literally creates life around you. So when you organise your inner world, your outer world transforms. Understanding your own psyche is the most important relationship you’ll ever have, because it shapes every part of your life. Ask: “Who sees when I see? Who hears when I hear? Who feels when I feel?”  When you are aware of the lens which you see yourself & the world - you have the awareness to find unconditional peace within. Because you ARE pure awareness and nothing is “cement” outside of you.

In silence, I dropped into full witness mode of myself. Without technology or my phone, I saw my real distractions - not emails or Instagram, but the illusions of my mind. Stories and attachments - they were subtle so I often miss them in my day to day life. I had a moment where I witnessed myself caring about something trivial that I used to navigate in my early 20s - and there I was - a decade later and still a slight resonance there. I realised how much energy leaks into unconscious patterns. And in watching them, I saw: none of it is me.

Thoughts are just thoughts, and habits that were created from the thoughts. Become aware. Because when you change your thoughts, you really do change your life. Notice the energy leaks in your life - not just the TV or phone, but little stories or beliefs that mean you aren't truly free, you don’t do what you desire, say what you want to say, you care what people think, or you feel like you need to prove yourself - this is all distorting the natural flow of your life force.

2. Buddha Nature Within

If you are in my space, you know that I speak extensively about creating your own reality - notably YOU are the creator. One of the monks said a line that I loved: “You are your boss, be a good boss to yourself”. Everyone already is their Highest Self (a diamond under the haystack - always there, just sometimes covered). The Buddhists call it your Buddha nature: A calm, spacious, wise awareness that is always there. But so many people have a “mind that is like a bad neighbourhood that you don’t want to go alone” - always worrying, afraid and imprisoned in your own barriers & illusions. Many live from the illusions of the ignorant mind: exaggeration, projection, confusion, expectations. That’s when suffering grows. Taming your mind and realising that it is all false - the expectations, the inner critique, the doubt and worry - none of this is real but a projection of ignorance from your mind. Refer above ;) THIS is freedom!

3. Impermanence

We learnt deeply about impermanence. Everything is always in a state of change - the world around us, the thoughts inside us, even our emotions that can shift from tears to laughter in seconds (did many times for me in the Monastery). When you forget the truth of impermanence, when things change - you think that everything is going wrong or that life is something to fear because it is “uncertain”. With the full acceptance and knowing that EVERYTHING is in a state of change, flux and therefore uncertainty, you no longer are surprised or distressed when this natural factor of life unfolds. You are softer when things change, trusting when you don’t “know” yet, and more grateful with what is present now. We even meditated on death. Not as something to fear, but as a reminder to live fully & wholeheartedly. To remember that every day is precious, that time is not guaranteed.

4. Service as Bliss

Another big teaching was that service is not a burden, when done with lightness & humility - is bliss. Helping others is liberation and path to unconditional happiness. Our teacher said “the happiest, most joyous people are those who are dedicated to serving others”. And that sent ripples down my body - I couldn’t agree more. In our individualized world about making a quick buck or even “slow living” - many have forgotten that service is the key to unconditional joy and fulfillment. I used to judge myself for how much I wanted to work and serve - wondering if I was taking it too far. But I received the strong message that - THIS GIVES YOU LIFE. Balance is of course key. As one Monk said to me when I asked “just don’t be working at 10pm or something silly like that. The modern world works too much”. This is your reminder if you know deep down that you have something to give and help. Trust it! Your energy is medicine. It attracts. It expands. It transforms. When you let your energy serve others, you find a happiness you cannot get by chasing. To serve is the greatest gift and you receive abundantly in return!

5. Life Force & the Energy of Life: The invisible energy that animates everything

This wasn’t a teaching but my own reflections during meditations: Life force is the universal spirit moving through us. It is the current that grew us from a tiny embryo into a full adult without us ever trying or controlling a thing. It is always present, always available, always flowing - but we have free will. And free will means you get to choose: do you align with life force, or do you resist it? Do you listen to your intuition and higher guidance, or do you drown it out with the noise of the ego and doubt?

At any given moment, spirit is concentrated wherever we place our attention. This means that in every second, you can consolidate all creative energy into the place where you focus. That is the incredible power of life force: it follows your awareness. When you focus on fear, fear expands. When you focus on beauty, gratitude and love, they expand. Your free will is simply this: to decide whether your energy flows with the universal current, or whether you move away from it into resistance. When you move away - when you cling, control, judge or live from ego - you feel struggle. You feel hopeless, helpless, disconnected and lost. But when you flow with your life force, you connect with higher and faster energies that lift you into inspiration.

The word “inspired” literally means in-spirited. When you feel inspired, it is not just your own effort, it is life force working through you. It is the universal intelligence moving into harmony with your intention. This is why willpower and force are never as powerful as imagination and intuition. Will is rooted in ego, in separation, in trying to prove something. Imagination and intuition are rooted in life force itself. They are the movement of universal intelligence within you. That is why imagination feels limitless, why intuition feels like a knowing of truth you can’t explain but somehow know.

I no longer need to “manifest” in the way I used to. My body is simply a vessel for life force to flow through me (as a beautiful client reflected back to me). My work is to align with that energy - to empty out of judgment, fear and doubt, to clear space for inspiration, to focus on the good, to allow the universal current to use me. You are the same too - and follow wherever your life force guides you! 

6. Happiness as a Choice

“Do you want to be happy or not?” This is the ultimate question.

It sounds simple, but when you sit with it, it changes everything. Because it means that no matter what happens outside of you - whether something doesn’t go your way, whether someone disappoints you, whether you didn’t meet that goal, whether life throws you an inconvenience - you still hold the choice. Are you willing to hand your happiness away because of an event, or will you stand in your commitment to remain happy regardless?

Most of us don’t see happiness as a choice. We think it is conditional - tied to circumstances, to people, to outcomes. We think it is out of our control, determined by forces outside of us. But this is the illusion of the mind. It’s not reality. What actually gets in the way of unconditional happiness are the stories that say, “I can only be happy if this happens, or if that doesn’t happen.” These preferences are attachments. And attachments are the root of suffering.

The real question is this: Are you willing to be happy from this point forward, for the rest of your life, regardless of what happens? That is radical. That is liberation. It means refusing to let the shifting, always changing conditions of the external world decide your internal state. It means recognising that events are just events - they don’t carry meaning until the mind labels them as good or bad, success or failure, blessing or problem. Happiness is not determined by events; it is determined by how you meet them.

When you are free from the illusions of the mind, the question becomes clear: Do you want to be happy or not? That’s it. This is life - to notice when your energy has dropped into low frequency, to consciously shift into a higher one, and to create action from that place. My POWER PRACTICE is a powerful way to transform this.

Happiness is not about ignoring pain or bypassing challenges; it is about remembering that your mind is in control of how you perceive your world and therefore your experience. You get to see the truth, meaning and lessons - even when life tests you (because it will to grow you).  Each time, you get to ask: Am I willing to break my vow of happiness because of this? Or can I stay open in the energy of love?

When you choose to remain in love, life force floods back in. Solutions arise from a calm and regulated state. Your energy becomes medicine not only for yourself but for everyone you meet. Because negativity spreads, but so does joy. By staying open-hearted and devoted to your peace, you uplift others just by being.

7. Nothing is as urgent as the mind convinces you it is.

The mind is an expert at creating pressure & stress. That you need to answer that message now, that you have to solve this problem immediately, that life will fall apart if you don’t act. This pressure is the mind’s way of keeping you in a constant state of stress and reactivity. But when you strip away the distractions, when you sit in stillness, you realise that most of what your mind thinks is urgent is an illusion.

Urgency is a distortion that comes from attachment and fear. When we believe it, we act in a rush. But when we see it for what it is - just another story of the mind - we create space. We realise we can respond calmly, wisely, with awareness, instead of being pulled into reactivity.

There is always enough time when you are aligned with life force, and that rushing only disconnects you from reality. Urgency belongs to the ego, not to the soul. The soul moves in rhythm, in flow, in the pace of trust.

So ask yourself daily: Is this truly urgent, or is it my mind creating pressure? Almost always, the answer is clear - nothing is as urgent as the mind makes it seem.

Coming Home

I come home SO incredibly grateful. Grateful for the people I met - 108 humans from all over the world, each epic in their own way. We shared meals, stories, silence, laughter and wisdom. It reminded me that it is never too late to learn, begin again, deepen your wisdom, transform your life!

Grateful for the monks, living examples of wisdom and joy, always laughing and playing.

Grateful for my team that are amazing, my supportive partner, and the women who have been entering the Certification (can’t wait to pour my love on you!!)

Grateful that my life force led me to Nepal and their incredible people.

I return knowing this: you have one precious life. Focus on the good. Give your energy there. Let your life force flow in what excites you and serves the world. Be the good boss to yourself. And above all, remember: the happiness is within you - it’s all in your perception of yourself, and the world around you.