I joined forces with the esteemed healing writing teacher and author, Jess Lourey, to start a women’s wellness retreat company to empower women to claim their voices, express their stories, and live an energizing and meaningful life. Why? Because I wish someone would have told me how important they are to being healthy in this life.

I was told as a child that I was no good and what I had to say didn’t matter. I thought proving to others how smart I was by being in an executive position was more important than being true to myself. I didn’t realize that ignoring what I considered "fun" would come at huge energetic cost to my body. Isn’t work supposed to be hard? I wasn’t even aware of how miserable I was until landed in the hospital with extreme vertigo.

I was dying inside from stress and exhaustion, and that did matter.  It took me hiring a coach and 12 months of internal searching before I summoned the courage to take steps towards a new vocation and leave my job. My husband didn’t love the idea for monetary reasons, co-workers thought I was crazy, and I wondered if I was being plain stupid to leave my paycheck and a really nice metallic blue BMW 5 series.

The weird thing is that on my last day of work, I had thought I would want to go out and celebrate, but I just sat at home on my couch and cried. Cried that I had made it that long, and that I had put myself through such a tough time. My body was just relieved that I had made it through all that.

And perhaps to only my surprise, my friends and husband really supported me through the transition because they knew how much it meant to me. I’m not saying everything is perfect, but I did go from a 2/10 to an 8/10 in terms of how excited I felt about life.

So, why do I care about you? Because if you are anything like me and were told that what you want doesn’t matter and you keep following a path you’re really not enjoying, then I have some good news. There is another way of being in the world that is a lot more sustainable for you. When I see other people struggling like me, I just want to give them a hug and say there's a better way, here are some paths to walk towards joy.

All the workshops that we have put together come straight from my heart and are filled with respect, love, and acceptance of your story. We both want to support you to live a happy, fulfilling life where you can be yourself. The power lies within your hands to shape your life, and we’re here to support you.

—Alli