When Women Remember Who They Are

Finding the right words to share what has happened these last few days at Exhale has left me speechless in ways I’m unfamiliar.  But here goes…

Witnessing women remember who they are is an honour.  And this is exactly the privilege I had of seeing this past weekend and it was beautiful, incredible and so deeply inspiring. 

The magic started in our opening circle when something shifted.  An invitation to look deeper, with gentleness and compassion, offered the space for armour to soften and masks to drop.  A moment that rippled through the space and these beautiful women allowed themselves to be seen.

Not for who the world expected them to be, but for who they truly are. 

And in that stillness, I felt the magnitude of what we had created together.  A space for women to come home to themselves.  Over our three days, I had the privilege of witnessing this moment again, and again.

As each woman gave herself permission to honour what was calling her, and set aside the noise, the expectations, the beliefs that said she couldn’t or shouldn’t, I witnessed something beautiful begin to unfold.

Confidence, buried deep within, began to rise.

A reclamation of self. The quiet knowing that she gets to take up space in her own life.

The heart of the retreat came early, in our opening circle.  I asked a question, a simple one, but it opened a doorway. It showed these women that I saw them, truly saw them, and all that they hold. That one moment of being witnessed created safety… safety to go to their depths, to feel what had long been tucked away, to remember what it feels like to allow themselves to feel.  Without judgement, without guilt, but to truly feel what weighs them down.

And as they did, I felt something shift in me too.

I was reminded that holding space isn’t about having the right words or the perfect structure. It’s about presence. It’s about trusting my own intuition, that quiet knowing that tells me when to speak, when to reach out a hand, when to simply hold the silence. By being authentic and vulnerable myself, I offered permission for others to do the same.

Over the days, I witnessed the energy of the group transform.
Women arrived carrying the weight of apathy, self-doubt, and quiet resentment, of always giving, always holding, always pushing through. But as the hours passed, through conversation, movement, and stillness, the heaviness lifted.

Discomfort gave way to lightness.
Bitterness softened into joy.
Uncertainty transformed into empowerment.

I watched these women release old stories, of not being enough, of needing to prove or please. I witnessed tears that became laughter. I saw them uncover the beauty that had been waiting beneath all the “shoulds.” And as they began to listen deeply to their inner world, something magical happened: they started to trust it.

There were moments that will stay with me;
A woman voicing aloud, for the first time, a truth she’d held hidden for years.
Another compassionately honouring herself and her body for everything it has supported her through in this lifetime.
Another igniting the fire in her belly to step into her power with courage.
And all of them, by the end, standing taller, their faces radiant with a light that could only come from within.

It reminded me: transformation isn’t about doing more, about becoming someone more.
It’s about remembering who we already are.

When we strip back the layers of doubt and judgment, we create space for something powerful.  The quiet certainty that everything we need is already inside us. Sometimes we just need a mirror, a safe space, or a circle of women to remind us.

And that’s what Exhale became.  A space to remember.

For any woman standing at the edge of her own becoming, feeling the whisper that there’s more, even if she’s not sure what it is, I see you. I know the courage it takes to pause, to turn inward, to choose yourself.

But I also know this:
When you do, you open the door to infinite possibility.
You reclaim your power.
You remember your light.
And you begin to live, not from fear or obligation, but from the deep rhythm of your own truth.

This is what it means to come alive again.

So if something in these words stirs a longing in you, a remembering, take it as your invitation.  You don’t need to know the whole path.

You just need to take the first breath, the first step, the first exhale.