Having recently listened to Clarissa Pinkola Estes' "Women Who Run with the Wolves" audiobook and enjoyed Clarissa reading out old fables or fairy tales and the relevance and meaning of them to us as women; I then stumbled upon a beautifully presented book when I walked into Berkelouws Book Store in Eumundi, that I knew I had to buy.  The book, written by author, Lucy Cavendish, is "Magickal Faerytales", an enchanted collection of retold tales.

Both of these brought back memories of me as a little girl, going to the library on a Thursday night, with my dad.  I knew exactly where the Fairy Tale Book section was and would walk out holding a library bag full of new wonders, to go home, find a quiet corner, and get lost in the magic and adventure. 

Lucy explains in her book what fairytales, such as Red Riding Hood, were about. That they're "about survival. Surviving our families most often, and being sent out into a world which is hostile and navigating the new worlds in which we find ourselves, without bitterness or rancour". 

Sharing stories is the theme of this podcast series, and stories read by us at an early age might be something to contemplate as well. 

Serendipity: these 2 books - one a beautifully illustrated hardcover and the other, a worthy 2-hour audiobook, both appeared in my life, in the same month, this year. A month earlier, in August this year, I gained my certification in hypnosis.  In hypnosis, we use metaphors (stories). My plan is to incorporate hypnosis into my life coaching as a value-add service to my coaching clients and also as a separate service where requested. 

Hypnosis is beneficial for anxiety relief, stress reduction, releasing bad habits, making the change to become lean and healthy, or quitting smoking and best of all, performance enhancement. I wrote metaphors and they even mesmerised me when writing them! 

Maybe, it is just my time to have returned to the magic of storytelling.  Maybe, I am adult enough now to understand the magic of stories shared, even more. 

Yesterday I opened registration to "Your 4-Week ELEVATE Course" (starting Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th November). So, yes, you'll guess right, that it does incorporate a bit of magic across each week of the 4 weeks of 1:1 coaching and group sessions. How could it not?

Maybe, it's the right time for you too, to re-explore your childhood enjoyment of reading fairytales or your favourite stories - whether to benefit yourself or a child you love, or both.