Hello, I'm Tanya and I've flown down from Cairns today to be a part of today's retreat. I work in financial planning for a company called Life Sumo and I'm really grateful to Lesley to have been invited to be part of today. Balance between the grace and grit, we need both sides of that to effectively function as humans. Feminine and masculinity has been traditionally seen as male or female, it's not gender. We both hold masculine and feminine energy and for that to be balanced like yin and yang, we need the duality for both. I think taking time out for myself and actually being able to focus on me for a minute, I give a lot of myself to a lot of people in my life, so just to come home to self and really focus on me. All the ladies that were here are in. We have had such amazing conversations and so much has been birthed today and it's going to be really exciting to see where we all end up.

This came up at the right time for me, so I'm really going to focus on putting myself first, being true to myself, just so that I can attract more joy, love, happiness, yeah, and just be more positive as well. And it's just been so empowering, just a lot of love and support in the group as well.

I work as a HR officer and from today I learned that we can be surrounded by magnificent women, very powerful people who can share the knowledge and can help us be the best version of ourselves and it takes courage to be here doing healing and working and listening to other people. We can empathize with the situations of others and that sometimes people see us as an example and we've never seen that before so it's great to be able to inspire other people. Everything was beautiful, the food was nourishing, the knowledge of everyone who was here and being able to share with beautiful people in a beautiful way.

I run the business Azure Decor Online. Very inspirational. There's just so many avenues and listening to other people talk about their blockages and openings and going forward. I can't answer that. Female companionship. It's amazing how everyone is emotional but gives you clarity, I guess, to know that everyone is out there and they all have things going on.

I'm Jen, I am the owner of Australian Institute of Professional Coaches. It's hard to say just one thing, but the thing that's coming up the most is appreciating having the time and space to connect, reflect, and just be around both an environment and people that are being open and transparent and exploring and navigating this this world that we live in. It's been really refreshing to get everyone's stories and diverse backgrounds as part of the experience. Most valuable for me today has been given the opportunity to give myself time and space to really acknowledge the milestones and where I'm at on the journey. Very often we in the normal world just keep going and going, or what next, what next. I think that's just a natural behaviour for most people. But I really just appreciated being given the invitation to really just sit with where I'm at and just feel into it and lean into it. All the awkwardness and uncomfortable and all of that, that was all great learning for me today. The community that has been created in the small group, from it, as soon as I walked in, I felt really warm and invited. Lesley obviously has a gift and talent to creating a space or knowing what people need at the right time, because it was evident in the whole day how much everybody needed this and how much everyone was putting into it and that made it really special. Absolutely. I loved how diverse both the skills and experience everyone came into this experience with. But I also liked the fact that we were all tied by a key theme where we were all interested in growing ourselves today. So that's been really grounding and comforting as well.

Hi, I'm Leanne Layfield, and I'm a retired professional living locally on the Sunshine Coast. The need for regular and reflective consideration of, you know, your philosophies, your values, and how to fulfil your potential. And just because I'm retired doesn't mean that I don't still have potential. And I want to actually, you know, live my best years. I still want to see my best years ahead of me. So I'm still dedicated to, you know, the pursuit of living my best life, stopping for a period of time, and, you know, tuning out all the busyness that goes with what I do, and just giving myself time to, and space to reflect. And that's been guided reflection, which has been wonderful. And I've really appreciated that guidance and, you know, the activities that have sort of led us to the conclusions that, you know, we've each drawn by the end of the day and our intentions going forward. Just do it. Don't, for a moment, think that, you know, you're washed up from leadership roles, because they don't have to be paid. There is so much demand for unpaid leadership. And that might also be just even in terms of your own family. But it can be much broader than that, obviously, too, with organisations and community. And there's great benefits that accrue from giving your time, your knowledge, your wisdom, your energy, and your professional skills in various different ways. So I would say, keep working on self-actualisation and finding, you know, just reflecting on, you know, what's holding you back? Where do you want to go? What do you want to do? Where do you want to be? And never stop thinking about that and reflecting and strategising for how do you get there.

There were so many takeaways from today. I really enjoyed connecting with all of the beautiful women that that were here today and it made me feel able to be safe and vulnerable and one of the biggest takeaways for me was to really start to honour myself and really make myself a focus, which is really different as a woman. Women coming together and connecting is the most powerful thing. When you get groups of women that are in different ages and stages in life and there's so much learning and just so much wisdom that comes from being with a group of women and I am just so grateful to be part of this group. It was just completely elevated the whole day. I've really had an amazing time at Heron Retreat.