When I was in my 30s, I was a food and nutrition evangelist. I’d had such health problems and changing my diet and way of eating transformed my health so I wanted everyone to experience it. I also had really strong beliefs about nutrition for conception, pregnancy and breastfeeding. So I really used to rave on to people at every opportunity and their eyes would glaze over.
One day I realised that I might have better success at converting people if I stopped preaching and just lived by example. And I remember so vividly the day when a friend of mine said, “Your kids are healthy. I want to know what you’re doing. Can you teach me?” And sure enough, people started to ask me to help them with their family’s diets.
These days I’m much more into psychology, personal growth and in particular Compassionate Communication, and I remember the experiences of my foodie days. So my philosophy is to always try to be a lantern not a torch.
You see, you hold up a lantern to illuminate the area around you and people can choose their own path with your help. It’s simply an invitation and gentle guidance. A torch, on the other hand, directs people to follow a particular path. By torchlight, there’s only one way to get to the destination. By lantern light, there are many.
In my sharing of Compassionate Communication and tools for cultivating kindness and self compassion, I now simply invite people to spend time with me whether that be in person or online and I try to support them to find their own inner wisdom by sharing the tools that have so beautifully transformed my life.