TRIBE Tuesday: Fay and Tam

For this week’s TRIBE feature, I am very pleased to present two incredible women I had the pleasure of meeting in Bali last May. Dr. Fauziah Mohamed Yunus or “Fay” (or “Mom:)) as we came to know her, took my E-Course, followed by my in-person retreat in Bali. Tamara Laporte, or “Willowing,” as she is lovingly known to her online following, joined us in Bali as well.

Here are their beautiful stories.

FAY’S STORY

“Finding My Tribe”

When I got the email saying I had been accepted into the Bloom True Amed course last March I felt like I had won the lottery! As a single mum I had surrounded myself with work and had little time to really have fun, doing the things that I love to do. The last 18 years was mainly about making sure my three sons would be okay in Life. As they grew up and needed less of me, my sons started to encourage (actually I felt like I was being nagged!) to find something that I loved to do, something that inspired me, something that I enjoyed and…most importantly, was just for me.

My Tribe was made up of such diverse women from all over the world. They had different backgrounds, different cultures, different stories, they even sounded different with accents from around the world… each person was unique and, to the Heart Circle, each one brought the gift of their unique self. That week we spent together was filled with laughter and discovery. We not only painted together but we shared ourselves, listened deeply and accepted each others’ uniqueness as we got to know each other. We supported each other as we painted and what joy it was to have nothing else to do, nowhere else to go … just the space and time to do what we wanted to do. This was a most magical week in my Life which will always be a special memory for me…this was the week when I found my Tribe.

TAM’S STORY

“Learning to Let Go in Bali”

Bali (the first holiday on my own since having children (!) was like a little rebirth for me. Of course, for a large part this was about learning more about painting, but, as I said a few times on the retreat: I think I was there a lot more for the life lessons. For me it was deeply spiritual & emotional. I had some mega shifts happening for me related to childhood stuff and limited beliefs about myself.

Sharon, Tam, and Fay (image via willowing.org)

On one of the mornings Flora started to add imagery to her painting, before that, she’d been doing a lot of layering and mark-making which felt really uncomfortable to me (as it looked like it was all intuitive and as I said before: I like control and don’t trust my intuition much) so when she started adding imagery I could feel some kind of relief inside of me like aaaah, I know this, now ‘we’re getting somewhere’, and then: yay Flora started adding a portrait to the painting: aaaaah, great, I know this even better, this is great, I am feeling totally relieved now – and then all of a sudden BAM Flora starts to PAINT OVER THE PORTRAIT giving me a little mini stroke. Here I’m thinking ‘I’m finally safe’, but naha: she’s painting over it!!

So afterwards I asked her: “Why? why did you paint over the portrait?” She goes: “because I didn’t like it and I’m going with what I like.” So in that moment I said the group: “Ok, I will do a portrait today and set myself the challenge to ‘paint over it.’”

We were all walking around and checking out each other’s paintings here and there and people kept asking me: “so, are you gonna paint over it?” And I started to feel resistance coming up again, I had a nice portrait going, I spent quite some time on the detail and I really did NOT want to let go of it. I did not want to go over this portrait.

When we started our session the next morning, I took one look at the portrait and had not more interest in furthering it, I was COMPLETELY ready to let go and go over it. And so I did! I did! I did! That was basically incredible for me. I had worked hard on that portrait and really didn’t think I was going to let go, but I did. A major learning in there for me. It transformed into the below bird painting which I LOVE so much! 🙂

That’s just one example of a deep shift in me that happened there; I dared, was brave and learned to ‘let go’ 🙂 (I’m considering to tattoo ‘let go’ on my arm). More happened of course, we went snorkelling, had amazing food, chatted, laughed, visited some beautiful scenery, splashed in the pool, sang and so on and so forth.

So the experience was of that kind (for me); a lot of sharing with wonderful women, deep shifts happening, releasing old pain, transforming, learning to let go and surrender. Pretty magical and amazing!

It has also really helped me to finish off canvas paintings I’ve been stuck on for ages. I’m more daring, bolder and able to try out new things without being too attached to certain outcomes, colours or shapes. Since I’ve come back from Bali, I’ve finished and started between 6-10 canvases!!

Read Tam’s full blog post about her time in Bali on her 

blog: http://www.willowing.org/2014/07/29/learning-to-let-go-in-bali/

Do you have a TRIBE story to tell? Please share it with us!

TRIBE stands for: Tales + Reunions + Inspirations + Breakthroughs + Evolution.

TRIBE is a place for bloomers to share their stories, stay inspired and connect with each other. We imagine TRIBE will evolve and grow in exciting ways, but for now we simply welcome anyone who has ever taken a Bloom True class, either online or in person, to send your stories, inspirations and breakthroughs to us at: [email protected]. Please include TRIBE in the subject line of your email. Click here for more about TRIBE.

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xo flora