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About Araenia

I was a persistently curious and mentally-active child, always wanting to know what was going on around me. My curiosity got me into more than a little trouble from time to time. In fact, my grandmother often complained to my mother that I was nosey. I was always asking questions!

I never took anything for granted. I wanted to know how and why everything worked. While I was busy gathering data, my mind was joining the dots and coming up with a bigger picture and even more questions!

I loved school as a child. I had such a thirst for knowledge that I keenly lapped up as much information as I could. I wanted to know everything! If I came across something new, I would research until I understood it. I was constantly seeking understanding.

It was certainly a funny experience telling other people that you want to know everything! No-one seems to understand what that means. They would look at me sideways, possibly thinking I was trying to be a know-all.

I certainly had no interest in knowing other people’s personal business or the latest gossip, I just was curious beyond measure and wanted to know as much as possible about my wider environment.

If there was something I was unaware of, I had to find out all I could about it. I was always asking Why. Why is that thing there? Why is that person doing that? Why do I need to do this? It is strange to reflect on my early days and remember that the Oxford Dictionary was one of my favourite books to read!

My desire for learning urged me to find out how the world around me worked and to ponder in awe at the natural and human-constructed wonders of the universe. The Pyramids, the Aztecs, the Mayans and Incas, Extra-Terrestrials, World Explorers, the Middle Ages, the Black Death, the San Francisco earthquake, Easter Island, Eskimos and their igloos, the Antarctic, Space Exploration and so much more, all fascinated me along with other childhood dreams such as time travel, princess castles, fairytales and legends.

In fact, I had a fascination with fairies and nymphs. I saw them everywhere and talked to them. My biggest ambition as a child was to have a personal fairy to clean my room for me. As such an imaginative child living in my own little world, mundane tasks like cleaning my room and doing the dishes were incredibly boring.

I became fascinated with our cats and the birds, skinks, eels and frogs that were in our backyard, along with a multitude of insects, especially butterflies and dragonflies. I would make up stories in my head where I could live and co-exist with these little creatures. I would even make little homes in the garden for them. In my mind I was Dr Doolittle – I could talk to the animals. I even created special languages that I was convinced these animals would understand.

I was firmly convinced I could fly. I remember being so sure of the fact, that I fully expected to take off flapping my wings into the sky. As I launched myself into the air from my bed, I was gravely disappointed when this skill failed to materialise and I crashed to the ground.

I was always a quiet, shy and reserved child. In fact, many of my peers called me snobby. I never tried to be superior to others at all, I just really had no idea what to say, how to fit in, or how to interact confidently with others. Nothing I said seemed to come out right. I stumbled over my words and blushed, feeling like a fool. This all reinforced my need to avoid speaking out about my personal truth and my perception of the world, around other people.

I never wanted to do what everyone else at school did. I often found it boring and stupid. I preferred to dance to my own tune or the beat of my own drum. I loved to be expansive and wildly creative in my thinking. I relished the opportunity to think and philosophise with others who chose to look at the world in their own way. I especially valued those friends who could also go on flights of fantasy alongside me.

My love of travel began as a young child. The biggest highlight of every year, was neither my birthday nor festive celebrations, which were eagerly anticipated, but the yearly family camping holiday. Being out in nature, with so much freedom and new experiences, meeting tourists from all over the world, and visiting new locations in the North Island of New Zealand was right on the top of my childhood bucket list.

I always had a sense of knowing, feeling when things were nought right, and sometimes seeing vague images. As a young adult, when my family were involved in an accident, I knew something was wrong long before they could contact me. Years earlier, I would accurately predict when friends would be riding the bus to school even though we had nought made plans. In my early teenage years, I was referred to as an ‘Agony Aunt’ when a note I had passed to my friend offering suggestions about their personal situation was intercepted in class by one of the boys.

I always had friends, but being of a different disposition and mindset to most, I did find fitting in with the popular crowd at school to be a challenge. This encouraged me to become a school teacher where I could impart my love of learning with the children in my care, but also to champion the underdog by setting up a community of inclusion, where everyone was valued and welcomed.

In due course, my thirst for knowledge led me to study further, taking on part time study at university, whilst teaching, raising a young family and running our design company. How I did it all, I have no idea!!. I first studied for my Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Anthropology and Archaeology, followed by a Masters in Literacy Education. It took 13 years of part time study to complete the qualifications, but I loved it and was glad I had finally achieved my goal.

Throughout it all, my natural curiosity developed towards the healing power of plants and herbs. I grew and experimented with cuttings and pollination, just like my grandfather had done. I became fascinated with naturopathic, homeopathic, reflexology, and flower essence modalities as well as natural childbirth, having had quite a challenging experience with the birth of my first child. This led me towards energy healing methods later in life.

By the time I was in my mid-thirties, I had grown tired of the mundane material world with all its karmic drama and set upon a mission to ‘Be the Best ME, I Can Be’. I read self-help books voraciously and went inwards seeking answers on how to live a more authentic fulfilling life based on the unique role I had come to Earth to experience. My horizons expanded further as I then explored the power of the mind and how it could create illness, misfortune and limitations, as well as wellness, manifestation, and opportunity.

I have never regretted my journey. Certainly, at times it has been very challenging, but the lessons from the difficult times have a way of turning up again as guidance to bring me through the next stage in life, and for this I am eternally grateful. What I am discovering now, is that every experience I had along the pathway of my life, is in some way returning for me to pull it all together in a cohesive whole, guiding me forward into the next stage of my life. Finally, I can see the point in learning some of those lessons and why I had to experience life the way I did.

Experience is a great teacher, but having the ability to reflect inwards about our own path in life brings a richness to understanding why we are here in the first place. Finally, I am beginning to understand my place in the wider Universe and what I came to Earth to experience!!

Araenia's Philosophy

By the time I was nine months old, my parents knew there was something wrong with my left foot. I was unable to stand and walk properly as my foot kept turning inwards. I spent the next 4 years right up until I started school receiving treatment and wearing a metal brace on my leg to bring my foot back into position. Thanks to my mother’s diligence, my leg was corrected and the caliper removed earlier than expected. For this I am so thankful!

However, in other medical situations I was nought so fortunate. I was plagued with respiratory complaints and undiagnosed asthma as a small child, struggling to run and play with the other children. Sports days were like torture for me. I just could nought cope physically. I imagine this is what pushed me further into my intuition and curiosity where I had no physical limitations.

Further medical situations simply compounded the frustration I felt resulting from years of inaccurate diagnosis and unsuitable medical treatment. This really made me look at how I chose to live my life and why I was becoming sick in the first place.

My physical body has been a source of great annoyance to me over the years, but it was only in more recent times that I realised the physical ailments that were nagging at me constantly, were providing me with the information I needed to make the necessary changes in my thinking.

Through my own experiences, and those of my clients, I have come to the realisation that everything that happens in the physical body has started as a concept within. It is our thoughts, emotions, conditioning, and beliefs which are at the core of the discord and misalignment in our bodies.

As I was confronted by the realisation that in some subconscious internal way I had created these situations in my body, I realised that I could also change this situation from within. It had to be subconscious thinking because at a conscious level, there was no way I would wish these things upon myself. At times, I was aware that I had a pattern for something and that I could make myself sick to get out of an unwanted situation. I began to realise that the power of the mind was immense in manifesting.

The realisation that I was making myself sick hit me hard. Having been so frustrated with my physicality, I wondered how I could have done this to myself. This led me to wonder what else I had been creating in my own life.

According to my perception, we are all here in this lifetime for a specific purpose. We have lived many lifetimes previously and may live many more. Each time we incarnate into a new lifetime, we come with a unique mission that only we can fulfill. Although others may have a similarly aligned mission, we are the only one with our exact set of circumstances, experience, patterning and past wisdom – therefore our journey is unique.

I wondered why I was on Earth at this time and what I was supposed to be learning and doing with my time here. I also wondered who I truly was beneath all the conditioning and expectation that had been put onto me by myself and others. I realised that we easily slot into a life of conformity and the Acceptable Self – the life where we do whatever we can to fit in.

When I dug below the surface level, I came to understand that this is far more common than we realise. We often think we are being true to ourselves, but when we explore where our ideas come from, we can see how much conditioning has impacted us.

My focus then turned to the Authentic Self. At first, I thought this was a bit like digging for gold. If I did enough shadow work and cleared enough of my ‘baggage’ and limiting beliefs, I would finally find my shiny Authentic Self waiting for me. This thinking was understandable, but also naïve. Instead, I found that the more we worked towards being Authentic, the more the goal posts changed.

Our Authentic Self is dynamic. It is always growing and never static. It grows every time we learn something new or realise something about ourselves that we had nought seen before. The more we clear our limiting beliefs, the more we glimpse the potential that lies beneath our surface lives. Sometimes, this is considerably different to what we expected. I came to realise that at the deepest levels, we really do nought know ourselves. There is always something new to discover and uncover.

I turned my focus to relationships. I realised that to create a sacred relationship with another person, I first had to have a sacred relationship with myself. A growing relationship might work, but only if we were on the same page and growing towards each other in understanding, rather than growing in different directions, finally creating separation.

I considered my own pathway through life and what it had taken to rise above the many challenges and traumas I had experienced to get to this point. I am no different from anyone else in this regard, except that when those situations struck, I chose to use them as life lessons, ways of moving forward into the best version of myself possible. Although some of those experiences knocked me around considerably, some of them for extended periods of time, I refused to give in to them and let them overcome me. With what I considered to be the Courage and Strength of a Lion, I confronted each and every one of them consistently until I finally prevailed.

This led me towards the concept of Lion-Heart Wisdom. It is the philosophy that underpins how I live my life.

Lion-Heart Wisdom is a Life Paradigm, which encourages us to pursue a balanced, whole-hearted Life of Purpose. It encompasses knowing what is right for us, integrating the power of our multi-levelled minds, standing up for what we believe in and speaking out about what is important to us, even though there may be seemingly insurmountable challenges ahead. Lion-Heart Wisdom reflects a paramount evolution of development throughout all our lifetimes.

As our Lion-Heart Wisdom develops, we realise that everything that happens to us in our lives is orchestrated by our subconscious mind patterning. Our Lion-Heart Wisdom identifies these patterns, then clears them from our subconscious thinking, so that we can live a life of Free Choice. The speed of change and manifestation in our lives can be rapid when we clear our inner blocks. I have seen this time and time again in myself and with my clients. Our lives can turn around dramatically when we start clearing what holds us back.

When we live through our Lion-Heart, we are driven to pursue our dreams; it is more than wanting to achieve, it is more like we have little choice in the matter. It appears that we are guided forward by something greater than our obvious, exterior selves. It is an inner urging that propels us forward, rather than the controlling mechanism of our ego-driven mind layer. It is more than the Ego; it is our Soul’s guidance shining forth.

Those living the pathway of the Lion-Heart are particularly curious and expansive in their perceptions. They have an awareness of life and the world around them that is wide, inclusive and all-encompassing. They want to be seen and heard authentically, and they exhibit a balanced ‘live and let live’ attitude. Although they are independent, they love to co-create with like-minded souls, creating fulfilling close relationships and exhilarating networks.

As Lion-Hearts, we learn to move through our Heart Hurts, so that we can flourish on the other side of our pain. We discover that our external reality is merely a reflective mirror of what we are projecting or attracting from the inside. All our life experiences happen from the inside out, starting deep within us, even though we usually believe otherwise. It is so much easier to blame someone or something else for our misfortunes than it is to look within, to the source of the issue.

Since choosing to exclusively live a Soul-guided, Heart-centred life over 15 years ago, my life has expanded considerably. It is a life of authenticity and exploration, of curiosity and purpose, of divinity and opportunity, but most of all it is a life that honours me and reflects the truth of who I am. It is a life that continues to grow and emerge, constantly dynamic, exciting and adventurous at the same time. All in all, it is a life of inner peace, joy and wisdom.

Araenia's Perspective

"The most important relationship you will ever have is the one that you have with yourself."

"All illness and injury stems from emotions, thoughts, conditioning and beliefs. It is an inside job!"

"Your greatest treasure is never found in your Light. It is found in the depths of your shadow, so let's get digging!"

"You can either be your Authentic Self, which grows the more you understand yourself; or you can be your Acceptable Self, which focuses on pleasing others and living up to their expectations of you."

"It is nought what you learn in life, but how you go about learning and what you do with the learning once you have found it."

"Truth is only perception. My truth reflects how I perceive life based on my perspective, experiences and responses. Your truth reflects you. We can never have the same truth, just agreed upon facts."

"Living our life with courage and the strength to confront ourselves, our actions, thoughts and motivations is living authentically and true to ourselves. I call this Lion-Heart Wisdom."

"Living a soul-guided life is a co-creation between yourself and your internal guidance. Your opportunities are never handed to you on a plate, you must take action where you are guided, in order to reap the rewards."

"You are what you make of yourself - you can choose to make the most of what you have with a smile on your face; or you can focus on what you lack and wear a frown."

"There is a big difference between our conscious wants and our soul needs. The Soul always knows what is in our best interests and will manifest the perfect life for us if we get out of our own way and let it."

"Healing is a multi-layered process - you must listen to your soul guidance, clear the emotional blocks and limitations and take action at a physical level to bring your healing into reality."

"Negative thoughts, emotions and actions bring about negative manifestations. To change your life for the better, you need to focus on positive thoughts, emotions and actions, no matter how small those first steps are."

In our many past lives, we have been everything - so when we are biased or intolerant of others people's differences, we are denying a part of ourselves."

"The way to inner harmony and peace, personally and globally, is through inclusion and co-creation."

"When life is challenging, gift yourself the 'grace of space' and feel your way into each day."