Funny what captures people's imagination. I never thought to take a picture like this of our walk in pantry. I then shared it onto my Facebook page and started to write a quick post which soon lead onto one paragraph which lead to the next and eventuated into this blog post below. This often's happens to me I see something on social media and its inspires me to write in that very moment. I have found that if I think to myself I will write a blog about it later on at another time, more times than not it simply gets forgotten and I lose the momentum and inspiration of the moment as life moves on to the next thing that grabs my attention and interests.
So a big Kudos to Anna for seeding the inspiration of this blog post where I have being inspired to get read, raw and open with what has gifted me the DEEP DESIRE & DETERMINATION to follow my own path and discover what it takes to be balanced WELLNESS in BODY, MIND & SOUL.
Below I bare my heart, my soul, my inner child, my wise women and deep passion for discovering what it takes to live a lifestyle that supports and enhances and empowers wellness in a way I have not shared it before now.
The Healthy and Delicious Delights of Vibrant Living Walk in Pantry.
It was so much fun for both myself and my husband Steve to share our food lifestyle habits with them. We loved that they were so interested to learn and soak up everything about living a healthy lifestyle. One of there main reason, well in fact I recall it was there main reason for booking the 5 day retreat was to lose weight. The two ladies were great friends and had been getting into the habit of drinking alcohol sugary drinks during the day and take outs at night. Both were on anti-depressants and they came to a cross roads to want to make big sustainable changes. They like many had tried every diet there was going and every diet food only to discover the weight coming back on and nothing much really changing in the long run. It was in Dawn's daughter in-laws 1st time ever away without her children which meant it was the 1st time in over 16 yrs she had ever done something just for herself. They both admitted many times that they knew they had to do it together because if one did not change the other one would not be able to on there own. So they arrived very much open to what ever could help them lose weight and feel better about themselves.
So there I was with Dawn whom must have been in her 60's standing in our food pantry on day 3 of there Vibrant Living ~ Detox Wellness Retreat sharing with her our every day normal ingredients we use in our foods for cooking., most of which she had never heard of before. Her deep desire for a healthier and better lifestyle that supported weight lose had brought her to this place standing in my pantry and being completely open to that which would have seemed so strange and foreign and different to anything she had at home.
If only Dawn knew what a beautiful gift she was to me by standing there fully open to receive what ever I could share with her. She was in essence helping me fulfil what I consider to be my soulful purpose and passion at this time on earth. Which is to support people whom are at that place ready, willing and open to embrace there best versions of self, what ever that means for them. Generally it means caring enough for self to take the actions that support loving the self and that definitely means feeling good about the foods and drinks we put into out mouths, the way we feel about that feed when we are eating it and the way we feel about ourself after we have eaten it. All of this reflects on long lasting sustainable health and well being.
DISCOVERING THE DEEP DESIRE FOR WELLNESS.

After been brought up on a medical card system in Ireland where the doctor prescribed the pills & they were giving freely over the pharmacy counter with no financial exchange required. It was a completely foreign idea to invest my pounds into my health. Before long I realised all my $$$ that use to go into drinking & partying went into the health shops, alternative practitioners, wellness trainings & courses.
Investing in my health, in essence myself & true inner wealth of my being was the best decision I ever made. It was my health crisis & out of balanced lifestyles that finally pushed me into it and this is a common story known by many wellness enthusiasts today.
Over the years to follow it lead me to becoming a massage therapist, a energy intuitive and advanced yoga teacher. It lead me into the exploration of answering this Q: what creates real self empowered wellness in body mind , emotions & spirit ? !.
I feel so blessed to state I have not been to a medical doctor for anything health related in over 10 yrs. I continue to learn daily about the expansion of my own wellness, and I enjoy sharing all that I have learnt along my own personal Journey with others whom are interested in empowering themselves too with what I call the body mind spirit wellness toolkit.

Now with the gift of hindsight I am grateful for every step of my crazy wicked epic journey that has taken me to where I am today, I can see the value of every morsel of my human experiences both the intense challenges, the experience of extremes that took me way out of balance in different ways and at different time, and the immense opportunities that lead into personal growth, healing, expansion and transforming my perception of my empathic nature into a real super power of grace and awareness,
In essence over many years I have been discovering the ingredients for ultimate human empowerment, self healing & dynamic inner transformations in body, mind, emotions & spirit.
Part of the credit for my DEEP DESIRE & DETERMINATION for inner transformations has to go to my beautiful innocent mum whom demonstrated what life could be like if I followed her example of imbalance.
When I was 14yrs old, my mother died unexpectedly at age 34yrs from a heart attack brought on from a medication concoctions in a locked psychiatric hospital. She left 5 children behind and I was the eldest child.
It was in being witness to her struggles as a women , mother, wife & general human being as a young girl that gifted me the deep desire, determination & courage needed again and again to discover a different way; to take risks that pushed me way out of my comfort zones; to follow impulsive seemingly whimsical ideas lead by my heart much to the distraught of my mind & others at times; to be willing to fuck up; to surrender; to go beyond needing other people's permission. Many time I may seemingly have appeared to fail as I was learning & putting into practice the new wheels, ropes & mindset of my new life attitude with its new beliefs and patterns. I choose to embrace a new paradigm of living that is vastly different to that of which I was brought up with and this has opened up the path way home to a very different experience for myself, an experience that has lead to greater self empowerment , self esteem, self healing, self awakening, self compassion, self acceptance and eventually self love. I now have become aware and live by a very special formula and equaltion that is a far cry from the formula of my upbringing. This special equation may seem quite silly and idealist to some and a breath of fresh air to others.
The simply equation I have discovered through my own journey of healing for the last 19years can be distilled into this equation. It has the power to transform the self from imbalanced to balance, illness to health, from separation to wholeness, from lack to abundance ' SELF CARE OPENS THE DOOR TO SELF LOVE AND SELF LOVE OPENS THE DOOR TO DIVINE LOVE ~ UNITY '.

Love & light mum 💚💜💚 I know in my heart your spirit has been healing well since you left the earth plane. Thank you for helping me gain the knowledge, insight & wisdom my soul intended so that I could deeply and authentically have a understanding of what a life way out of balance could really feel like; the deep anguish and distortion of self esteem.
Thank you for gifting me your highly sensitive nature for I now know what I use to consider my BAIN in life is now my GAIN & SANE.
It was by being your child and feeling your pain around women hood that has helped lead me into discovering over these latter years just how much the feminine energy has been disregarded , undervalued and misunderstood for far too long on earth. For far too long I tried to disown my own feminine energies in order to be perceived more masculine strong by being strong for others and by stuffing my emotions in a vain attempt to avoid being rejected and hurt. Today I realised all I did was close my sensitive heart in an attempt to protect it and be safe in a harsh world that dishonoured the value, art, connectivity, flow and communication of feeling as emotions.
" Emotions is energy in motion ".
Last but not least thank you Eileen Flatley, my biological mother for helping me discover my true path and purpose on earth this lifetime, that lead me to walking firmly again and again on the ever expansive pathway of the healed healer and becoming a empowered conscious co-creator.
The pathway of the 'HEALED HEALER' has lead me home to opening to the inner awakening of divine love within my very own nature , a nature or consciousness that is inclusive of all and judges nothing for it is the essence state beyond the perceptions of duality good and bad, right & wrong.
By forgiving my past and accepting my true higher self, my inner pathway gifted me a deepening compassion for our humanity. For as we accept out true self, we realise that we have all come from the same source and all is ultimately one.

I remembered a moment of revelation growing up when I got this awareness that life is all about having experiences and that each one of us has our very own versions of our very own stories that we have interpreted via our personal experiences. AND my personal story has lead me to HERE to this moment of coming full circle in many ways returning home to the purity and brightness of my soul so that I naturally am of joyous divine service to a healed, harmonious & co-creative authentic world at this time. This really became apparent to me before I committed to taking over our property over 18 months ago to relaunch as Vibrant Living. I finally got to a place of being so transparent with my soulful self to realise that this is my truth at this time on earth.
I am firmly in my joyous services committed to 'BEING THE CHANGE I WANT TO SEE '
A world where natural health and well being is restored ; where children can grow into people centred in the value of self care and self love ; to wake up feeling good enough each day to look in the mirror and love what they see and see what they love.
A world that supports the values of heart centred living with deep caring and reverence for all life. A heavenly world where people are encouraged to maintain &/or discover how to feel ones inner connection with infinite grace and creative potentials within through the different life stages. AND most of all trust to thy inner self.
THE POWER OF SHARING OUR AUTHENTIC STORIES
If you have managed to read to here, thank you for taking in my written words. I trust that they find there perfect connection & resonance in your beautiful heart & soul. I truly hope that by me sharing my own story and words it will gift you your own courage to share your own stories and words with others. I have come to really understand the power of our own unique authentic stories. Each of us has a powerful story to share and it does not have to be dramatic. It can be the simply revelations and joys that come when standing looking at a sunset or listening to a baby sleep that can hold the greatest A-Ha's, wisdom and grace.
If my words have touched you, do let me know as this will assist my own motivation to keep writing which can waver between big waves of inspiration and nasty dips of self doubt.
Magical LOVE & Abundant BLESSINGS.

Mary Jo
Vibrant Living Co-Director
Wellness Retreat Facilitator
ATTC Yoga Instructor
Massage Therapist & Healer
aka . . . Vibrant Living Junkie