Oxford Diaries On aliveness, connection, community, and a new chapter for The Awakened Woman
I write this on the plane as I head back home from Oxford – reminiscing and reviewing the experience I have just had.
Was that a dream? Surely it was.
Everything about it – from the Harry Potter magic (and the eeriness of my college room that had me sleeping with a side lamp on! What age did it regress me to!?), the stone walls, pebble walkways, historic buildings and an academic institution that had me wanting to speak the Queen’s English with all its ‘poshness’ – confirms I was transported to a world outside of reality.
I sit in this plane seat humbled, full, and mostly with a feeling of aliveness I haven’t felt in some time.
To begin to unpack the experience feels somewhat an impossible task, that without being a poet, I doubt my words can describe what truly was a purely felt experience.
I’m not sure why, as I type this, I feel like Shakespeare (accent and all) writing his epilogue to a very old and marvellous playbook. But since I am still riding the wave of the dream, I shall continue to write it as so.
The choice to attend the Transform Trauma Conference was for many reasons – holding both personal and professional intention.
What I take home with me today, however, is far more than academia, the latest research and CPD points.
I take home a restoration in faith, humanity, the purpose of this work, community, connection, meaning, unity and love.
I had the privilege of brushing shoulders with giants of the mental health world – Gabor Maté, Daniel Siegel, Tara Swart, David Kessler, Prentis Hemphill, Bessel van der Kolk and Jack Kornfield – feeling my own upleveling as they imparted their expertise and deep knowledge.
But here is the caveat.
These weren’t simply world-renowned experts in the field heralding their superiority – instead, before my eyes, they revealed their most human form.
Each one led their lectures with story, authenticity and humanness – almost as if they had come full circle to realise that the purpose of life is to return to self in its purest form.
Drop the performance.
Drop the accolades.
Drop the outward success.
And return – to oneness, wholeness, realness, consciousness.
The theme of the conference was Science, the Body and Spirituality – where on this vast plain do they meet or bridge?
The truth is, perhaps they were never separate in the first place, but rather always connected as one – entering through different pathways yet meeting in consilience, a term Dan Siegel used to describe the coming together of knowledge across different fields.
Whether we enter through science, the body or spirituality, we so often find ourselves arriving at the same truths.
So yes, over the next few months I will excitedly bring the latest evidence-based modalities, science and expertise I gathered from the conference into my work with all of you beautiful humans – be it in my therapy room, workshops or online offerings.
And along with it, perhaps even more importantly, the spirit of consciousness, unity, integration and love.
The conference ended with a DJ healing session and a final gathering filled with poetry by Sukina Noor and music by Facesoul.
Experts to artists.
Academics to creatives.
Seeker to spirit.
All cried out the same consilience.
Connection. Meaning. Unity. Collaboration. Relationship. Community. Faith. Love.
And as I soak in the many beautiful conversations I have had over this week with strangers, peers, lecturers, artists, spiritual leaders and ordinary people, and hold their stories with joy and alongside the immense pain of human suffering, I hold up the lamp of Conscious Living.
To be a vessel towards contributing to a conscious evolution – a return to self, to source – and with that, a return to one another in community.
For all the ways we are more connected than ever, so many of us are profoundly lonely.
As Gabor Maté evocatively asked us:
Let’s connect, reach out to one another and come together.
We have never needed each other more than we do now.
Community is healing.
And perhaps that is why the timing of what I am bringing home feels so meaningful.
For some time, The Awakened Woman has been a journey experienced together in a room.
And now, for the first time, I am bringing The Awakened Woman Trilogy online.
Three Live Online Experiences. One journey.
Come Meet Yourself.
Come Know Yourself.
Come Home to Yourself.
Making this work available online means opening the doors wider – beyond geography, beyond borders – creating the possibility for women to enter this work from wherever they are, while still experiencing it live and together.
And after a week that reminded me so powerfully that transformation does not happen in isolation, that feels especially significant.
You can begin with one experience, journey through all three, or choose The Awakened Woman Journey – the full Trilogy together with three months inside The Awakened Woman Circle.
The doors are open. 🤍
Wake up to the life that’s already calling you.
EXPLORE THE AWAKENED WOMAN TRILOGY
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers you’ve built against it.”
Rumi
Consciously,
Bronwyn Russo
Clinical Psychologist
M.A. Clin. Psych. (Curtin University, Australia)
Updates and details can be found on the Conscious Living platforms below.
