Comments about how contact with the Life Foundation has benefited lifestyle issues.

After 26 years of marriage, I have recently gone through a separation which has been particulary difficult and distressing.

My Life Foundation friends have been like a rock. As a professional myself, I admire true professionals, and the help I have received from them has always been entirely appropriate, sensitive, discreet and confidential. The Life Foundation has helped me to find the strength and determination within myself to meet life's many challenges.

During my time of crisis, my Life Foundation friends have always encouraged me to be independent, and focus on the needs of my children, showing me practical ways in which I could lift myself from the emotional morass, so that I could do just that.

Never have I, nor any of the many people I know who are associated with the Foundation, been encouraged to become dependent in any way on anyone. In fact this would be entirely contrary to the ethos of the Life Foundation, which shows that true happiness, joy, and peace are to be found within ourselves - and do not come from reliance on any individual or organisation. It is a journey of self discovery which is unique to each individual. The Life Foundation does not foster dependency or neediness but promotes self reliance, empowering people to discover their own individual qualities, and to follow their own path.

The Life Foundation provides a remarkable open place. I have met people there from many countries, of all faiths and none; all of whom are equally respected, and find an environment where we can discover our common humanity - and inspire each other with that which inspires us most from our own traditions. People who attend Life Foundation courses rediscover those fundamental values which unite people everywhere - kindness, friendship, generosity, fun and laughter. Values which are so often lost in the fast pace of everyday living.

I have benefited greatly from the Dru Yoga - which has given me far more energy now, as I approach 50, than I ever had in my 20s. But most of all I am grateful to my Life Foundation friends who have empowered me to rise from a personal crisis where I could so easily have become bitter, angry, and resentful, to a point where I can forgive, enabling me to form a friendship with my previous partner which greatly benefits our children. Their wisdom has helped me to move from a place of sadness and distress to a point where I can be at peace with my world, let go of regrets and look forward to the future with real enthusiasm.

PW

(Pauline works for a local authority children’s services department in a
managerial capacity)