By Tiffany Robinson
It’s so interesting — it’s actually a 20-year anniversary that has come sooner than I realized. Back in 2006, I had returned from nannying overseas and short-term work with a nonprofit. I was looking for my next steps in studying psychology and not finding any programs that deeply resonated with me.
Having worked at summer camps and retreat centres for years and having known how delicious it was to collaborate with others — designing cool programs for youth and spending time outdoors with like-minded people who celebrated values around connection, spiritual well-being, and the relationship to nature and spirit — it was such a natural fit to pursue working at Hollyhock, an educational retreat centre up in Desolation Sound on Cortes Island.
I was over the moon when I was offered a job and made the move there, where I ended up working for two seasons, and it changed my life forever for the better. My boss, the woman who hired me, ended up becoming a long-time friend and eventually my first meditation teacher, and later a colleague who I learned so much from.
I had been intensely interested in psychology and human motivations — why some people self-actualize and find their bliss, and why others struggle, unable to find a sense of purpose.
I had a real intuitive feeling that while my studies in psychology at university were valuable, there was something additional that I needed to explore in order to keep my learning going.
Working at Hollyhock, I knew I could be exposed to alternative healing modalities and ways of understanding mental health and spiritual development that weren’t necessarily available in the mainstream university courses I had been taking.
And I was right.
Upon moving to Cortes, my whole world opened up. I fell in love with the West Coast island lifestyle. The temperate rainforest atmosphere nurtured me in ways I had never experienced — it felt like spending time with an old friend that I couldn’t get enough of.
I loved long walks with friends, or often by myself, in local parks, just taking in the green ancient trees, rich mosses underfoot, and the soft steps of forest paths.
While all of this was going on, my boss was teaching Lightwork meditation classes and I was intrigued. I signed up, and overnight I was completely struck by the resonance of the tools.
I had been looking for so long for answers to questions about why I felt the way I did and how to connect with myself more deeply, and seemingly there it was. This clearly laid-out information, in a digestible form, was something I rapidly took to and embraced. I was so grateful to be finding relief from difficult emotions and challenges that had dogged me for years.
It was intuition and inner knowing that got me to move, and that same curiosity brought me to register for that class.
And I’m so glad I did.
Now, 20 years later, I find myself living on a different Gulf Island and loving it. Happily married and working for Lightwork full-time doing a job that I absolutely adore.
I can’t speak enough about the process of trusting your gut and going with it. I’m so glad that I did.
