How my life story shaped my method & work.
My life story fueled and shaped the way I live and work as a transformational mentor. It is the heart and soul off my 7-pillar TAKE YOU TIME-method.
My life story fueled and shaped the way I coach and help career driven women to eliminate the self-imposed stress, press PAUSE and RESET so their mental health, physical health and relationships can flourish. A holistic transformation from a life without self-care leading to exhaustion, health problems, weight issues, lack of energy to a life where they finally come first. I believe that self-care is the key to lasting health, wealth and happiness.
I walked the same road. I cannot tell my story of how I became a transformational mentor without going back to my childhood.
My childhood.
I grew up being a happy, energetic, always busy kid in the countryside inspired by a deep love of nature, healthy, natural food and the healing power of plants and nature. Ballet classes and devouring books were also on the agenda. I was fortunate to grow up in a semi-selfsufficient farmhouse which my mom, a gifted pianist and my dad, a dentist, bought and restored from the ground up. I felt truly at home there walking for miles in the meadows, building camps in the nearby forest and taking care of my little garden, our animals and the little house my dad made for us in one of the sheds where I started making my first food, creating herbal soaps and brewing magical herbal potions which luckily back then I didn’t sell to anyone. I genuinly enjoyed taking care of plants, animals and also people as I was always the one helping friends in need. I saw how I could make things better for them. I saw a solution, a beautiful life where they were stuck. My mom already warned me: ” be careful, love or you will burn yourself up always taking care of others first”. Of course I didn’t listen.
How dancing created my method for exercise.
During puberty I continued my passion for classical ballet, training at least 5 times a week while combining this with Latin-Modern languages in school, being the lead singer in a band, socially and politically active, babysitting and cleaning to get some extra cash. In ballet I learned how my body worked, how to create a lean, strong body and how to present myself with good posture on stage. I also experimented with other techniques like Callanetics, Pilates, Martha Graham style, jazz ballet, running and weight lifting. Later in life, struggling with lower back problems, I added exercises to heal my back and restore mobility. Being active was in my nature. Moving cleared my head. And so it does with my clients.
Study & First Business
I eventually went to university and got my master’s degree in Political and Social sciences majoring in public administration… I thought I was going to change the world. As a hobby I started reading everything I could on healthy living and cooking as during college I gained quite a few pounds as my way of living changed.
My master’s degree didn’t turn into an instant career in public administration which would have been the most obvious and logical thing to do. Instead I bought a renowned health food restaurant at the age of 24. That’s where my passion for healthy living, food and also helping and serving people started to take shape. I worked hard 6,5 days a week for 6 years. Halfway I got pregnant and gave birth to my daughter Gina. Motherhood changed me but also burned me out. I was burning the candle at both sides taking no maternity leave and working myself to the bone: literally. I lost way too much weight (don’t envy me for that as I felt exhausted and my brain was clouded), developed a series of health problems and worst of all: I lost about 30% of my once beautiful long hair. Something had to give and I eventually sold my business to try a different lifestyle. I started listening…
"Allow yourself the freedom to explore Who You are. It is in these moments that you truly Make that transition and thrive."
Starting to listen to ME
I transitioned into health food catering, cooking shows, writing recipes for health magazines and dieticians. l had more time to also dive deep into my health problems which were more serious than I thought they were. Yet, I kept on working. After all, entrepreneurs and ambitious women don’t give up, don’t they? Just until that final crash where I decided that it was time to take a break. I accepted a job at a major city being a project leader for a variety of European Commission funded projects which required a lot of travelling but at the same time gave me the comfort of a steady job, having weekends and opened my view to the world. I learned a lot from working in a large organization (+5k employees) and in politics. In the meantime, I continued to study on health and nutrition and writing as a food writer and hosting healthy food workshops. I also found out that being in a sedentary job, seated almost all day had its impact on my body. I gradually gained quite some pounds, never being fat but still not at all what my body was like before. My body looked flabby and not at all toned. I wanted to do something about it and I started looking for ways to get more activity into my day and developed micro-exercises to perform at my desk and during hour long meetings. It worked. I was on to something.
But once an entrepreneur… I loved my job, but I felt something was missing. I was good at my job but it wasn’t what my life was meant to be for me. I quit my job and took a leap of faith to start a new business not quite sure what it was going to be. (typical for a Manifestor/Initiator in Human Design which I later found out studying Quantum Human Design)
TAKE YOU TIME METHOD WAS BORN
The book became a product line starting with a high-end handmade hairbrush collection and further shaped my healthy living coaching practice. Running two businesses with passion made me forget again to take care of myself. I also felt horribly guilty that I wasn’t a good mom being an entrepreneur.
I wrote a book about my health problems and my hair loss and one of the chapters I intuitively named: “Take You Time” which planted the first seed for my method on self-care which was one of the reasons for my health problems and hair loss. I was on to something. And this time I was going to LISTEN. I had to work with ME and who I truly was. That’s where everything fell into place. My true self discovered I could also make progress in business.
Shortly after my book and my product line were out in the world my beloved mom suddenly got ill. It turned out she had a very advanced form of cancer. She died 3 weeks later. At the same time also, my marriage came to an end after a couple of years of ‘trying’ to make it work in a Living Together Apart situation. That year turned out to be my worst year ever where I had all major life events in a short period of time. I buried my mom and my marriage, I sold my beautiful house and at the same time had to clear and sell my mom’s house where I grew up. On top of that my business wasn’t doing that well in the beginning. This time I knew I had to listen, but I thought I could keep on going for a while. I was wrong… I completely burned myself out and compromised my health. I remember bursting into tears one day on a work-related occasion, I had never been so unprofessional. This time I had to press PAUSE for real and the pandemic forced me to stop. It was financially the worse time ever but at the same time the best time to completely RESET. This time I was going to hold on to my promise with regular PAUSE and RESET moments. Because, yes, I too need to remind myself to do that to thrive.
Let's press pause together
A method by the name TAKE YOU TIME™ was born. A 7-pillar method for holistic wellbeing founded on self-care using Quantum Human Design™. I believe that self-care is the foundation of good health, wealth, a thriving business, healthy weight and happiness. It’s the method I developed for myself finding an easily flowing balance between physical and mental health and pursuing my career. My practice flourished over the years. And I got married for the second time in 2023. Six months later my newly wed husband suddenly passed away. I know about the curveballs life throws us… I understand you.
What I found is that many high achieving women are just like me… succesfull on paper but inside they’ve reached their breaking point feeling depressed, unfulfilled and too overwhelmed to do anything about it. Things happen in life and we keep on working…
Coping by numbing ourselves with work, mindless activities, shallow relationships, and in some instances overindulging in food, alcohol and drugs/medication to fill the void.
I know that there is more to life than work: if we are out of balance we crave higher energy levels, feeling good in our skin and nurturing deep connections but we are feeling discouraged because our plate is already full and the last thing we need is an extra “TO DO” on our list.
I used to think that in order to get results, I needed to follow the “traditional” self-care advice and do MORE… more exercise, more pills, more dieting. Nothing is further from the truth!
I work way less than before, my business is thriving and flowing with ease. I enjoy every single day. No more pushing myself to the limit. And the funny thing is my life is better in all areas. Higher levels of productivity, better health, a relaxed mind, healthy weight with ease, …
It all started with taking care of me. It started with knowing my true self through Quantum Human Design.
It all starts with YOU too.
This is how you can press PAUSE and then RESET with me. Don’t worry if you don’t know where those buttons are. I’ll know where to find them and we will press them together… for good.