Brin D'Amor crew

When my alarm went off at 4:30am on Friday 22 May I knew I was about to embark on adventure that would have a profound and lasting impact on my life. Was I right? Absolutely!

10 days in Costa Rica in the province of Guanacaste with 14 entrepreneurs from all over North America, brought together for a Livin’ Large vacation in the magical setting of the private property of Brin D’Amor (translated means `Share the love’).

Thanks to an invite from my good friend and talented CEO, Mike Tan, I somehow managed to join this incredible crew who between them have challenged conventional education, run one or several successful businesses, are published authors, professional speakers, real estate gurus, investment experts and more – and all while in their 20s!

The days were filled with intelligent and stimulating conversation, visionary discussions, mind expanding conversation, lofty ideals, spiritual awakenings, mastermind group discussions, the Pachamama Alliance Symposium and naturally a whole heap of fun.

When we weren’t discussing how to change the world for the better by inviting the leaders of tomorrow to the Brin D’Amor Academy of the future we were undertaking a variety of activities.

What could be better than jumping from the natural waterfalls, practicing yoga poolside with the talented Jessica, riding horses all over the 160+ acres of land, enduring 2 hours of intense heat in a sweat lodge that bonded us all together, surfing in the warm waters at sunset, flying down a waterslide set in the jungle, covering ourselves in thermal mud at a spa and geting caught in a torrential downpour and thunderstorm whilst out on a boat.

Boat trip around peninsula

Key highlights were definitely:

• Mike getting bitten by a Boa snake hiding in our room on the first night and his super calm response, getting shat on by a bird, and having his horse’s bridle come off as it ran off with him atop into the trees!
• Several of us getting stung by wasps when we disturbed their nest by jumping off the waterfall and side of the cliff including a sting to Darren’s eyelid!
• Adil flying off his horse rodeo style as it ran out of control into the pack, coupled with galloping sessions with saddles coming loose and riders hanging on for dear life
• Smashing my shin up on submerged rocks when running into the sea followed by catching managing to catch my first ever wave and standing up
• A hilarious and intense game of Beach ultimate with the boys who couldn’t necessarily throw or catch but were super competitive
• Salsa dancing with Micah and Aaron who enlisted any local lady who could shake her booty and poolside dancing lessons for the boys
• Falling through a yoga platform to add to my war wounds
• Everyone getting great feedback from their rocks during our rock reading….
• The various jungle life that kept us on our feet including monkeys, snakes, lizards, biting fish, wasps, nasty red ants, butterflies, giant moths and huge toads
• The incredible fresh and sumptuous feasts from breakfast through to dinner provided by the awesome caterers

I can’t really do this trip justice here, or just how lucky I feel to have been art of this journey and make connections with these extraordinary souls. All I know is this was a trip of a lifetime and one that shall never be forgotten.

Today people around the world are doing their bit by taking meaningful action to show they care for the future of our earth.

I bought a bicycle last week which means I’m cycling to work, sports practice, the gym, to friends, and I love the freedom I now have in the city. I feel I’ve got a fairly small footprint too.

I usually grab a lift with my generous friends if going further distances and they seem very conscious of car pooling.

I attempt to take my reuseable`green bags’ when I visit the supermarket, I recycle, I switch all lights off when not using them, I aim to use less water when washing up and avoid excessive toilet flushing….

Zara & I use green products for cleaning at home that are organic, and I reuse plastic bottles as my drink bottle until they’re well and truly worn.

Nothing mind blowing but every little action counts. And it needs too especially when you look at this picture above and the amount of waste that the world produces!

So today, if there’s 3 things you should attempt to do from each day on they are:

REUSE - make art out of egg cartons and use glass jars for holding pens
REDUCE – the amount of packaging you purchase and use reuseable containers or cloth bags
RECYCLE – what you can and ensure you inspire others do too the same

Finally the other exciting thing about today is that I’ve successfully exported my blog over from Blogger to WordPress as you can see, as well as bought my own name as a domain so now it’s super easy to find me because it’s just nataliesisson.com

I’ll be changing the look and feel of this blog over the next week or so as I become more adept at it.

Thanks for visiting!