A little over a year ago, author, Niamh Ni Bhroin had scarcely begun writing her compelling memoir, The Singing Warrior. Today the book has become a business, an audio book, a music CD and a Kindle product and Niamh is helping others to spear their fears and realise their dreams.

This is a story of hope, of survival and of profound change. Niamh shares the secrets of how she dared to bare her soul on the page here in this, my fourth show at The WIN Online.

click here to listen

Do you ever have moments when suddenly everything you have ever done seems to converge into a wonderful whole?

I am fortunate in that it has happened to me several times.

Firstly, when my life abroad and persistent offering of articles to the Lloyds Bank Offshore Club magazine, Shoreline, led me to be invited to be the editor of a new magazine, called Woman Abroad.

Secondly, when the work I had done writing and speaking about how expat partners could have thriving portable careers, led me to be invited to be the closing keynote speaker at the  Families in Global Transition conference.

And thirdly, today, when my  recent journalism student, Linda Janssen, interviewed my recently published author, Niamh Ni Bhroin, of The Singing Warrior and that article was published by Sergios and the guys at IAMEXPAT. It’s all about connections. I connected Linda with Niamh and Sergios and voila, not only a super article, but the knowledge that Linda is well on her way to a fabulous career as a freelance writer. Amazingly, she only attended my article and blogging courses three months ago, and already her blog has won an award with Expat Arrivals (Linda is now writing for them too) and commissions are starting to come her way.

Niamh’s book is available on Amazon for Kindle any day now and at the ABC book center in The Hague. Her music CD is available via Kunaki and very soon her audio book (she is a fabulous performer) will be for sale too.

If you ever have days when you feel you are swimming upstream and that all your efforts are in vain, think of me. It took me 13 years as a freelance journalist to get the job at Woman Abroad. It took me 9 years as a portable career expert to be invited to do that keynote. Linda, however, has worked steadily and hard with tremendous focus and her journey took just three months.

It has taken two years for this day to arrive . . . two long years.

During this time I have developed a series of eight classes, each teaching students how to write their life stories and give them SPICE so that they live again for the reader and leap off the page. Two years during which I have tested every lesson, every handout, every extract and every exercise. It has taken six months to record it all too, so that students can choose whether to read their lessons in a workbook, listen to them on a CD or podcast, or both. Then, there was the video of a live workshop, run a year ago at the Xpat Archive in the Hague and finally the time it took to devise over 200 additional exercise, in the form of JustWrite Inspirational Stickers to ensure students stayed motivated after the program. The design and production took another five months but today, I am here. The Write Your Life Stories home study program has arrived. It can be taken with or without personal feedback, but, as the headline says – the first 50 to sign up will get one piece of homework critiqued absolutely free.

So, there you are. It’s ready. I’m relieved and excited and very thankful for the support I have received from The Xpat Archive, designers Kim Molyneaux and Creationbooth, editors Carolyn Vines and Linda March, Sam, Josh and Ian Parfitt, the recording engineers and all those students who agreed to have their work included in the program. Thank you all.

To find out more and have a free taste please click here to visit the Write Your Life Stories page in the Home Study section of this website.

STOP PRESS. ONLY 15 LEFT AT SPECIAL PRICE!!

I met Rose eight years ago at a conference in Brussels and just last week was delighted when her new CD, Instant Relaxation, landed in my post box. I have a number of similar tools for meditation and relaxation and thought this may well have been same old same old. I was wrong. It is stunning.

For one, Rose hired a professional to recite her words. Jan Vine‘s voice is simply perfect for the job. At once soothing and authoritative with a hypnotic quality. And the music, which was composed for Rose specially by a guy called Chris Gunning, who has won a BAFTA, is superb. The cover is beautiful too. Rose herself is a resident psychologist on BBC Radio Oxford, so all in all it is a star-studded cast and a top notch production.

The exercises are well-known, so no surprises there, but that’s the point. This is not a listen once and chuck away CD, it is designed to teach you how to meditate and relax so you can do it yourself. A cool concept, I have to say. If you want to know more please go to Rose’s site at www.mindexpert.com

If you want to

Moving frequently can be very stressful. I have just broken my foot and have my leg in plaster and have learned that NOT moving is stressful too. I decided to make the time to listen to some of my collection of meditation CDs to see if that helped. It did. So I would like to recommend some one may appeal to busy people like me.

Barbara Rogoski is a friend of mine who has realised that busy people feel too busy to meditate, however much they may need to. So she has made a CD of 10 minute Workplace Meditations. If you want a quick intro to this useful tool, I recommend this. Go to Authentic Matters for more details.