My Journey into the World of Wellness and Fitness
Updated: Jul 21
A Life Steeped in Athletics
My journey into wellness and business didn’t begin with a marketing plan.
It began with movement.
For as long as I can remember, I have been an athlete. I competed in harriers, athletics and cross-country, broke track records and had the privilege of being coached by New Zealand Olympian Sylvia Potts.
Running was also a family affair.
My dad and I would run together most evenings after he finished work. Those runs strengthened more than my body—they created a close bond between us and taught me about discipline, commitment and the value of consistently showing up.
My dad coached rugby and supported other runners, so fitness was never treated as a temporary programme in our home. It was simply part of life.
Those early experiences planted the seeds for everything I do today.
Movement as Medicine
Movement has never been only about physical appearance.
Throughout my life, it has been one of the tools I’ve used to support my mental and emotional wellbeing. Running helped me process difficult emotions, release tension and reconnect with myself during challenging periods.
When life felt heavy, movement gave that energy somewhere to go.
It helped me develop resilience and reminded me that even when I couldn’t control everything happening around me, I could still take positive action for myself.
Alongside running, I loved snowboarding and martial arts. Both challenged me in different ways, developing my coordination, strength, reflexes and confidence.
As I became older, I continued discovering what my body was capable of. I could still keep pace with—and sometimes outperform—people much younger than me, including during an army course.
These experiences reinforced a belief that continues to guide me:
Age doesn’t have to determine our potential.
Turning Passion Into Professional Knowledge
In 2006, I decided to build professional knowledge around the passion that had shaped so much of my life. I completed a Diploma in Recreation and Sport, studying areas including group and individual fitness, nutrition, anatomy and physiology.
I loved understanding how the body worked and how movement could be used intentionally to support strength, health and quality of life.
The 2008 recession changed the direction I initially expected to take, but sometimes a change in direction introduces us to another part of our purpose.
Around this time, I trained in massage therapy and established my first business, Body Awareness.
The Beginning of Body Awareness
Body Awareness grew organically from my belief that the body is constantly communicating with us.
When we learn to pay attention, we begin noticing the signals we may have previously ignored: tension, fatigue, pain, digestive changes, shallow breathing or a sense that something isn’t right.
These signals aren’t always problems to suppress. They can be invitations to slow down, become curious and consider what we need.
Our bodies may be affected by what we eat, how we move, the quality of our sleep, the stress we carry and the way we speak to ourselves.
I chose the name Body Awareness because I wanted people to develop a deeper relationship with their bodies—not only seek support when something hurt.
Over time, my understanding expanded. Physical wellbeing couldn’t be separated from mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Body Awareness evolved into Mind Body Soul Awareness as my work and my own life began exploring that connection more deeply.
Bringing Social Work and Wellness Together
My journey also led me into social work.
Through completing my Bachelor of Applied Social Science in Social Work and working alongside individuals, children and families, I gained a deeper understanding of trauma, relationships, adversity and the systems that influence people’s lives.
Social work strengthened my commitment to person-centred, strengths-based practice.
It taught me that people don’t need to be rescued. They need to be heard, respected and supported to recognise their own strengths, choices and capacity for change.
It also showed me that wellbeing cannot be viewed through one narrow lens.
We are shaped by our bodies, thoughts, relationships, environments, histories and access to resources. Supporting one part while ignoring all the others can leave the deeper need untouched.
This understanding became an important foundation for the holistic work I would later create.
A Turning Point: Fire, Cyclone and Trauma
Then life changed again.
I lost my home in a fire—an experience that altered the course of my life.
Years later, Cyclone Gabrielle brought further devastation, forcing me to rebuild once more.
Experiences like these strip life back. They reveal what matters, what no longer works and how deeply prolonged stress can affect the body and mind.
I began understanding resilience in a different way.
Resilience wasn’t about remaining unaffected or endlessly pushing through. It was about learning when to act, when to rest and how to reconnect with myself after everything had been disrupted.
Rebuilding physical structures was only one part of the process.
I was also rebuilding myself.
Living With the Effects of Traumatic Brain Injuries
Alongside these experiences, I was navigating the long-term effects of multiple traumatic brain injuries.
The effects were physical, cognitive and emotional. They forced me to slow down and become more aware of light, noise, movement, stress and the amount of stimulation my system could tolerate.
This wasn’t knowledge learned only through a textbook. I experienced what overwhelm and recovery could feel like within my own body.
I learned that healing cannot always be forced.
Sometimes it requires stillness, patience, nature and a willingness to listen. What appears unproductive from the outside may be exactly what the body and brain need.
These experiences deepened my understanding of the mind–body connection and continue to shape how I approach wellbeing today.
Breath, Meditation and Nervous-System Regulation
As I rebuilt my life, I turned inward.
I began exploring meditation, breathwork, mindfulness and time in nature as tools for finding calm within chaos.
These practices helped me notice what was happening within my body before I became completely overwhelmed. They allowed me to slow my breathing, return to the present and respond with greater awareness.
After the cyclone, I began learning about somatic approaches, and many of the pieces started coming together.
Somatic work focuses on noticing physical sensations and understanding how stress and past experiences may influence the way we feel and respond. Through safe movement, breathing and awareness, we can develop a stronger connection with our bodies and expand our capacity to remain present.
For me, this became an important part of the soul work.
It wasn’t about escaping the body or thinking my way out of every feeling. It was about returning to the body with curiosity, compassion and trust.
Discovering Natural Bodybuilding
Bodybuilding became another major chapter in my journey.
At first, I wasn’t chasing a stage, medals or external recognition. I was focused on becoming healthier, stronger and more intentional about how I cared for myself.
Natural bodybuilding brought together many of the principles I had carried throughout my life: discipline, movement, nutrition, mindset and consistency.
It gave me a meaningful goal while I continued rebuilding after loss and trauma.
The process taught me how much can change when we stop looking for quick fixes and begin practising simple, strategic habits consistently.
I went from training privately to standing onstage in my 40s, winning medals in Fitness and Sports Model categories and representing Aotearoa internationally.
From gumboots to stage and paddock to podium, bodybuilding became another way of flipping the script on ageing and demonstrating what remains possible when we refuse to place an expiry date on ourselves.
Mind Body Soul Unleashed: Integrating a Lifetime
Today, that journey has become Mind Body Soul Unleashed.
It is both a physical and online wellbeing business centred around mindset, nutrition, movement, coaching and trauma-aware support.
Mind Body Soul Unleashed is not based on one qualification, experience or method. It represents the integration of everything I have lived, studied, practised and embodied.
It brings together:
A lifetime of athletics and movement
Professional training in recreation, sport and massage
My social work knowledge and strengths-based approach
Personal experience of trauma, loss and rebuilding
Mindfulness, breathwork and nervous-system regulation
Nutrition, resistance training and natural bodybuilding
A deep connection with nature and sustainable living
These parts are not separate.
The mind influences the body. The body communicates with the mind. Our sense of meaning, purpose and connection affects how we experience both.
Lasting wellbeing requires us to consider the whole person.
More Than a Business
Mind Body Soul Unleashed is more than a business.
It is the expression of a lifetime of resilience, learning and rediscovery.
It grew from the athlete who discovered freedom through movement, the massage therapist who learned to listen to the body, the social worker who saw the strengths within people, and the woman who rebuilt after trauma, fire and flood.
Every chapter contributed something.
Even the experiences I never would have chosen taught me more about healing, resilience and the importance of creating a life that genuinely supports us.
My purpose now is to use what I have learned to help others reconnect with their own strength.
Not by telling them who they should become, but by helping them uncover what has been within them all along.
Because transformation isn’t about becoming someone else.
It is about nourishing the mind, strengthening the body, reconnecting with the soul—and unleashing the person waiting beneath everything life has placed upon you.
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