Since I was a young girl I have hoped that rural Australia, a place that I am, would be a thriving, healing, evolving place full of people who are blooming where they are planted. Though my expression of this desire may have been slightly different through my decades, everything I’ve ever done in life, in business and in community contribution has been to fulfil this desire..in others.

At my lowest ebb though, I realised this wasn’t going to work and that in order to even hold true to that vision and make any impact at all, I realised I had to become a thriving, healing, evolving person myself.

I recognised that, in order to affect the change I was desperate to see, I had to take Ghandi’s advice and ‘be the change I wanted to see the in the world’.

And so I did. I threw everything at my own thriving, healing, evolving journey.

I gave up the notion of ‘selfish’  and put my own needs first, knowing that if I didn’t wear the oxygen mask before placing it on others, I couldn’t help them and none of us would bloom.

What emerged was THE Rural Woman and a deep knowing that my mission in life was to empower other rural women, around the globe, to take a risk to put themselves first too – because I saw it working not only in my own life, but in the lives of others around me.

The more I healed, the more those around me did.

The more I thrived – the same; I started to see the mirror everywhere and for the first time in a long time, I was excited by what I saw.

And then I realised, that was the key.

We have spent so long trying to improve ‘communities’ in rural Australia, we have lost our connection to humanity – and rural Australia has become a collective that has lost the individual who is suffering and suffocating  under layers of scarcity and fear.

People need the encouragement, resources and support to thrive, heal and evolve individually, which will in turn create the rural Australia we all dream of.

If a rural woman blooms – all around her bloom too. It is a powerful and deeply felt ripple that I am I am witness to this every day and see it in THE Rural Woman communities.

Each of us holds pain and suffering and negative beliefs and patterns that keep us from living out true potential. We must each, individually heal these in ourselves, as a matter of urgency, so that we can truly unlock the potential of the heart of our nation.

We can’t fix human problems with systems solutions – we must look back to the individual and ask what do they need – what would help them heal so they can thrive and evolve?

That’s what THE Rural Woman does.

We meet rural women where they are at with the support, connection and inspiration they need and we do it using extraordinary and simple online technology.

It may be a simple email that challenges an old thought pattern, an article on a community forum that prompts inspired action, a Facebook meme she can giggle at or share to inspire others, a personalised online coaching program that simply changes her life – or an online event helps her remember she is not alone…even in her remote location.

Whatever it is, we will be there for her. Helping and empowering her to take up the mantle of her own thriving, healing and evolving journey – but never again will she be alone. She has permission, perhaps for the first time ever, to truly ‘bloom where she is planted.’

The online technology available to us makes all this possible. Now, even women in the most remote places can connect with others. I am so genuinely excited by the opportunities available to us now – to expand our reach, to empower more women, to make a REAL difference.

This is the most exciting time in history, I think, to be a rural woman.

We have the opportunities to Live Local and Grow Global – to create networks beyond our borders, to build global online companies that change the world, to cultivate friendships with rural women from all corners of the planet without leaving our homes or communities, to participate in events that shape our futures without the limitations of expensive travel costs and time away.

We have a way to go in terms of access and speed and cost of internet in rural Australia but  I believe in actionism rather than activism and have a mandate to inspire better access to the internet for rural Australians by using what we have to its maximum potential and positively promoting it so we create more opportunity instead of focusing what we don’t have.

This is the era of the ME-Treat. Not the Re-Treat. This is about coming home to ourselves and the technology we harness at THE Rural Woman that people way smarter than us create – enables this home-coming to flourish.

I am so incredibly grateful for those people who make this possible. For the engineers and technology experts who dream big and make the world accessible to all. For the visionary business leaders to take risks to enable the disruption of the old mandate. They are my heroes. They helped me change my life and in turn, have empowered me to help others change theirs.

I believe in you.

I believe in us.

There is power in focusing on what you want in life and I want us all to thrive, heal and evolve and to ultimately, bloom where we are planted.

 

May you bloom,

Rebel x