I am delighted to be able to share Babette’s story and journey with you which I know you will find inspiring.
Who is Babette?
Babette is a midlife lady, married to Tim and living in Gravesend. Babette is a keen runner with numerous half marathons and marathon races to her credit, but is also a cat lover and Kate Bush fan.
When Babette isn’t running, she is a fem-preneur owning her own HR Consultancy – BPHR Consultancy, which she has been running for the past 18 months, but brings with her a wealth of HR experience from her earlier career.
Babette completed the Phoenix Wellness Menopause Wellbeing Quiz which indicated that she could be experiencing early signs of perimenopause, although the results were so close in many areas that it was hard to say definitively that she had reached this stage of her life.
It was after completing the survey, and hearing Jeanette speak at other events, that she felt maybe she should look into joining the Phoenix Rising Mastermind. During a conversation, Babette talked about her struggles with Imposter Syndrome and at the time was being super hard on herself – she would agree that she had the tendency to “put herself down” and not celebrate her successes which are numerous.
Babette joined the programme wanting to achieve three clear goals: she wanted to learn calming techniques to help to manage anxiety and those Imposter Syndrome moments; she wanted to become more self-aware and build on her emotional intelligence and work more on her own self-care which she recognised could often be put on a back burner.
Having met Babette several times as part of a business networking group, I became aware just how much a “people pleaser” she could be. She would often support other people by subbing at meetings on their behalf, sometimes to the detriment of her own wellbeing. I could see that Babette is an excellent HR professional, a loyal friend and hardworking member of her business network, but also that she needed to take time out and not spread herself so thinly!
“The main goal was to know more on how to manage going into peri-menopause and menopause. However, I gained so much more learning on how to look after myself in general and be more appreciative of what I am doing and how far I have come.”
How did the Phoenix Rising Mastermind help Babette?
Babette joined the Phoenix Rising Retreat – the 3-day free programme that was run as a taster ahead of the main programme – and it was after attending this that she decided to join the main programme.
As Babette has said herself, she got so much more out of the programme than she had anticipated. Yes she learnt about perimenopause and menopause so that should could spot the signs and know what to do.
After the first session the participants were asked to keep a mood and a food diary as a way to set a benchmark for how they were feeling. Babette had often said that she wondered if she was “normal” in her experiences going into perimenopause, and as we discussed, there is no normal just what is normal for her. The diary process really helped her to better understand her body and gain that knowledge of what her normal looked like. This was an eye-opening session for all the participants as we rarely spend time focusing on what is normal for us physically and mentally:
“I like that there was a safe environment with other ladies that had same concerns and fears. Made me feel normal, not that there is a normal I know.”
One of the key take away for Babette was around her self-awareness. In the Releasing your Fears and the Honouring Yourself sessions, she became aware of her own self-talk and how this might be impacting the way she thinks about herself and what she can achieve.
“Going through this process has given me a different way to achieve my goals. Learning more on self-care and self-love, I always thought I looked after myself but realised that I give so much and don’t necessarily spend time for me.”
What did Babette gain from being part of the programme?
In her own words Babette says she learnt so much from her time on the programme that she hadn’t expected:
“The programme exceeded my expectations!”
Babette was great on this programme – she was always willing to take part in the exercises, group work and particularly the action learning coaching sessions. Her profession had already taught her to actively listen in conversations and to be fully engaged in the moment, and she brought this to the table. She was always supportive and empathetic to the other ladies in the group, asking searching and sometimes difficult questions and using her own experience to help others.
But she took a lot away herself, especially techniques that she had not tried before or perhaps had been sceptical about but has now found they actually do make a difference to how she feels and the potential she believes she has:
“Where do I start! Journaling; I have never done this before not even when I was a child. Writing done thoughts and what I am thinking really has helped clear my mind. Visualisation; I never would have thought of doing this beforehand or thinking it’s not going to work. Going through this process has given me a different way to achieving my goals.”
So would Babette recommend the Phoenix Rising Mastermind?
In common with the other ladies on this programme, it is a resounding Yes for Babette. She gained so much from the programme – in fact more than she had anticipated. In her words “The programme exceeded my expectations!”
I have witnessed Babette really start to shine through this programme and her new found positivity and self-confidence has greatly impacted her business as she celebrates taking on a number of new clients – so different to our earlier discussions when she was actually questioning her ability to do her job. Her Imposter Syndrome is now firmly behind her, and if it does show up, Babette now has the tools to change her thought pattern and ensure that it doesn’t take root.
“Overall, the Phoenix Rising Mastermind is such a fantastic course for the six weeks. I wished it could be longer. I am a positive person but the more positivity I felt after each session and at the end, has given me such a boost and confidence to drive forward with everything.”
For more Information
If you would like to learn more about the Phoenix Rising Mastermind, you can do so direct from my website. Alternatively why not consider joining the next cohort that will start in early May, with a free three day Phoenix Rising Retreat at the end of April.
You could also consider joining me for a connection call, where we can discuss your goals and think about how the Mastermind programme may help you. Please email me to book a call – links to the programme and other resources we provide can be found in the link below, together with how to contact me.
https://linktr.ee/phoenixwellness