My Autonomy Journey

I knew it was a transitional point of my life when I first heard of the autonomy course. I had just travelled to Germany with my family and after 15 years of living in Jamaica, winds of change were hitting strongly. While we were not sure of what was going to happen or how and where we would continue our journey, we made a conscious decision to go with the flow of life and see where it would take us.

It was at that point when I heard about autonomy. The description of the course immediately resonated with me and I recognized how it seemed to perfectly fit my vision of life as being a journey towards liberation.

I was familiar with Richard Grove’s work and had been utterly impressed for years by its integrity, volume and the value I was able to gain from it. Therefore, I was further assured that the autonomy course might just be the ideal assistance to advance my journey towards a successful, liberated and self-determined life.

We had to carefully evaluate the investment into the course and made the decision together, as a family. We had to budget and organize ourselves economically, but at the same time knew that it was exactly because of difficulties like these we had to invest into a sound strategy to eventually break free from monetary constraints.

Once I had signed up and the course begun, I had to overcome my inhibitions and lack of experience with chatrooms and social media platforms. At first it was quite a challenge to click the ‘unmute’ button and to talk to Richard and also to other autonomy students during Q&A sessions or after the weekly lectures. As I was eager to catch the live broadcasts of the lectures I had to organize and schedule my days in a way so I would last through Friday night into early Saturday morning. The time difference meant I had to stay up until seven or eight am on Saturdays to catch everything live. As the weeks went by and the interactions with other students increased and the integration exercises became more complex things got really exciting but also positively overwhelming at times. I ended up spending more time than ever before in front of the screen – taking in invaluable knowledge and meeting amazing people.

 

It was about halfway through the course when I was faced with a sudden family tragedy and suffered a huge loss. I was devastated and had to be there for my family while coming to terms with the situation myself.

Instead of keeping things to myself I decided to share my experience within the autonomy community and mentioned what had happened.

I would have never expected such a heartfelt, kind and warm response and I was really moved by the support I got from people I had not even physically met yet.

More than just temporary relief, this experience consolidated a shift that the course had initiated before, but which really was revealed to me clearly though this situation. If it was possible that people from all over the world could support, teach and express their care and love for each other without even ever having met before, then there is a true possibility to turn things around and to co-create a better world for all of us.

I ended up graduating from the course with a sense of improved confidence, not only in myself but also in humanity itself and the world we live in. Furthermore, I now feel prepared to positively leverage the experience and skills I have built throughout my life in conjunction with the knowledge acquired during autonomy. Since then I have made huge leaps forward in many areas of my life. I continue to benefit from the amazing autonomy community and through Autonomy 1-on-1 I help those who are joining in now on their individual journey towards a joyous, fulfilled and self-determined life.

My Capoeira Journey

Known as ‘Contra-Mestre Simpson’ in the ‘roda’ (capoeira circle) I live with, through and for this beautiful martial art/dance/culture. It became a philosophy of life and I love to explore its capacity of setting myself free in every way. I am driven to motivate and inspire others to apply capoeira for their own emancipation of physical and mental slavery. and have myself experienced its life-transforming potential. My capoeira journey began 1999 when I met Mestre Paulo ‘Sorriso’ Mendes whose pupil I remain until today I became part of ‘Grupo Cativeiro Capoeira’, an international capoeira group with the motto ‘Be nobody’s slave’, co-founded and headed by Mestre Miguel Machado in 1978 in...

My Permaculture Journey

I have been in love with nature from as far back as I can think. I remember spending my days in the woods as a child and building planters from discarded pallets or digging garden ponds as a youth. As a young adult I remember vividly aiding during the construction of a Japanese Zen garden. Soon thereafter followed work experience at a plant nursery and while working with landscape gardeners. The earnings and lessons of those jobs would eventually allow me to travel and they proved to be very useful during my trips around Europe, to Brazil and to Jamaica, where I ended up settling down, teaching capoeira. After conducting social work for several years,...

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