Here was a girl the same age as me, trapped in a place she couldn’t escape from, with a mother she believed did not love her. The difference - I was trapped in a cage of my own thinking. I was and always have been a voracious reader. Anne Frank’s diary was just one of many books I read, to escape my life. It wasn’t until my fifties that I realised the books were not the escape. Through reading I w
ent to the safest and most secure place that exists. As my mind settled into the story, I went back into my spiritual essence, the essence that exists in each and every one of us, to find my peace and protection. I went back to who I really am, underneath all my big scary thinking. Since I had that insight, my life has blossomed in ways I could never have imagined. As a child I wanted to be an air stewardess, but that didn’t last long. After being a bank manager for several years, and a director of a chamber of commerce, I Ieft to run my own business (now Meridian Iliffe Ltd) and became a Leadership Coach. Being a writer was not my life’s dream. When I first started writing, I hated it with a vengeance. I had to write reflections for one of my coaching qualifications, and I did everything I could to get out of it. But somehow the habit stuck and it became a daily ritual. My first book came out of that ritual. Coaching Presence: Building Consciousness and Awareness into Coaching interventions has been translated into Russian and South Korean and has been read in over 20 countries, that I know of. My second book Daily Yarns: Riding the Lockdown Roller Coaster of Emotions also came out of that daily writing practice and was my first venture into self-publishing. This led to people asking me to help them with their books and the founding of IW Press Ltd. You can read that story on Thrive Global. Since then, I’ve published two more books, these are anthologies (A Different Story and Stories from the Muses) in the Method Writing with Jules Swales Series of books. I am currently helping multiple authors write and publish their books. My latest book A Caged Mind, (available to pre-order now!) is my journey from living a life limited by the cage of my thinking, to a life where I’m now doing things I never even imagined. Anyone who reads this book will put themselves in danger of having insights that have the potential to make their life easier and perhaps go on to do things that they too never dreamed were possible. I’m British, blessed to be married to Ashley, who is also my business partner and most ardent supporter and I live in Leicestershire UK. If you haven’t guessed by now my passions (apart from my husband) are writing and pointing people back to their spiritual essence, I feel very blessed to be able to do both at the same time.
