Until 2011, I led a quite materially successful life where I gathered useful skills, languages, international experience and achieved financial security and recognition in my work. I had many good moments but deep inside I was not happy, and I felt something essential was missing in my life. At 27, I decided to take the bull by the horns and started therapy as I felt the need to go to the root of the problem. A year later, a depression broke out that lasted several years and changed my life. Until then, my strong will and determination had always enabled me to reach my objectives, and then I felt powerless for years. My many efforts no longer seemed to bring results: therapies, professional reorientation trainings, coaching, meditation, yoga, conventional medicine, alternative medicine, lots of walking…
From the beginning, I started to take an interest in the search for happiness, especially through spirituality and various human wisdoms (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism). It nourished me through those difficult years. Realising that these different sources, although rooted in very different cultures, eras and contexts, essentially delivered a very similar message, allowed me not to totally lose confidence and hope. Then, one day, feeling that I had “tried everything” and was at a dead end, I spontaneously felt the need to take a real break – which I had never given myself before – and I took a sabbatical. That was the turning point. From then on, things gradually began to rearrange and make sense together. I did not end up making fast and dramatic changes in my life, but subtle and long-term ones. Above all, I gradually regained my natural pace and developed a vision of the meaning of my existence. Since then, I have been going my way slowly and surely, with a clear direction and a lot of joy.
