Skilful Leaders Blog

It’s Never Too Late to Dream

By Sally-Anne, 27.06.19

I’ve just done a 4-day retreat with this wonderful couple. They are thinking ahead to their retirement in a couple of years and they came to my Time Out retreat to talk about what that means for them. They want to plan for their retirement in a conscious way...

Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There!

By Sally-Anne, 18.01.19

A journey from the outside in. Funny how you can happily build a successful career over 20+ years in a top class organisation and then, when you stop doing doing doing, you come unstuck...

Finding the Purpose You’ve Already Got

By Sally-Anne, 15.10.18

After a year of painful reflection, I realised that I’d been so committed to my work, so absorbed by its clear, collaborative purpose, that my work had become my identity. When I moved on, it felt as though I was leaving an essential part of me behind. I had come unstuck. So before I could figure out “what next?”, I had to answer “who am I?”...

Breathing for Energy and Calm

By Sally-Anne, 28.07.18

The words “vegan mindfulness retreat” sent a chill through my heart: summoning images of cold, Spartan cells, raw tofu and severe gurus. I owned up to this to my host and guide, Sally-Anne Airey of Alps Retreats when I spent five fabulous days in the French Alps recently, adding that I had found the experience in no way justified my fears...

To Unplug or Not to Unplug – Is That The Question?

By Sally-Anne, 15.04.18

Ever find it hard to get through the day without logging on to social media? Or to go more than 30 minutes without checking your messages? You may want to join thousands of others around the world in the National Day of Unplugging. It starts at sunset this evening, wherever you are in the world...

Resolving to Change

By Sally-Anne, 25.01.18

If you’ve wavered on your new year resolutions, you’re not alone. A Guardian article highlights the fact that 63% of the people surveyed in a Bupa opinion poll last year failed to keep their new year resolution and 43% of them had abandoned theirs within a month...

Disappointment to Joy in 3 Simple Steps

By Sally-Anne, 30.12.17

It was a horrible Christmas. It was a great Christmas. I’d been looking forward to it for weeks. My young adult twin sons were coming home on Christmas Eve. And some old friends of ours were coming to stay with their 3 younger children...

In Me I Trust?

By Sally-Anne, 15.09.17

I was meeting the group for the first time and knew nothing about them. Our encounter on a mountaintop was also a surprise to them – like all the other unexpected experiences of their extraordinary programme...

Still Too Busy to Meditate? Try This While You Eat

By Sally-Anne, 27.05.17

Eating in calm silence; slowly; seeing, smelling and tasting your food as if for the first time; reflecting on its origin; appreciating all the effort that’s gone into producing and preparing it; and paying attention to your breathing...