Allie Astell was living in Egypt when a series of difficult events struck her and her family. Used to being 'the strong one' who was always there for everybody else, it was only when the feeling of ' psychologically hurtling a cosmic black Ferrari at 200 miles per hour towards a huge brick wall' overwhelmed her that Allie realised that to regain pleasure in life, she would need to be there for herself too:

'My nickname on the Hoffman Process was “Smiling Caretaker”. In other words, I’d learned to always care for others with a smile on my face, ignoring whatever I was going through in my own life. I’d learned to hide my emotions and ignore my real needs. That worked for as long as I could remember, but what led me to book the course was the inability to do it any more. I didn’t love myself, and I felt unlovable.

I’ve never sobbed so uncontrollably or laughed from my heart so much in my entire life as I did on the Process...'

Thank you to Allie for sharing her Process story. To read the article in full, click here.
To see Allie's blog and some of her stunning photography, visit www.allieseye.com