My journey to Australia and beyond
Guest post by Louise Kennedy #coolpeopleIknow
In 2001, my husband, our five-year-old son and I came to live in Australia from the United Kingdom (UK).
We’d first met in Brisbane in 1991 when I’d come over to sing the lead role of Leila in an opera called The Pearlfishers. I was the star of the show and he was an actor. In an opera that means he had no words to say, but was just like an extra body in a costume onstage. He played a ‘mud man’ and the front end of an elephant, which at a certain point walked across the stage behind a gauze curtain, led by an elephant handler. There were two of them inside the elephant suit and it was so convincing that the RSPCA visited during the dress rehearsal to make sure we were feeding the elephant properly. I kid you not!
It was a whirlwind love affair and we married after only six weeks. When I returned to the UK he came too. I already had a daughter from my first marriage in the UK, so staying in Australia was out of the question for me. We settled into our married life and my husband became successful as a prop maker at the English National Opera and other places. But he never really settled in England and hankered for the day when we might return to his home country.
Eventually we had our own son and my husband’s fondest wish was for him to grow up in Australia. I agreed because I was always up for a bit of adventure, but we had to wait until my daughter was 18-years-old before we could all come as a family. So there we were in the UK planning and looking forward to the day when we would start our new idyllic life in the sun.
Except it didn’t turn out idyllic. I naively imagined that, as I‘d been hired to come in from the UK and sing in the past, I wouldn’t have any problem finding work. But it wasn’t easy and I failed to get the types of jobs I wanted. My husband said he would be prepared to do whatever job he could find so we could live in Australia. But after we arrived it was a different story. He looked far and wide for similar work in the theatre industry and just couldn’t find anything really suitable. There just wasn’t the same volume of new shows going on in Australia and he ended up working for events companies. As time went by, he became more and more disillusioned with the poor pay he received and the fact he had to travel so far from home to find work.
Life became a struggle and, without going into all the details, we ended up separating in 2008 and eventually divorced.
2008 was also the year I began training with William Whitecloud. I’d stumbled onto his book ‘The Magician’s Way’ in a second hand bookshop in the small town where we lived. I felt compelled to make contact and went to a hotel on the Sunshine Coast to hear an introductory talk about his work. That talk was enough to convince me this what was I needed in my life and I signed up for my first training.
The training began to give me amazing insights into human consciousness including how we create our lives by the choices we make and how all the ‘bad stuff’ that happens to us is the result of our ego’s unconscious sabotage. The insights I gained were phenomenal and revealed to me the unconscious beliefs that had shaped my life from when I was a baby. We are all ‘wounded’ in infancy by incidents that happen to us and we make up beliefs about ourselves like not being good enough, not being worthy and not being capable, to name but a few.
I began to piece together the beliefs had led me to my current situation and it was as if someone had turned on the light in the darkened room I was living in. I was also taught how to create end results that are in line with my true purpose.
I started choosing the results I wanted to achieve and began creating things in my life that I actually wanted, rather than feeling like a victim of my circumstances.
It’s been an interesting journey that has expanded my consciousness and given me a new purpose in life. I’ve since taken up oil painting and writing (poetry and a book). I’ve also created a new way of singing using parody and comedy which has been awesome, travelled and spent time in Italy teaching English which was a completely new experience for me. I have, in short, found ways to create opportunities to do what I love.
At 62 years of age I am re-inventing my life and my passion is helping others to do the same.
Louise Kennedy is a natural success and performance coach, spiritual healer, mother and grandmother. Formerly a professional opera singer with a 20-year career performing in opera houses across globe, Louise now uses her experiences to help others achieve their goals. Find out more about Louise on Facebook and at www.louisekennedy.com.au