Photo credit: Margarita Breed
Half Mermaid
Liz is an accredited Professional and Personal coach, writer, avid swimmer and lover of all things ocean.
HalfMermaid was born out of her love for the open water and the field of Personal Development and her endeavour is to help others through these practices. Bringing together learnings and experience from her professional career, her work offers powerful guides and questions for those who seek to deepen their self awareness and grow.
Why did you start Half Mermaid?
Steered by social norms and expectations, I took the well travelled path one would expect the good eldest daughter. Born to immigrant parents with aspiring expectations, I worked to live up to these, in the standards I set for myself, my academic achievements and and my climb through the corporate world. I learned lots, met wonderful people, aspired to grow and make a difference. Somewhere along the way though, I lost myself. I became consumed by the rinse and repeat days of obligation and routine, stress and demand, giving my all to achieve the goals of corporate giants that brought little meaning or sense of purpose. I became disconnected with my sense of self, love, wonder and connection, with how I dreamt I would contribute to this world; and the kind of role model I wanted to be for my children. My physical and mental health suffered. I burnt out.
I learnt to numb my mind and body just to keep going. My connection with those I loved suffered. All stemming from having lost the first most important connection to myself.
Lost, depleted and unhappy, it took some time to shift my paradigm. What kept guiding me were those little fragments of time when I felt deeply present and connected. I yearned to feel more like that. Like how it feels to swim in the ocean, walk a trail, read a great book, listen to great music. These simple things that bring so much presence and connection, were things I stopped doing and forgot about.
Our health and wellbeing comes from how we connect, how we make time and space for ourselves. The simple act of BEING in nature is the cornerstone of our experience and medicine for our bodies.
A life long swimmer, I did not appreciate the gift of water and my ability to swim, until later in life. Water and swimming, have always been there. Even though through the years I forgot about them, ignored them, when I was ready they were always there for me.
Water is a place where nothing else matters. Where earthly demands and constraints have no hold. Being in the water is about finding the self we lost, long time ago when we were told who to be and how to behave. It is about recognising there is a side to us, a part of us that is free, un restrained, wild, undefined and waiting to find expression.
Journaling has been another practice that has helped me find expression, give shape to and articulate my internal world. As the words take shape on the page, they release what is within me. I can see myself, my thinking, behaviour, logic and emotions, the patterns I play out. I have an opportunity to learn and grow.
Half Mermaid is about sharing both the love for the open water and journaling, and the incredible gifts they both offer. It is about the ways we can find and reconnect with ourselves. It is about meeting others on this journey and sharing the things that bind us - open water, stories, joy and sorrow, happiness and suffering- as we walk together and alone in search of self and meaning.
