2004 it all changed!
Rio de Janeiro
In March 2004 I went to Crufts. Intuition told me to take up a lot of the offers to get back my entry fee. While I waited to pay for several of these products, there were competitions to enter. So I entered those too!
Free trip to Rio de Janeiro!
April 2004 I got told I had won a week’s trip to the World Agility Championships … in Rio de Janeiro! All expenses were paid with spending money as well for me and a friend.
Wow! We used some of the spending money to nip over to the Iguassu Falls as well. The Agility Championships were quite a sad affair so I’ll gloss over those. Staying in a hotel near Copacabana Beach was awesome!
Leaving full-time work
At the end of 2004, aged 45, intuition told me that I needed to make a change. Voluntary redundancy was offered, and applied for. That was very scary though!
I’d worked in IT since 1981 (yes, in the days of mainframe computers and punch cards!). By 2004 the Information Technology role I had (Domain Architect for Supply Chain and Head Office Systems for Vodafone UK) wasn’t giving me the buzz it had done. I enjoyed the company of my colleagues and the role to some extent but found I was covering old ground too much.
Half my strategy team had the opportunity to take voluntary redundancy. I qualified for the maximum redundancy package, and my intuition told me it was time to move on but to what?
Time for a new life.
I felt it was time to stop being identified by my job title.
It was time to find “me” again and then put my life into balance with “me” firmly at the centre of it.
There was a need to do something for a living that I made a difference and that I could continue until I “dropped off my perch”.
At home, there was just me and my two German Shepherd Dogs.
My ex and I had separated amicably in 1999 (he had been gradually overtaken by alcoholism for years. He lived locally, sadly declining and passing away in 2013).
My life had become crazy. I lived in a beautiful Warwickshire village yet was paying people to walk the dogs at lunchtime; to do the housework; to do the garden… and I was driving a 120-mile round trip to work in Newbury, Berkshire, four days a week!
I wasn’t living my own life any more and what was I doing it all for?
In simple terms, I wanted to walk my dogs in daylight hours all year around.
2005 My new life evolved
After I’d handed over my knowledge, before the official leaving date of 31st December 2004, I had a couple of months on lovely ‘garden leave’ at home.
During this time, I explored and found local public footpaths and bridleways I had no idea existed. It was delightful being able to do that walking in daylight with the dogs, appreciate nature and the gorgeous local countryside.
I discovered too just how burnt out I was. Years of long hours and big projects at Vodafone and long car journeys had taken their toll. Having the luxury of time out to relax and potter about getting stuff done at home was just what I needed.
Intuitively, I knew that something new would appear in March so I continued to relax and enjoy life.
In February 2005, sure enough, an ex-colleague offered me an IT contract role (again, a long drive away but with flexible hours). This was ideal. It paid the bills and ended up lasting nearly four years! I did a bit more IT work for a local company for a while after that and then waved bye-bye to IT for good!
The “retraining phase”
My intuition and various synchronous events then led me to change myself and my life completely!
The next three years or so also felt like a training treadmill.
1. Peru, Alberto Villoldo and shamanism
In April 2005, a chance conversation with a friend led me to read the book “Shaman, Healer, Sage” by Alberto Villoldo. The friend had heard him speak and was inspired to go to Peru with him. I loved it so much that I also went to Peru with The Four Winds (Alberto’s school) that June and we visited lots of sacred sites, including Macchu Picchu.
This was an experience beyond words. It changed me in a way I can’t explain.
When I got home, I remember sitting in the garden. I realised that it was the same but I wasn’t. It looked and felt entirely different to me now. I believe the shamanic ceremonies in Peru changed me for good.
After that, I knew I had to train with Alberto’s school. I was so fortunate. The Four Winds started to run UK courses in 2005 (and finished about 2008!)
I attended a catch-up “South” direction in the summer. Then I did the other compass directions, plus masterclasses over the next two to three years. I also went on to do their Sage mentored programme after the initial ‘Healing the Light Body’ training.
It was expensive, but I had the money and it was choiceless to do it. I absolutely loved it.
My late father appeared to me a lot during this training. He had died in 2000, and I’m convinced he led me to this path.
Working with spirit did freak out my science/IT logical mind at times. It is so expansive, creative, and deep acting. I love it. Over several years I continued to learn from a variety of excellent teachers in this tradition from Peru and around the world. It is awesome!
2. Homeopathy
In September 2005, I was drawn to also train part time as a homeopath. I had used homeopathy for years.
I say drawn, perhaps I should say pushed. The universe made sure I did it and I never really knew why!
After a year in the Midlands College, I changed to the gorgeous Lakeland college at their Ambleside, Cumbria, campus mostly, with a few trips to London if I couldn’t make one weekend in the Lakes.
I never really knew why I was training in homeopathy. However, whenever the thought of stopping occurred, I bumped into homeopaths!
This happened in the weirdest places – On the shamanic course I found I was sitting on a breakfast table with all homeopaths. I walked the dogs in Solihull, near mum’s , one Saturday evening and bumped into a homeopath. On a dog activity holiday, there was a homoeopath.. These were weird synchronicities so I got the message that I was meant to continue!
“I got the message I was meant to continue with homeopathy”
It felt as though I was on a learning treadmill for a while.
In 2008, a fellow homoeopath and I set up a Saturday kid’s clinic for a year or so before she moved away. We enjoyed that experience, and practicing together helped us gain confidence.
2008 – a new phase
2008 marked the end of the training treadmill phase.
Sadly, Chad, my older GSD, died in March, aged 15. He’d done well, though, having been diagnosed with CDRM and given six months to live about seven years earlier. Homeopathy slowed the disease’s progress right down and kept him off having to have strong painkillers too. I was more than impressed.
I graduated from homeopathy college in the summer.
Holly kept me company after that.
In June, I was guided to go on a ‘potluck’ sailing holiday to Croatia. I couldn’t go until after the first weekend due to my homeopathic training and the company happily flew me out separately and arranged me to join the flotilla in Trogir… and there I was thrown on a boat with Chris, now my husband, and two others.
In 2009, I set up Refreshing Horizons Limited (I was self-employed before that).
2011
e-Lybra bio-resonance
In 2011, I invested a sizable sum in an e-Lybra9 bio-resonance system. This looks like a scientific box connected to a computer, yet is mind-blowing. My skills from the shamanic and homeopathic training, IT career, and so much more are used to tune it to do some really incredibly powerful healing. I have written a lot about this elsewhere.
Chris and I got married in the June.
Reflections
Now, revisiting this in October 2025, my passion is still “inspiring natural wellness”.
I spent a few years hosting other people’s homeopathic seminars for a while, until my practice got too busy to do it.
The difference holistic therapies can make is sometimes humbling, undoing the damage we do (or life does) using natural means
I remember a shaman in Peru saying just before we left in 2005 that they had “planted the seeds” and now it is our “responsibility to grow and nurture them”. I have certainly been driven to do that.
There is always lots to learn and do, yet the magic and slightly off-the-wall nature of this work is truly rewarding for me.
I’ve gone from being one of the few women in a masculine profession to working in a predominantly feminine profession. From a very logical “left-brain” profession to one that uses empathy, intuition and things that are frequently good sports for comedians because they sound so bonkers. Yet I see results!
My clients are all delightful, some local and others from elsewhere in the UK and the world.
I have worked from home for many years now, even before the pandemic.
This allows me to be at home with our animals and Chris my (now retired) husband.
The dogs and cats have joined and left us over the years. We moved away from the house with the gorgeous orchard in 2018 to one in a beautiful hilly part of Oxfordshire.
… what will be next I wonder.
Following my intuition has worked for me and led me to a very different life. Why don’t you give it a try, too?
Carol Fieldhouse
