Not Quite The Holiday I booked
Seriously, if you told me five years back that I’d ditch a cushy job, swap Vegas for a couple of weeks in Africa – stay, battling corruption, exploitation and helping kids escape from traffickers – I’d have spat out my Yorkshire tea laughing.
I was always interested in spirituality although limited to visiting psychic mediums and tarot readings. I believed in karma – well superficially: what goes around comes around but nothing on a deeper level. Energy alignment? Isn’t that when a mechanic tells you why cars break down. Before Africa, I liked facts, proof, and deadlines.
Now, I’ve swapped spreadsheets for sage and realized you can’t plan your way through destiny or choreograph your soul’s growth. Packing for Africa was a disaster.
With only two days to get to the airport or lose my money, I threw in sunscreen, not expecting soul lessons, prepared for the heat but not for the emotional healing. And typical me, my suitcase decided to take its own spiritual journey, leaving me stranded with nothing but an unhealthy dose of anger, frustration and sarcasm.
Staying in Africa wasn’t planned; more a combination of hedonism and vocation. As a forensic social worker my work brain is always active, even with nice beaches and cocktails. In the first few days, I witnessed blatant sexual offending in public. I couldn’t just leave; it was no longer a trip; it was now a sense of duty.
My idea was to build community programs, observe, report, and be helpful. What I didn’t plan on was Africa observing me. Writing my trilogy about my soul’s growth during those three years felt like a child protection risk assessment for kids – except I was the kid, the parent, and the social worker at once.
It showed my weak spots – like learning humility, recognising my self-worth, clinging to control, unhealthy boundaries with others – and forced me to stop seeing life only through my own lens.
Apparently, Enlightenment comes with Potholes
I see now that my sense of duty was a spiritual calling, a soul reset, and a chance to pay my karmic debts. My training in all this started small. Every time I ignored my gut feeling, things went wrong. If I thought, “That road looks okay,” I’d find a giant pothole. Once I let go, leaned into the flow of energy, trusted the process I started meeting the right people and going to the right spots. It was teamwork – the universe communicating with me listening and acing on it.
My brain fought it the whole way: my head said it was a mid-life crisis and coincidence; my soul said, “Finally, she’s paying attention.” Memories of playing the “hot or cold” game, flooded back following clues like “colder” (far). The synchronicities were really the universe winking at me saying “hotter”.
Let me tell you, a spiritual awakening isn’t all love & light and nothing like Eat, Pray, Love – It’s brutal, alienating and toxic. Like Eckhart Tolle explains https://youtu.be/m5CRha_PmAM?si=OUB6ggqs3xGutK3i. Not like a fancy retreat either, just emotional training with drama moments.
I learned that soul growth isn’t glamorous; it’s a stripping away of illusions – control, certainty, ego, pride – all the masks we wear to feel safe. I started recognising my patterns and wounds that kept me small. Instead of blaming others, I began asking, “What is this showing me?”.
Spiritual Alchemy
Spiritual growth? Not gentle angel signs; it’s more of learning to control my tongue, crying alone at 3am in a foreign land, surrounded by brutality and finding peace in forgiveness. It felt like peeling an onion – shedding layers of fear, bitterness, shame and let me tell you each layer bloody stung, as it came off, leaving me raw, vulnerable, and numb.
But that emptiness is sacred when you start losing everything that isn’t real, only then can you create space for everything that is. Karma wasn’t payback; it was a personal education like Gaia says;
https://youtu.be/YnzhpaAQK9o?si=DUc0_VlJeOMteeDv. – and I somehow joined the advanced class without knowing it. By embodying spiritual laws in Africa, I truly honour the sayings: energy flows where attention goes, gratitude multiplies, and lies always boomerang.
Ignore the whispers at your own peril, as the universe will send a shout – a nudge so loud you’d need spiritual noise-cancelling headphones not to notice. I now share those lessons through Pink Lions Wellness on Facebook
When I talk about my soul’s growth and weird moments, people say, “You’re different.” That’s due to Africa reshaping me. I cultivated dignity in the disorder and inequality, and practised grace after dishonesty, not because anyone deserved it, I recognised that “holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die”.
I accomplished the true meaning of “going with the flow” – letting go of control and trusted that the Universe had my back and it never failed me, breakdowns were just redirections. Africa enabled me to trust in my own power, strengthen my intuition and respect my boundaries. It showed me how to turn righteous anger into compassion and that just one person’s voice is enough to make a difference.
And spaces like Inner Essence Healing on Facebook reminds me healing is circular, not linear.” It comes back around, again and again, until the lesson finally lands in the body as peace. And if enlightenment has a sound, I’m pretty sure it’s the universe laughing – with a Yorkshire accent.
Name: Sage Tedlow
Professional Title: Social Worker
Bio: I’m a Yorkshire based Author and founder of Pink Lions Wellness where spirituality meets survival with a roar. A forensic social worker turned soul-alchemist, turned my inner pain into peace unexpectedly during a holiday to Africa. My Trilogy; Guided by the Unheard is more than story telling – it’s a soul reclamation.
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