Integritus Prime

It has been a massive year for me. I feel I have fulfilled my wish of expanding my reach to serve more people. While the numbers speak for themselves – see the image below – I want to focus this post on how our work is evolving and how I am seeing traction on my ultimate goal: empowering as many people as possible to heal their trauma.

After 4 years of awareness on trauma through our social media show, Mornings with Marilyn, our courses now have mostly local Fijian students, and our coaching business in Fiji has quadrupled. Along with our usual majority of women, we now also have growing numbers of LGBTQIA+ individuals and men in both courses and coaching.

Our consulting work has seen a surge in strategic and annual planning, plus ongoing team dynamics and enterprise coaching. Our consulting projects also included a notable increase in gender-based violence work this year, which has been very fulfilling and instructive. I was also invited to speak about trauma and abuse in diverse contexts, including a nationally televised panel, and for a LGBTQIA+ audience. Sadly, Fiji remains a festering cesspool of abuse against women and increasingly against children, which is heartbreaking. Clearly, our work needs to continue to provide safe spaces for expression of what has been suffered, and empowerment for those who are ready to start their healing journey.

On a happier note, a four year project that is a first for us – our first children’s book – was launched in November of this year. Lani and the Cumquat Adventures is a magical tale about a little girl and her love for her grandmother, which brings wellness and joy for all involved. We published three other books – a mini memoir about belonging, a vegan travel book, and a book of poetry, bringing our total to 41. We also published a sixth journal, focused on self-love. We have a couple of books drafted for release in 2025, stay tuned for those. We also added a page to our website that chronicles our annual progress, in the lead up to our tenth anniversary next April – stay tuned for that too.

It is so important to cultivate hope, positivity and wellness in all of our battles, be they against climate change, genocide, patriarchy, drugs, lifestyle diseases, or corruption. My personal practice of self-care has strengthened this year, allowing me to deliver more work without compromising my wellbeing. I have also returned to painting this year, to satisfy the yearning of my soul for color, texture, and sheer joy.

As I come to the close of 2024, many projects for 2025 are already on the horizon or already secured. It will be a tremendous year. But for now, I want to pause, and answer the following questions – perhaps you will too:

1. What brought me the most joy this year? Without a doubt, it was my return to painting.
2. What am I most proud of this year? Being verbally attacked and not going into a trauma response.
3. What relationships brought me the most fulfillment? The ones with my core family, with immense gratitude to my brother for making that happen.
4. What do I wish I had done differently? Nothing, actually.
5. What challenges did I overcome, and what did they teach me? I overcame the challenge of saying no many times, and it taught me to be more comfortable with my boundaries.
6. What habits or routines served me well? Meditation, music therapy, and my exercise routines.
7. How did I grow as a person? I became more confident and trusted myself more.

Take a few minutes to journal and reflect on the above questions, which I found through Christina Reese Coaching, if you like, and see how your year has been. See you in 2025!