Last night, Reader, I watched the Jimmy Barnes documentary.

Love him or hate him, as an Aussie who grew up in the 80s, it brought back so many memories of him, and Cold Chisel!

For those of you outside Australia, Jimmy and his band were a huge part of our music culture. And none of us had any idea at the time what the story of his past was.

During the doco, Jimmy said something that felt like a brutal truth for anyone who's been through something challenging..

“My life was a big storm, and I was always looking for shelter.”

It took me right back to being 15…

Standing in the rain at his Working Class Man concert with my best friend, soaked to the bone, high on adrenaline, and pretending I was fine.

Jimmy had a bottle of vodka on stage. Everyone knew how hard he lived and partied, and it was just accepted as a cool thing to do. Jimmy had a bottle of vodka on stage at every concert.

The concert ran late because of the weather, and by the time it finished we’d missed the last bus home. No mobiles at that time to call our friend's mum where we were supposed to end up🫤
​
Just two teenagers wandering the city in the middle of the night, trying to look braver than we felt, trying to get home, while our parents panicked. My dad even called the police to report me missing. (Eeek doesn’t quite cover it.)

And yet… when I think back, I realise that I was already living my own storm.

My mum was dying. I was terrified.

And I coped the only way I knew how, the only way a traumatised 15-year-old could, by looking for my own shelter.

I also drank way too much at a time I was vulnerable, because that was a way I could escape.

So many of us do this.

We abandon our true selves to make it through the day.

We fight the storm instead of tending to the part of us that’s fighting to stay afloat.

Back to Jimmy. He then went on to share more destructive truths about his life, but then said..

It wasn’t until he stopped fighting his pain and started facing it that he found emotional freedom.

And that, right there, is the heart of why I created The Healing Circle.

It’s a soft, safe place for women who’ve walked through storms of their own.

A place where you don’t have to hold it all together. Where shelter isn’t found in distraction, perfection, or coping, but in being witnessed, understood, and supported while you find your way back to you.

If Jimmy can rewrite his life by looking inward, and if I can do the same, one small brave moment at a time, then so can you.

The storm isn’t your identity. You just haven’t had a safe place to land.

If you’re craving compassion, understanding, and a softer way to move through the world, you’ll be held in the village.

​The Healing Circle is available for $18/month for life if you join before next Wednesday. There's no obligations, you can leave at any time.

I hope to see you in there, Reader.

And just to complete the circle, here's a little reminder of probably Jimmy's best song ever!

​

With love,
Ali x