I was invited to participate as a Facilitator at the Golden Wellness Festival, Castlemaine.
It was their inaugural event, the brainchild of Ciel Lindley, who I had coffee with in July to chat about her vision.
This one-day event – held on Saturday 31 Oct 2026 – came about to bring together people working in the wellness space and showcase their offerings. Practitioners, healers, makers and thought leaders for a full day of inspiration, restoration and connection. The festival opened with a heartfelt community ceremony and concluded with Kirtan music and chanting, reflection and celebration.
The space was set up with marques with various names – The Circle, The Temples, The Spa, The Pavilions, The Marketplace, and I was invited to be part of a three-person team in The Vision Hearth.
In September, Ciel facilitated an e-introduction to Emma Sodamaco from Collective Reverie, and Kerri Aitken of Kerri Aitken Coaching and we began collaborating online for our part in the festival.
My part was to facilitate a Values to Vision exercise – so let me explain Values first:
As a career coach, one of the self-assessment tools I use is a Values and Motivators exercise to help job-seekers or career changers reflect on and identify the values that are MOST IMPORTANT to them – and what is motivating to them in their role and the workplace. It helps to become clear about your ideal work culture or environment, the type of work, responsibilities, terms and conditions. After all, you spend a large chunk of time at work, so you want to make sure you feel good when you’re there.
For the Golden Wellness Festival, I created a values list to guide people to reflect on their values in life right now – and to narrow it down to three (yes 3!) MOST IMPORTANT values – and then create a vision board.
A vision board is a collage of images, pictures, and affirmations that represent your values, dreams, goals, and desires, serving as a source of inspiration and motivation.
- The neuroscience of vision boarding is how we process the millions of bits of information that come through our sensors per second.
- The unconscious mind filters out and compresses all these millions of bits of info every single second – for what we need to focus on.
- Vision boarding can help us steer our attention and cut thru the noise. It is in fact a mindful activity.
- We have A WHOLE occipital lobe (at the back of our BRAIN) dedicated to visual processing. Seeing visual pictures (on your vision board) is a powerful way of emotionally activating your goals and really getting them to stick in your head.
During the month’s lead up to the event, I liaised with the team and set about collecting magazines and craft materials for our making tables in the Vision Hearth. It was at this time that I came down with a virus that I couldn’t shake and so decided to withdraw from the festival as a facilitator. I listened to my body – with fatigue and a temporary hearing impairment, I needed to put my health first.
Emma is a natural leader, where she brought the vision and the logistics together, communicating well with Kerri and myself in the lead up to Golden Wellness. On the day before the festival, Emma visited me to collect the magazines and art materials, and she gifted me a set of her newly created Listening Cards – a reflective exercise to ‘imagine the path ahead’ comprising 8 domain cards and 4 season cards. More about this later.
On festival day, I felt well enough to turn up and be with the team – going gently within my capacity. People were welcomed, listened to, guided, and they left with new wisdoms and a show bag of resources. I took part in Yoga Nidra led by Kerri, met new people and had lovely chats.
I wandered off for some lunch (because sustenance is good for your health) AND I had some acupuncture on my blocked ear!
That evening I sat at home, feeling Zen, and I finished my Vision Board, based on the Collective Reverie Listening cards put together by Emma – she was keen for feedback on how they worked, and we had chatted at the festival about the space I was in. She listened, validated and I could lean in more readily to the cards that honoured where I’m at right now. A time to be grounded, listen to my heart & emotions, and be kind to myself. The ‘season’ for me is a time for REST – where I can nurture myself, have comfort and ease, and regain my strength for what is next.
My vision board sits on the shelf beside my bed. It is my anchor for now – a place to return to and remind me that it’s ok to have afternoon naps, potter in the garden, listen to the birds and gaze out the window.
I feel really proud of the festival director – Ciel, and her Heart Trust team – and I know that great things are going to come from this. Golden Wellness Festival was the founding event of the new Golden Wellness Network – a growing community of practitioners, facilitators, educators, artists and changemakers committed to supporting the wellbeing of our region.
To find out more visit goldenwellnessfestival.com/directory-network
