Transforming journeys: Part 3 Georgianna's Tuscan adventure.(new strategies for vibrant living)(Georgianna Nichols)(Interview)(Column)

This recent interview with Georgianna Nichols--a Houston executive who attended my program in Tuscany, Italy, last May--is the last of nay trilogy of Transformation Journeys. It also is nay final regular column for Better Nutrition, as I will be devoting more time to conducting my Total Transformation programs in 2005. I want to thank my readers for a wonderful 2 years and look forward to staying in touch through my quarterly stories and live educational events as a contributing editor for Better Nutrition in 2005!

Jumping Off the Merry-Go-Round

KJ: Georgianna, as president and CEO of a large corporation in Houston, you decided to drop everything to join 15 strangers in Tuscany for my program. What came over you?

GN: Something inside spoke to me when I learned about the opportunity. My daughter was at a loss as to how I could take 10 days out of my life to be with total strangers when I hadn't even seen my own grandchildren in months. My assistant--who had to clear my appointment calendar--was shocked. But I had come to a point in my life where I was constantly pushing in survival mode, and I didn't know if I could ever find a way out of that pattern. I remember thinking that it was now or never. I didn't even take my cell phone with me.

Intimate Strangers

KJ: What was it like being part of such a small group for such a personal experience?

GN: For a dozen accomplished, grown women, it was an unusually vulnerable, unpredictable experience. We were paired with roommates at the farmhouse villa, and it was not a situation where we could hide and avoid our issues in the context of the program. Not everyone started out being open, but by the end, everyone's walls had come down. As the week went on, these strangers were telling me things about myself that I hadn't heard for a long time, or ever. I felt a spontaneity and curiosity reawaken within me that I realized had been squelched. No matter how "together" we all appeared initially, we all knew what was missing in each others' lives by the end-perhaps more than our own loved ones did. And there was tremendous mutual support.