Life Explorer
There have been some turning points in my life journey when I have felt strongly that there is more in life.
I could hear my heart calling for something more …there is something else there for me, something inside me wanting to come out. At a very young stage in my life it was clear to me that inspiring and facilitating the education and growth of other people was my calling in life. Opening and feeding people’s minds and hearts through learning and remembering of who they are is natural to me. Communicating in other languages is one of my core life passions. My genuine interest in people and the importance I place on my inter-personal relationships have taken me on a fascinating journey. I started my teaching career in my hometown, Athens, in Greece, more than two decades ago, carrying on my self-explorations and fulfilling my soul purpose through experiencing other cultures and lifestyles. First stop was London. Then I moved to Valenciennes in Northern France having secured a position in an International School of Languages. There I met my life partner and came back in the UK, in the heart of England this time, in Cheshire, where I have lived since 2001.
First Heart True Calling: London
At the age of twenty I travelled to Cambridge in England, first time being away from the “family cocoon”, for a month to enhance my English language skills. This is when I felt empowered and trust in my Self for the first time, having experienced freedom to put all the long hours studying the English language into action, in real life scenarios, during an intensive language course held by an international language school with native teachers of English. The school was situated in the outskirts of Cambridge which meant I was cycling to and from the English family I was staying with on top of taking in another culture, negotiating different expectations and rules while engaging in conversations with native and non-native speakers. And then the language school organised a day trip to London. I fell in love with it! I promised myself “I will be back”. And I did! This was huge for me. I remember so clearly how thrilled I was with the joy and increased awareness of “Who I AM” to the point when I got back from Cambridge home in Athens, I felt I was flying … literally my feet were not touching the ground. This sense of being elated … I felt it again a few years later after sitting my last exam for the degree in Linguistics and receiving a First for my 10.000 word thesis on Bilingualism.
Embracing Change
One of these moments was when I reached out of my comfort zone and grabbed the opportunity to work as a languages teacher, trainer and programme co-ordinator in Northern France. Embracing change and taking risks creates possibilities to learn more about the world, connecting with people from various backgrounds and discovering inner strength and abilities that I could never have known if I was still living in familiar surroundings. My longing for change and expansion has always been expressed through the art of travelling, exploring and increasing my understanding of other cultures from local specialities, traditions and festivals to natural gems and awesome pieces of art and architecture. 2010 was another turning point in my life when I took the courage to close a chapter as a teacher of Modern Languages in Secondary Education in the UK and decided to reinvent myself as the founder of EXPLORAMA, School of Languages and Cultural Understanding based on my deep-rooted passion to sharing my lifelong skills in creating bringing in my own experience having lived, worked and studied in three different countries and travelled extensively.
Communicating and Raising Awareness … on the Radio
Having explored what it is being immersed in another culture and how much it accelerates the actual connection with the language itself, the interaction with the locals adding more meaning to my travel experiences, I was thrilled to be involved with the research, production and presentation of European Lunch radio programme on RedShift Radio based in Cheshire since November 2010. It is an enriching platform for both guests and listeners from all over the world while raising awareness about alternative ways for Optimum Well-Being through learning, inspiration, flow and empowerment. Learning to balance my need to be true to myself with my need for acceptance has created a skill in bringing out the best in others. I have an exceptional ability to intuitively understand a person after a very short period of time, and use my intuition and flexibility to relate to others on their own level. This is the skill I bring to my radio work as a researcher, producer and presenter of “European Lunch” show first, a travel and culture show and now called “Health and Healing” awareness show on RedShift Radio, a weekly two-hour programme every Thursday from 2pm to 4pm. I love being in the flow and this is what I have experienced since the start of my involvement with radio broadcasting and with the collaboration of my guests in the studio or pre-arranged phone-in or Skype interviews from various parts of Europe and the world over. Radio creates a nurturing space while bringing people and communities together and raising more awareness about possibilities in life.