Julie Latcham has come a long way from the mum of 2 young kids living with an overworked depressed husband. Exhausted, burnout and anxious, their journey to overcome their challenges took a big leap of faith on their part. It also took a big dollop of responsibility. Now Julie holds retreats and workshops for women to assist them in claiming their self worth, gifts and to empower their own lives. Here's what Julie has to say about how she applies the principle of responsibility in her work, relationships, life & play.
How have your overcome challenges using the principle of responsibility? One major thing my husband and I took responsibility for with our life was deciding to travel around Australia with our kids. Kynan quit his job at the company he had worked at since he was 17 years old. He had suffered from depression for a long time but was improving. We decided we needed to get away with our kids and connect as a family and get back to nature. We sold Kynan’s boat and bought a Caravan and off we went around Australia for 3 to 4 months! It was the absolute best time of our lives. The kids loved it, Mia was about 4 or 5 and Jayden was about 9. We took them to Ayers Rock, Alice Springs, Darwin, Great Ocean Road, Phillip Island, Sydney Harbour, Melbourne, Cairns, Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Adelaide, Airlie Beach, Cairns and so much more. Kynan and I decided if we didn’t do this holiday together as a family and be away from work and pressure and stresses of life, that it could be the end of us. We didn’t think our marriage or family would survive all the stresses and a lot of them were a side effect of Kynan’s severe depression. I am so grateful today that we took responsibility for our life ourselves and made that Australia trip happen with our children. It still to this day is one of our most fondest memories that we all talk about a lot.
How has taking responsibility empowered you in your life and made you more self-aware? I feel I always have been a pretty responsible girl, because of my upbringing. My dad was pretty strict and made us accountable for our actions. We had to confront people and apologise if we had done the wrong thing. I also think losing our family home to Bankruptcy when I was a teenager was a motivator. It was so hard on my parents, that I had this fierce drive from that day on to be responsible for myself, look after myself, look after others, make my own money and not rely on anyone but myself. I’ve always worked from age
14 to now turning 42. I guess the flip side of that is I’ve learnt more balance in the last few years where it is actually ok for me to have someone pay for me, it is ok for someone to do something nice for me without me organising everything all the time for everyone in my life! I have realised through Lightworker Practitioner Training & the Everyday Lightworker principles that I also need to receive sometimes. I have a responsibility to myself to feel loved and worthy as well, just like I want everyone around me to feel. This concept of receiving for myself took me a long time to learn. How do you take responsibility for your thoughts, feelings, actions and energy? I take full responsibility for my thoughts, feelings, actions and energy by owning what I do and what I say every single day and by not allowing the negative self-talk to creep in or not allowing outside negative talk around me penetrate my aura of joy and happiness. I utilize all of my spiritual toolbox to keep my vibration high and light. This in turn allows me to only think positive thoughts, only feel wonderful every day, to take action when I need to and to have a great positive energy every day that I omit out to people and the Universe. I sometimes feel disappointed when people around me don’t take responsibility for what’s going on in their life. If they start the blame game on their circumstances, I see that most of the time they are the one that got themselves into that situation in the first place. So that helps me detach. When people say things like, “God I’m tired” or “Gee I’m sick of work”, I hear these as affirmations that are keeping them in that shitty low energy state. On closer inspection you'd probably find that they don’t exercise regularly, don’t eat healthily, drink too much alcohol, get little sleep and don’t drink enough water everyday for hydration. So that is about 5 things they can change straight away to enhance their life by taking responsibility for themselves! We have all done this before including myself. I feel it is the responsibility of each individual to control their own life through thoughts, feelings, actions and energy.
Lightworker Advocate Magazine | June 2016 | 5