Article by Emma Forrester, Co-Founder The Limitless CEO
By the time I reached my 30th birthday I had experienced a decade of turbulence in my life; the kidnapping of my father when a business deal turned bad, leading to bankruptcy, losing our family home and business, sleeping in his car and subsequent alcohol addiction and eventual liver failure.
I also experienced the breakup of my parents’ marriage and separation from my younger brother who left with my father, leaving my mother in depression and heartbreak.
I lived in 15 homes in the space of 5 years, mostly out of a suitcase and often sharing a room with my mother. I recall writing cheques for food shopping knowing they would bounce.
This was a far cry from the privileged family life I had experienced through my childhood, being bought up in a beautiful home in a sought-after Oxfordshire town, going to a private college and enjoying first class family holidays.
In my 28th year I was finally diagnosed with PTSD and chronic anxiety and panic attacks had become my norm and self-sabotaging behaviour a habit.
The diagnosis was both devastating and relieving because I had something to make sense of and to ultimately heal.
My healing started on 1st January 2014 and on that day, I started more than just a resolution, I started my own revolution. A new purpose in life to step out of survival mode and create a new life fuelled by health, freedom, happiness, and prosperity.
In the 4 months that followed I turned to natural health methods and healed my anxiety and PTSD using nutrition, daily exercise, and meditation practices, losing 49lb in weight in the process. I became fit, strong, focused, and energised by life again. I even qualified as a PT and nutritionist and on the sideline began coaching others to fall back in love with their bodies.
My career skyrocketed and I was offered a partnership in the marketing consultancy I worked for, which I turned down in favour of starting my own venture as an online business strategist and mentor.
I found the courage to end a 10-year relationship that no longer felt aligned with where I was going in life. I left the home we owned together and had spent 5 years renovating and moved to London alone to start over.
What changed to fuel such rapid and powerful change?
I did.
In amongst the trauma and devastation of my twenties I was presented with the most valuable opportunity to grow as a person.
The fragility of my security strengthened my armour.
The mental turbulence stablised my emotional intelligence.
The experience of lack activated my desire for abundance.
I believe the human experience of life is often rooted in fear and insecurity; the fear of losing it all, the need to feel safe and the expectation to do things a certain way.
But through the hard times I did lose it all, I did feel what it felt like to be truly ‘unsafe’ and vulnerable and any expectations I had about how life ‘was supposed to be’ were challenged.
When you go to the end of the end of where you feel you can possibly go; physically, mentally and emotionally and you discover that you are actually OK, you realise there is nothing to be a afraid of.
You learn that the mountain you are climbing in life is a mountain with no peak that will continue to test your commitment to your purpose at every turn.
You understand that there is no challenge in life that is greater than the lessons you learn in the journey to the top.
Today, I run a multiple 6-figure brand as an online business strategist and visionary brand creator together with my business partner Ali Mortimer, who is a mind and energetics master. Together our company, The Limitless CEO is redefining what it means to be a CEO as a Consciously Evolved Owner of your life and business.
We support independent female business owners to build success in a wildly different way to create wealth, freedom, power, and happiness.
The work I do is not just a job, it’s the legacy of my hard times redefined as my most transformative times. It’s the work I led myself through that I now have the honour to lead others through too.
I am a mummy to a beautiful baby girl, wife to my soul mate Joel, an entrepreneur on a trajectory to create a million pound brand in less than 2 years, a home owner, a supportive daughter to a fully recovered father and mother, a leader to others who are want to take their power back, turn their hard times into their best times and become a limitless woman.
About the author
