Helping women be Unapologetically them

Self-love coach and author Ann-Marie Emmanuel is on a mission to help women love themselves.

She hopes to use her Unapologetically Me Women’s Retreat as the vehicle to do so.

It will be held from April 27-28 at Cheryl’s Grace Enrichment Centre, Las Cuevas.

TT-born, US-based content creator, educator and filmmaker Stacia Yearwood and entrepreneur, change facilitator and photographer Aderonke Bademosi Wilson will also facilitate. Yearwood will host a writing-therapy session and Wilson will facilitate photography lessons to help participants learn to see beyond what appears to be right in front of them.

The retreat will include four workshops, yoga, mindfulness and meditation sessions and farm-to-table cuisine, said a flyer.

Emmanuel’s mission is to lead, inspire and empower women, she said in a phone interview.

“Whether it is through my books, my writing, my seminars, retreats – whatever it is, my work is to lead, empower and inspire women to cultivate the best relationship they can have, which is with themselves.”

She became a strong champion of self-love after realising she was unfulfilled despite living the “American dream.”

Emmanuel was a US postal worker and also “accomplishing a lot, doing a lot of things,” such as managing her own fashion boutique and caring for her family – but was unhappy.

“I felt like I was chasing something, chasing success. I constantly felt like I was trying to make it….I was just tired, burned out, struggling, just wondering what was the purpose of all of this, if I did not feel that happiness and fulfilment.”

Emmanuel had a lot of dreams when she, her four siblings and mother migrated from La Romaine, south Trinidad to the US in 1970.

However, getting divorced and attending a transformative programme in 2007 changed her outlook. The programme taught her that whatever she wanted for her life she could have, through her active participation.

She left her job, returned full-time to TT in 2014 and decided to do something she'd always dreamed of: build an enrichment centre and start sharing ways for women to find self-love.

Before 2014, she would travel between the US and TT, and she began construction on the centre in 2011. It was completed in 2018. That was when she began hosting retreats.

She hosted an international one in 2019 and was scheduled to host one in 2020, but the covid19 restrictions postponed those plans. This weekend’s retreat will be the first since the pandemic.

Emmanuel believes the message of self-love is particularly important in today’s climate.

“In these intense times we are living in – especially during and after the pandemic – I think many women are struggling to make right choices for themselves.”

Many women were unaware of their true selves, did not know what they really wanted and were often forced to because of societal pressure, she said.

“We tend to push aside what we really want for fear that it won’t be accepted by others or society. A lot of time we want certain things but we are thinking about what it looks like in society like having a certain kind of job and all of that,” she added.

A central focus of the retreat is to help guide its participants to their true selves. She said the workshop that’s why it’s called "Unapologetically Me."

Only when women were connected to their true selves could they care for others, she said.

“When we take care of ourselves and we put ourselves first, take care of our needs and what we need to thrive, it is only then we are able to help others. It is only then we are able to go out, do the things we want to do and have it be sustainable.”

She is also set to launch another book, which gives an account of a decade of experience in self-love. She is the author of RelationShift: From Inner Lack to Inner Lush.

Her new book, detailing her challenges, setbacks and experiences in becoming a self-love coach, will be launched on May 8, she said.

Emmanuel is not a therapist or trained psychologist, but if she realises a client needs something more, she has can refer them to a certified practitioner.

While for local participants the retreat extends over two days, for her four international participants it will be run for four days. They will arrive on April 25, and on April 29, will be treated to a tour of Port of Spain after having breakfast at Maracas Valley’s Yerette – Home of the Hummingbird.

“I think now more than ever," she sums up, "because of the intense times we are living in and confusion everywhere around us – people are now beginning to realise that the practical application of self-love is paramount to stabilisation of our emotional, physical, mental being.”