I quit my ‘perfect’ life and moved to Bali after an epiphany in a cacao ceremony 

Lynette Allen shares her story for this week’s Big Happiness interview (Picture: @livvies_lens/@vandiangga)

‘Moving to Bali wasn’t actually a big deal,’ says Lynette Allen, a life coach who retrained to become a ‘medicine woman’. ‘It was leaving my marriage that was the scariest thing I have ever done.’

She now leads cacao ceremonies, making the big leap to live in the jungle in Bali in 2019.

‘During my first marriage, when I lived in England, it really looked like I was living the perfect life,’ Lynette tells Metro.co.uk.

‘There I was with a house, two cars on the drive, two lovely dogs, running my own self development business, speaking all over the country, appearing on TV and writing for magazines.

‘But by thirty-seven, I found myself in my car having a panic attack. I couldn’t breathe. I was married to a great man but inside, I wasn’t happy.’

After months of soul searching, Lynette packed her car and left with just a bag of clothes and moved in with her brother.

Within the year, Lynette had married her second husband Mark, they were expecting a baby and she adopted her step-daughter Rosi.

Lynette and her family have no regrets about the move (Picture: @vandiangga)

In the next two years, on a spiritual quest, Lynette and Mark gave up everything they’d ever worked for in the UK, houses and businesses, and travelled to Spain in 2017.

It was there, she sat in her first ever ayahuasca ceremony, a hallucinogenic Shamanic ‘tea’ ceremony, a powerful plant medicine, which has been traditionally used for spiritual purposes by indigenous communities.

It has become popular in modern day as a way of healing from past traumas and connecting with your spirituality. Six weeks later after her first ceremony, Lynette was invited to attend another and during the next two years, she was mentored by a Shaman in Spain, became his assistant, singing and learning to use a traditional shaman’s drum, to connect with herself and others.

Three years on, Lynette started working with Ceremonial Cacao.

The ceremonies typically involve putting a bit of cacao – chocolate in its rawest, purest form – on your tongue, or taking a ritualistic drink in liquid form, before entering into meditation or, as Lynette prefers, a talking journey with back and forth dialogue.

‘The ceremonies are designed to help you access deeper levels of consciousness and tap into your own intuition. It helps you open your heart and mind and will help you connect with the universe,’ says Lynette.

‘In one of my first cacao ceremonies, I had a message that there was a ‘gift for me in Bali’. It seemed like the next intuitive step, so my husband and I packed up our belongings again and moved to Bali with our youngest daughter, then aged six.

‘Ceremonial Cacao grows here and is used every day for meditation and self-development. I became passionate about helping and supporting women with these ancient rituals after I experienced and saw the incredible shifts that took place in myself and other women.’

Lynette uses cacao in all her sessions (Picture: @vandiangga)

Here, Lynette and Mark have settled, building a tiny 6m x 6m wooden home on the side of a mountain in the jungle, working remotely and home schooling their daughter Livvie. Lynette continues to host cacao ceremonies as well as writing numerous self-development and channelled medicine books for women.

For her 50th birthday, Lynette decided that she would curate a book of ‘women’s wisdom’ and invited 50 women, aged 50 and above to write a book with her about what they have learned in their lives and to share their wisdom. A Woman’s Voice Is A Revolution has just hit the Amazon best-seller list this week.

‘Sacred eldership is a practice where the elders of the community in some cultures are treasured,’ she explains. ‘In some cultures, there are groups over the age of 50, who gather and talk to share and use their voice for the benefit of their communities – you’re not allowed to join before you ‘come of age’. This book is our version, where 50 women write eight life lessons.’

Lynette’s home that’s just 6m x 6m (Picture: @vandiangga)

All the proceeds from the book are going to support 50 women and girls who have been rescued from the streets of Bali with The Bali Street Mums Project.

‘Bali is a beautiful place to visit, but there is a lot of poverty here too,’ says Lynette. ‘The money I can raise by writing this book can make a massive impact on the children and mums, who are struggling.’

Lynette’s favourite piece of advice from the book? ‘Go big or go home. I was actually told that when I got my first tattoo, which is an angel on my side, and she is big! Nine and a half inches. For me, life is about making big, bold leaps and committing to what makes you happy.’

What does make her happy?

‘It’s being able to choose to do the work I love,’ says Lynette. ‘I miss my family in England very much, but writing this book has taught me that there are many seasons in a woman’s life and as long as you’re growing and learning, then life is always an adventure.

‘There will be time later to go home [to the UK]. For now, we love living here in Bali. I’ve been personally inspired by the stories in the book. Our oldest contributor is 84 and she is studying and travelling still! There is one woman who has become an international DJ at 60, booking gigs all over the world. Deborah Darling, who wrote the forward, became a model at 52. There are no limits to what you can do when you’re older.’

A Woman’s Voice is a Revolution by Lynette Allen is out now.

MORE : I meditated for 100 days straight – it changed my life

‘Go big or go home.’