#BEYOUROWN MEETS ROSIE CHEHADE

Rosie Chehade is the founder of the Happiness Lifestyle and is a certified transformational wellbeing coach, holistic health practitioner and leadership mentor. She is also the creator of Rise + Thrive, a transformational mastermind for women in leadership.  

She is a spiritual advisor for CEO’s and women in business and facilitates group intensives for transformation and women’s empowerment. She has also led wellness retreats and workshops centred on mindfulness and conscious living both nationally and internationally. 

Rosie holds a masters in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and is a senior accredited mentor of the unique and proven Enhances Awareness Program with an emphasis on Awareness, Health + Healing. 

Her transformative work, wisdom and expertise has been sought out by multi-award winning and leading retreats such as Valencia Mindfulness Retreat, the five-star S?O LOUREN?O DO BARROCAL and online publications such as Inspo Magazine as well as podcasts and blogs.

Her messages flow directly from the heart and she speaks passionately on topics such as; Avoiding Burnout, Overcoming Fear, Self-Love, Living A Heart-Driven Life, Mindfulness, Embodying Your Power and Soulful Surrender. Rosie has made it her life’s work to support people in awakening to their own divinity and expressing that fully in the world. 

Hey Rosie, can you introduce yourself to us?

I’m a transformational + integrative wellbeing coach and leadership mentor. I live on the Sunshine Coast and am a mama to my husky, Astro. I love to travel, learning and expanding, spending time by the ocean and being with friends and family. My work focuses mainly on inner leadership, specialising in helping high achieving women break their cycle of stuck, overwhelm, and exhaustion, to reclaim their health and happiness.

I love transformation and have devoted my life to empowering these incredible powerhouses to rise into their next level of health, happiness + success. Because when you start feeling good on the inside, life begins to thrive on the outside and that’s where the magic is.

Can you take us through your journey to where you are now as the founder of the Happiness Lifestyle?

My journey has been a big one. But Happiness Lifestyle basically saved my life. Back in April 2007, I was living what I thought was the dream. At least I was to outward appearances. I had it all, I was very young and was in the top of my field with 700 people working for me. I’ll own that I was a workaholic. I properly burned the candles at both ends. 

I knew so much about how to live an amazing life, and yet I wasn’t doing it. Instead, all my time and energy was spent living for others, seeking that outside approval, validation and love, suppressing the call of my heart. I was on the treadmill of life. Chasing, seeking, searching. “I’ll be happy when…”But happiness never arrived. 

That’s when things really started to fall apart. My life hit a crisis point. I became chronically ill and was hit with a whole host of health issues; meniere’s disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines, autoimmune graves disease, digestive problems, not to mention debilitating anxiety. 

I was lost beyond the breakers, struggling to keep my head above as the endless swell of life pushed over me. 

I went through months of ggruelingtests, MRI’s, CT scans, ENT specialists, audiologists – you name it. My chronic illness worsened, my body kept crashing and my ability to think clearly was diminishing. There were days I couldn’t get out of bed at all let alone crawl to get to the bathroom. I became totally unreliable, not knowing when an attack of vertigo or nausea would start or end. 

As my condition moved in, life moved out. I was ready to give up. Ready to let the anxiety and diagnosis win. 

I knew my life needed to change. 

I felt stuck. 

I was hiding. 

I felt alone and didn’t want people to see I was struggling, I didn’t want to step into the person I knew I could be. 

I was neglecting myself, my health was down the rabbit hole and I wasn’t feeling fulfilled anymore. I was paralysed because I wasn’t where I wanted to be. My mind made up a lot of things around my self-worth, thinking something was wrong with me and I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. 

My wake up call came when after months of sick, I got another diagnosis that I had not one, but two incurable illnesses – autoimmune condition and Meniere’s and with it came the dreaded, “there’s nothing we can do.” The doctor recommended I get my thyroid removed, take radioactive iodine and synthetic hormones for the rest of my life. It was in that moment I knew it wasn’t ok. This wasn’t an ‘aha’ moment, it was a smack around the head with a cold dose of reality. 

And that was when I became the CEO of my life. It took a serious dance on the dark side to realise that there must be more to this life than battling through, day-by-day and fighting against myself in every way. I realised the way I was living my life and treating my body was not ok. I left the doctors office and questioned everything. My life needed to change. I decided I wasn’t going to let this grim prescription set the course.That was when I did a complete 180 on sick and opened myself to this new life. I furthered my studies and applied the wisdom of the world’s most renowned and best holistic experts and mentors in the world. 

Using an inside out approach, my “sick” had completely gone.I went back to the doctor’s office. But this time it was different. My levels were all back in normal range and I was officially autoimmune disease free. My burnout, fatigue and overwhelm were all gone and replaced with so much energy, balance and vitality. The moment I took control of my happiness, I looked in the mirror and couldn’t stop smiling at the woman staring back at me.  

Whilst this was one of the most challenging time of my life, it was also what I call my spiritual awakening .I stopped asking “why”and started asking “how.” My mess became my message. 

And that was when Happiness Lifestyle was born. 

Since then, I’ve walked the Camino, a 500 mile pilgrimage across the entire width of Spain. And it was there that I experienced my most profound deep awakening that enlivens and enriches the way I move through life today. 

This was very much a life-changing journey back to my heart. It was a journey through the mind, body and soul, stripping me of everything that wasn’t my truth. 

I experienced the sweet spot of extraordinary freedom and lasting change and it was there that I truly and finally saw myself as God/Universe sees me. It was truly a home coming. 

That pilgrimage completely up-levelled the way I was running Happiness Lifestyle and from that point, I developed what I call the 5 pillars of transformation in my work. 

How would you say you are helping your clients to gain the thriving health and vitality they know they are capable of achieving through Happiness Lifestyle?

I work as a soul centered leadership mentor and wellbeing coach one-on-one with my clients, empowering them to take back their health, happiness and make that impact in a way that is aligned to their deeper purpose. I also run transformational mastermind groups, workshops and mindfulness retreats both nationally and internationally. 

In my 11+ years of doing this work, I developed a system that has helped hundreds create that change in an easier, more sustainable way. 

That system is at the heart of my signature program that I also run called Rise + Thrive Transformation. Rise + Thrive is a personal empowerment and deeply transformational journey that helps women in leadership and business reclaim their energy and balance, glowing health and true happiness in just 10 short weeks.

My work blends the Mental, Physical, Emotional and Spiritual into a truly life-changing experience. It’s both soulful and practical work, both transformational and strategic. Because they are equally important elements. 

Where can you see yourself within the next 5 years and what plans do you have in place to expand and further develop the growth of Happiness Lifestyle?

If you had asked me this question back when I was in my corporate role, I would have had the whole big plan mapped out. 

Nowadays, I don’t believe in the whole 5 year plan, as life has an incredible way of leading us to places that far surpass what we even imagine!! 

Having said that, I do have a big vision for what I want to create and I know that Happiness Lifestyle is going to be so much bigger than me. 

Creating a dynamic coaching community of thousands, traveling and speaking on a much larger scale around the world, creating multiple international women’s circles across Europe, writing my book – are just a few of the things you can expect! For right now, this is my “big”. This is my way of changing the world, by empowering those that are. 

What outlets do use to promote Happiness Lifestyle?

Word of mouth and client referrals have been such a incredible gift for me! In-person connection with others through my speaking events, workshops and retreats are also ultimate. 

My Social media outlets (mostly Facebook and Instagram) have also been an incredible tool as well as my Youtube channel, blog and weekly newsletters to my tribe. 

What gives you ultimate career satisfaction?

I love supporting my clients in awakening to their wholeness and lead more open, happy and fulfilling lives. That’s why I have chosen mentoring as my vehicle to make my difference in the world. 

I love the work I do and I love who I work with. 

What challenges have you seen to have been presented during the growth of theHappiness Lifestyle?

The constant changes to social medias algorithms have proven the most challenging. Marketing is also a challenge as there’s no cookie-cutter one-size fits all solution, it’s all really test and measure with this side of things. 

Which other leading entrepreneurs and pioneering game changers do you also admire and why?

Where to start!! Brene Brown is an incredible game changer when it comes to vulnerability and authenticity! I live and breathe her work. Byron Katie – because the quality of our thinking determines the quality of our lives. Most people are stuck in a trance believing everything they think, her work is profound in shifting all of that. 

Brendan Burchard, high performance legend’s Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter? is my mantra.  

Oprah (of course!) and both Gabby Bernstein and Kris Carr have been huge catalysts in both my spiritual and health journey. 

How do you define your own success?

I used to define success through outer results. I have since learned that success is not in the results – but what makes me come alive… doing it for the joy + calling of it. AKA how I feel. How peaceful and self-loving I am when I show up to my clients and to my own life.

What does #BEYOUROWN mean to you?

It’s living your truth. It’s shifting your focus from you who think you “should be”, to who you really are and going all in on that. 

It’s never trading your authenticity for approval. (Because you’ll never influence the world by trying to be like it.) It’s being seen for who you are. 

It’s committing to showing up, walking, talking and breathing the version of you that may scare you = the version of you that has stripped away the fa?ade and the b.s. stories that are keeping you in the same place.Because only then, when you finally be who you were created to be, you will set this world on fire.

 Finally, what are you working on throughout 2019?

This year has seriously been incredible and we’re only in the second quarter! I’m currently running my Rise + Thrive Transformation program and will run it again later this year. This is a program for women to up-level their health, life and success – and have the sisterhood to support that. 

I also have 2 international retreats in both Portugal and Spain coming up this June. And there may be two further retreats this Spring right here on the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne, if all goes well. Very exciting! 

www.beyourown.org