Few people familiar with the quiet, leafy streets of Cowbit would think the village might be home to an international empowerment expert, who helps people to step into their personal power with a trademark mix of deeply peaceful and extremely challenging activities.
With TV appearances, national magazine mentions and a book deal under her belt, Taz Thornton is fast growing a following in the personal development world.
She’s presented across the UK and overseas and currently has requests for more work in Spain and India to consider.
With bright pink hair and a “look the world in the eye” attitude, it’s easy to see why Taz gets noticed, but in a sea of personal development specialists across the world, stacked mind, body, spirit sections in bookshops and people promising to heal your life online, getting noticed probably isn’t enough.
But Taz has other qualities that make her stand out from the crowd.
For starters, those who’ve worked with her say authenticity, compassion and a desire to help people are at the core of her being, and it feels genuine. It’s not about making a fast buck and there’s no snake oil in sight.
Couple that with Taz’s methods and it’s no wonder she’s making an impact.
Taz has made no bones about being – in her own words – “sensitive to energies” from an early age, but there’s nothing flaky about her.
She might make tongue-in-cheek references to being able to see dead people, or have a frighteningly accurate ability to pick up on how someone might be feeling, or what’s stopping them moving on in life, but she’s absolutely grounded.
It was her empathic nature, plus “seeing things other people didn’t seem able to see” that led her to begin training in shamanism in her early 20s.
She explains: “As a child, I was always seeing and sensing things my peers weren’t aware of. And I knew things too… I knew my grandfather had died before being told, for instance, and I’d sometimes dream things that would later transpire to be true.
“Instinctively, I’ve always been able to pick up on the energy of other people’s feelings – and I’d know if they weren’t being entirely truthful, not just with me, but with themselves.”
As she grew older, Taz explored many avenues to be able to hone and use her abilities, and it was shamanism that really called to her.
“I didn’t really get much choice in the matter,” she jokes, “the word kept being dropped into my head before I even knew what it meant, and then a series of what I now don’t believe were coincidences led me to my first teacher.”
Shamanism, as Taz describes it, is believed to be one of the world’s oldest spiritual paths.
She’s quick to point out that it is absolutely not a religion – there’s no dogma and anyone, with any belief system, can access the teachings it brings.
“Anthropologists have found traces of shamanism in pretty much every indigenous culture across the world, including our own,” says Taz; “there’s far more to it but, in a nutshell, it teaches that everything has an energy, that we are all related, and to live in harmony with the energies around us.
“Yes, shamanism includes working with spirit guides and teachers, and it also teaches us to be far more in tune with our own spirit, our own truth and to take absolute responsibility for our own lives, and the part we play in the world.”
As Taz’s training deepened, she was also holding down a high level corporate job in the world of publishing.
Gradually, as she became more and more in tune with what she describes as her soul’s path, she realised she wasn’t actually enjoying much about her day job.
But what Taz’s corporate adventures did do were shine a light onto an area of work she felt really passionately about – helping people thrive and feel good about themselves.
“When I got the opportunity to work with employees –maybe people who felt a bit disenfranchised or who just weren’t reaching their potential, it was like a light being switched on.
“Helping people feel better about themselves – helping them believe in themselves –that’s what really matters.”
From there, Taz embarked on a training and development regime that would see her building her skillset in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), mentoring, reiki and extreme empowerment coaching.
In the midst of all this, she left her job, launched a media empowerment business with her partner and began running her own “Firechild” workshops bringing together shamanism, spiritual development and her extreme empowerment training – which involves teaching people how to walk over red hot coals, broken glass and break arrows with their bare throats.
So, what’s next on the agenda for Taz?
She said: “I am quite in love with the fens, and I still have lots of work to do right on my doorstep.
“I’m still passionate about helping people to be their best, to be authentic.
“It doesn’t matter if that means working with a local business to help them rediscover their passion and get their brand out there, or working with people on an individual basis who need to reclaim their personal power.”
Taz runs regular evening courses at Cowbit Village Hall, covering meditation, shamanism and spiritual development.
Check www.firechild-workshops.co.uk, find her on Facebook at www.fb.com/FirechildShamanism or Twitter.com/TazThornton
If you’re a business in need of some empowerment, check www.fb.com/TurquoiseTigers
VIDEO GOES VIRAL
An “off-the-cuff” video recorded by Taz on her mobile phone about staying positive and never giving up has gone viral.
After talking about her own struggles and near-suicide while sitting in her car, Taz posted the video to social media over the Bank Holiday weekend and was overwhelmed at the response it received.
The video has so far been viewed more than 40,000 times and shared by several celebrities, including Kim Wilde, John Barrowman, Michele Knight and Lu Corfield.
Taz said: “I have been swamped by messages from people all over the globe, including one from a woman saying the video had saved her friend’s life.
“Since then I’ve had approaches from a publisher, plus a national magazine has shared it on their Facebook page and another has asked to talk to me about running a story.
“All that, however, pales into insignificance next to the messages of thanks I’ve had from people all over the world. So many of these messages have brought a tear to my eye – and all for the right reasons.
“I keep getting messages from people telling me I was brave to make that video – it didn’t feel brave, it just felt honest, and if my honesty helps just one person, my journey to this point will all have been worthwhile.”
