I recently became an American citizen. Everyone in the courtroom that day had a long walk to achieve this and the atmosphere reflected excitement, pride and emotion. We were 70 individuals from 30 countries who felt relief having reached the finishing line by taking the oath of allegiance.

I stood up and spoke about how things come full circle and to never give up your hopes and dreams even when it seems everything is dragging you the opposite direction.

My Aunt Claire gave me an American Flag brooch when I was about 13 years old. She had received this brooch when she lived in Baltimore, Maryland for many years. After returning to live in Ireland she gave it to me she said: “Maybe one day you will live in America”. I had no idea at the time that I would be living anywhere but Ireland!

I believe in pathways and that everything happens for a reason. The pathway that everyone took to receiving their citizenship was not easy. We have challenges in life that we must overcome in order to learn and to grow so that we can prosper. We can look back at our lives and remember the difficulties and hard times but we also know they had to happen in order for other things to slot into place – that is all part of our individual pathways.

So never give up hope as everything will work out in the end. This is what we teach in Sophrology. The words mean the study of conscious harmony. It doesn’t mean we will always be happily living 24/7 with a smile on our faces. Life happens and it likes to sets us challenges! By staying on the side of optimism and hope is a lot more beneficial that doing the opposite.