Lili Barbery-Coulon was a beauty editor at Vogue for 8 years, then at M, the magazine of Le Monde, before making a radical life change. Today, creator of the wellness blog Lilibarbery.com , Kundalini Yoga teacher, mother and author of a brand new book "La réconciliation" (Reconciliation) published by Marabout, Lili is an exceptional woman, true, whole and generous who inspires us, a lot.
By our side since the beginning of the adventure, it is thanks to her in particular that On The Wild Side has taken such a beautiful path.
She kindly agreed to tell us about her journey and her philosophy of life, which we love and admire.
The first time you said to yourself "I want to change my life"?
I don't remember a first time. I think I've always been on an existential quest . I started working full-time very early, unlike some friends who continued their studies abroad or in France. I quickly realized that the environment in which I was evolving professionally didn't suit me. But since I didn't know what I wanted, I wanted a change without knowing which direction to go in . So, I tried a lot of different things without really seeing them through. As the years went by, the pressure became stronger: I felt that I needed to leave my work as a journalist while being terrified by my own doubts: why leave a job that satisfied me in many ways without knowing the path I wanted to take?
What part of yourself did you discover through Kundalini Yoga?
From the first class - and I should point out that this doesn't happen to all students - I felt a simple joy that I hadn't connected with for a long time. I wasn't sad by nature or emotionally exhausted. However, there was clearly a light inside me that had just been rekindled . The music, the postures, the body in movement, the meditation, the songs... I was transported and I didn't have time to think for an hour and a half. It was the first time that this had happened to me, or at least, that I had noticed it!
Is your book "La Réconciliation" a desire to share your experience? a form of therapy? a personal achievement? a bit of everything at once?
I don't think the book is a culmination because I still feel like I'm on a journey and I believe I'll never finish learning. This book was born out of an urgency : to share the story of a little over three years during which I radically transformed myself. From dismay to reconciliation with all parts of myself . It wasn't the book that helped me heal, but I had the intuition, despite my resistance, that I absolutely had to tell this story, share it in order to allow other people going through this same low self-esteem to believe that there is another possible path: that of self-love.
When was the last time you were moved?
I'm moved from morning to night. I laugh easily; I cry very easily too. Even more so today than before, but not necessarily from sadness. I saw a video of Jean-Louis Trintignant a few days ago that really touched me. He was talking about the relief that performing on stage brought him, about how he forgot he was blind. It really moved me.
Your latest crush?
The book "For a Delicious Revolution" by chef Olivier Roellinger (Editions Fayard) . Everyone should read this manifesto for healthy eating, adults and teenagers alike. Let's wake up, it's time!
Any advice for all women who want to take the plunge and change their lives?
I don't think anyone wants to jump into the void without a parachute. Our survival instinct pushes us to back down when the risk is too great. Yet, sometimes there is a voice inside us, whispering and insisting, ordering us to change direction, to leave a world or habits that no longer suit us... What if we listened to this voice? What if we trusted our deep intuition, the one that immediately senses what is good for us? What if we started listening to our body, which never lies to us and knows how to remind us when we want to ignore it? Our intuition is fantastic because it has resources and solutions that the mind cannot imagine. By staying attached to this thread, we end up finding the keys we needed to unlock what seemed closed. So I would say to them: trust yourself! You have unlimited transformative power, but you have probably been taught to believe otherwise.