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Her Mother grew up in Peru, where she used to visit the family from her early age on in the 70’s. The family, lived in a comfortable neighborhood in Lima. As a child she would  come back home to Switzerland, outraged about the social differences that existed in that country and think, how she could make an impact to create a change. 

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At that time there was not much tradition of asking a young girl, what her interest and dreams were. She had to follow the family roots and did a banker’s apprenticeship, coming from a banker family. Wanting to live abroad and feeling that she had to do things differently than her peers of that time, she saved her apprenticeship money and accepted an invitation of her Uncle a University professor to attend 1 year University at NIU, in USA. 

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Returning to Switzerland Basel, she continued working in banking. After 9 months she applied to banks in Geneva to feel again the more international flair. She worked in an European Bank and then I changed to a renowned Private Bank. She was not incredibly happy with what  she was doing and realizing that being a woman with an apprenticeship, there was not much possibility than to stay an eternal assistant.

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One day, one of her clients who employed more than 45’000 employees in his country asked her to move to Madrid and take care of his family office. She was finally in her element, taking care of challenging and demanding requests of her employer.

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At the age of 33 she realized that  in this rhythm, bringing up children would be a challenge. Her husband received an offer to work in Bahrain and and she followed him. The first years she worked with him, establishing, and building up the clientele  of an International Bank. Life did treat her well and her two daughters were born.

 

Her life brought her into unexpected waters. She decided to leave the world of banking and the Middle East to return to Switzerland with her two daughters. In 2006 she decided that after having had the opportunity to smell the business world she could not go on staying at home mainly cooking, cleaning and driving around children.

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She decided to establish a booking platform for furnished accommodation, the same year Airbnb.com was founded. She wanted to give a service to expat families arriving to the region of Geneva and give people the possibility to book furnished housing with 3 mouse clicks. 

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This time she found herself more aligned with her purpose to serve people and felt at the right place. She committed herself entirely to her two priorities which were bringing up her daughters and and helping stranded families to find a home away from home. Soon there were no limits of time schedule, she would get up at 6 organize the children, work 10 hours, do homework with the children, dinner and continue until late evening. The company grew and got known in the market and soon lodged people from the UN, corporate companies, tourists and locals.

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In 2015 at the age of 51, she felt she was getting very tired, however, did not give it much of a thought, since she reckoned that this was normal at her age.

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The moment of change was approaching.

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One morning, while washing her face she felt a small soft ball on her cheek, which attracted her attention. She decided to find out what it was and 4 months later she was diagnosed with a Lymphatic cancer on stage 4. The treatment took away all her forces. For months, she was in her bed reflecting what went wrong. How could she change things, she thought she had been a hard-working person, a good mother and with good intentions. Her thoughts were very dark and lost. 

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One of her friends suggested to participate in a Qi-Gong retreat in Scotland of a Chinese and Western Medicine Doctor. After 2 years of struggling to get her energy back, she started going 4 times a year to Qi-Gong retreats in Scotland.

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Slowly she felt her energy getting back. She would go home and apply the exercises and techniques she had learned and started feeling more centered and her mind focusing more on the purpose of her life. She realized that she had two sides, been very much of a pleaser, but also stubborn, hard and controlling. She had been on an eternal gogo rhythm to become better and better, pushing herself to the limits and not respecting her body nor her mind. She had put herself very much under pressure and wanted to be very much under control of her destiny. She also realized that she had not been an easy person to live with, being very demanding with herself, she was also demanding to the others, not respecting and trusting people. 

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She started introducing 4 times 4 health, which implement 4 breaks during the day, starting with meditation and Qi-Gong in the morning, taking a break at lunch time, doing slow Qi-Gong exercises after 5 o clock and meditating and putting her feet in hot water before sleeping. After 4 years of applying this technique in her life, her DNA changed. She has become much calmer and peaceful. She goes with the flow and instead of her running after her destiny, she thrives with what is coming to her.

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Cancer has been her greatest gift. It has put herself into perspective, what is important for her. She asked herself, what is her mission?

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The last 3 years she went 5 times to Rwanda to refugee camps. The refugees taught her not to give up a dream. In the middle of nowhere, in the middle of dust, thirst and hunger, she would meet former business people, entrepreneurs, scientists, educated and non-educated persons, dressed in their suits and making the best, how to make the refugee camp a better place for their community. She realized how her business world in banking has created harm in these countries. For all her adult life, she had concentrated herself too much on her personal and her families well-being and had lost her inner child dream to look after everybody around her.

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She wants to make part of a project, which can change this pattern of malfunctioning, which has also created harm to nature and ecology. She realized, that what she had lived with her own story and her own body, earth was living with its story and its nature. With her ambition and her mind, she had created wealth, but also much pressure, stress and her body did not handle it anymore and got sick. Micro-cosmos is Macro-cosmos.

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Her dream is to create a new humanity which is respecting body, mind, and soul. A place where people work for the common good of all, where the projects respects the natural flow of nature. Where our decision making is not based on our minds but on our inner voices. Had she listened to her child’s inner voice after her trips to Peru, she wonders what she would be doing at this moment.

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"Whatever you do in life will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." Mahadma Ghandi 

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Cancer taught her, that life on earth can be finished very abruptly without having it programmed. It is NOT under our control. Our Dreams and our inner biggest feelings need to be expressed and acted on, at the very moment and not when we have become thin, beautiful, or wealthy.

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She personally thinks, there is no need for hunger, injustice, violence. People take themselves too seriously, there is need for more humbleness, less greed and less ego.

 

When her body gives her signs of energy loss, she focuses on concentrating in getting her energy back, by taking a break, meditation and going to nature to resource herself. She has learned to listen to her body and mind and realized that she is achieving much better results, when following the rhythm of nature. Her life has changed completely, since she has introduced 4 Times 4 Health and meditation into her life.

 

Watch your thoughts, they become words,

Watch your words, they become actions,

Watch your actions, they become habits

Watch your habits, they become character

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny

 

Lao Tze, The DAO 

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Brigitte Burgisser 31.05.2020