Finding balance in Bali

Janine Hall transformed herself by making her wellbeing number one. Photo / Olivia Hemus

Elizabeth Gilbert isn't the only successful woman to leave corporate life behind for the restorative pace of Bali. New Zealander Janine Hall reinvented herself from high-flying marketeer to surfing yogi, and this year opened her wellbeing retreat, Surf Haven Bali. Her retreat provides a luxurious environment in which stressed-out women can eat healthily, learn to surf and practise yoga daily, the idea being that guests reconnect with nature and themselves.

Hall had fallen in love with watersports at the age of 30 when she dropped her job in fashion marketing to go travelling. But her epiphany to make a business out of it came years later. Her niece had just been born and her PA was struggling to find time in her schedule to meet with her.

"I thought, what's the point in life if I'm running a million miles an hour and I'm not actually doing the things that are important to me?" says the 36-year-old, on the phone from Indonesia.

"Work used to be important but the sacrifice I was making on a personal level was just far too great. I'd been single for years. I hadn't seen my friends in a long time. The same went for my family. Any energy I had went into my job. And I felt like I had lost that lust for life which is something that's always driven me. I felt my passion ebbing away."

She said goodbye to an international career in fashion - senior roles at Topshop and Selfridges in London, and David Jones in Sydney - and rekindled her passion by setting up the retreat.

"I never thought about my wellbeing before. I put on weight. I was stressed. I was in that typical cycle of being on the go the whole time. I grabbed snacks that didn't fulfill me and added to the stress and the chaos that my life was. Whereas now I feel completely in tune because my health and wellbeing are number one and my life is centred around that."

For those keen to overhaul their lifestyle but without the time or money to indulge themselves at an upmarket health camp, Hall suggests starting with the old faithfuls, diet and exercise. Specifically she recommends cutting down on sugar and alcohol and doing exercises that either get the endorphins going (such as surfing), or restore the body's balance (yoga). Most important, is that you "connect to what you're doing".

"When you're doing something challenging, you're not thinking about the shopping or the clothes you have to pick up for little Johnny, the electricity bill that hasn't been paid, that argument you had with your boyfriend. All of that falls away when you do something challenging because you need to be present and focused.

"In my previous life I was juggling so many things. Before it was all about thinking ahead, whereas now it's very much about being in the here and now. Starting a new business can be hectic but I'm doing something that I absolutely love and the pace of things is completely different."