The man with the gun pushed me down onto the carpet, I tried to cower and make my body curl smaller, instinctively covering my head.
'Oh God, please don't kill me.' My words clung to my teeth and now my whole body was so cold. All I had left were these words.
'Please. Jesus. God. Please.'
I wanted to live and I knew it with absolute certainty.
I don't want to die.
Emma Slade was a high-flying analyst for an international bank when she was taken hostage on a business trip to Jakarta. She thought she was lucky to come out of it unscathed, but over the ensuing weeks and months, as the financial markets crashed, the trauma following the event took hold. Realising her view on life had changed profoundly she embarked on a journey, discovering the healing power of yoga and opening her eyes to a kinder, more peaceful way of living.
From fast-paced city life to the stillness of Bhutan's Himalayan mountains, Set Free is the inspiring true story of an astonishing life lived to extremes and all that it entailed: work, travel, spirituality, relationships, and the underlying question of what makes a meaningful life.
Maybe every time you let something go, a flower grows...
Paperback, 2017.