Businesswoman Marie Cunningham has returned to Teesside after living her dream. She has launched spiritual awareness shop Insight where she has introduced an exclusive range of crystals and other goods she found on her travels. Marie sold her Crystal Cave shop in Borough Road, Middlesbrough, last year to embark on a career in the sun and set up a number of retreats abroad where people on a budget are able to get teachings for various therapies. The first retreat will go ahead in November in Goa where people can do yoga and meditation as well as have various therapies such as crystal therapy, Reiki and metaphysics. From Stonehenge to Greece, Italy and Australia - where she stayed in an Aborigine camp - Marie found many spiritual places and new crystals, which she has introduced to her Linthorpe Road shop. "I didn't really intend to come back but I have been guided here to teach people to use crystal healing for themselves," she said. The ground floor of the Linthorpe Road premises will feature a healing room at the rear and as demand grows, teachings in crystal healing will be held on the first floor, with the second floor eventually opening up as healing and readings rooms. However, she does not expect to stand still very long. She hopes to have a manager in the shop by October and will then jet off to Goa to run the first retreat. Her second retreat - in Greece - is expected to open next year and Marie intends sharing her time between the two as well as Insight. In the meantime she is waiting for her book on healing to be published. "The book is also about people learning they can do whatever they want to do - realising goals can be achieved." "We can all do it, it's just a matter of knowing how," she said Marie's interest in the ancient art of crystal healing stems back to a car accident, after which she suffered pain from a back injury. She went to a therapist who used a pendant containing a crystal. Crystal healing is placing crystals on and around the body to bring the body to a state of calm so it can heal itself. The crystals work with energy which flows around and surrounds the body. "When I first opened the Crystal Cave people were not as aware as they are now and there is a growing demand," she said. | 
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Enterprise North East
Evening Gazette's
