About Dewi

Hi, I’m glad you stopped by, welcome here. My name is Dewi Ratna. I have Indonesian roots and born 1978 in the Netherlands.
My life is anchored in God and shaped by an extensive spiritual search over the last 25 years in Buddhism, zen, Taoism, Non duality to now finding my heart and faith in Christ.

This is the story of how I got here.

Growing Up Close to Nature

As a child, I felt most at home in nature and around animals. I grew up in a beautiful old farmhouse surrounded by forest, creeks and animals and they became a place of refuge for me. I loved spending time outdoors, observing the natural world, and expressing myself through dance and singing.

Although I was raised by parents who didn’t believe in God, I remember having a sense that there was something greater than what I could see.

Sometimes, I would stand by my bedroom window and pray, without really knowing who I was praying to.

I remember those moments looking into the eyes of my horse as if we were communicating beyond words or watching with great fascination how ants fill their days. There was this sense of presence, of love, of something sacred.

Looking back, I believe these were some of my earliest experiences of connecting with God through His creation.

Nature has remained one of the places where I feel closest to Him.

Searching for Where I Belonged

From an early age I often felt different, as though I experienced life in a way that wasn’t always understood.

The conventional school system didn’t seem to fit the way I experienced the world. I was sensitive, curious and drawn to experiences that allowed me to learn through feeling, observing and doing.

Only much later in life did I begin to recognise how some of these experiences related to my own neurodivergent way of being. (Many people with ADHD, ADD and Autism spectrum can relate to this)

I left school early and explored different kinds of work, including hairdressing, waitressing and bartending.

At nineteen, I began studying Social Pedagogical Assistance, which introduced me to psychology, human development and working with people with autism and psychiatric difficulties.

I also gained experience working in a psychiatric centre.

Although I didn’t yet know what direction my life would take, my curiosity about human nature, emotions and the deeper questions of life was already growing.

Three Books, Three Threads

My spiritual curiosity was growing, and one day a friend took me to a spiritual bookshop. He invited me to choose three books intuitively, without looking at their titles.

The books I choose were; yoga, dolphins and the mystery of relationships.
And the third was about the mystery of relationships.

At the time, I couldn’t have imagined how deeply these three subjects would shape my life.

Movement, the Body and Inner Awareness

Yoga became an important part of my life, after finishing my 3 years yoga teacher training, I went on to teach it for approximately fifteen years, working with children, pregnant women and people from many different backgrounds.

My curiosity gradually expanded into conscious movement, relaxation, meditation, emotional awareness and the relationship between body and mind.

I explored different contemplative traditions, including Buddhist practices, and spent many years studying and experiencing how stillness, movement, breath and awareness can influence the way we experience ourselves.

Over time, I became increasingly interested in what happens when we stop trying so hard to change ourselves and instead begin to listen more deeply.
How we hold tension. How we protect ourselves. How our bodies respond to life’s experiences.
And how moments of softening can create space for greater understanding.

These explorations became an important foundation of the body-focused work I offer today.

Dolphins and the Natural World

My connection with dolphins began through dreams and a deep fascination with these extraordinary creatures.

In 2009, while pregnant with my daughter, I had the unforgettable experience of swimming with wild spinner dolphins in Kealakekua Bay, Hawai’i.

Later, I spent time with marine biologists in southern Portugal and organised retreats centred around encounters with dolphins in their natural environment.

These experiences strengthened something I had felt since childhood: a profound connection with the living world.

For me, the beauty and intelligence of creation have always pointed towards something greater than ourselves.

Today, I understand this connection through my relationship with God, the Creator of all life.

The Mystery of Relationships

Relationships became another lifelong fascination.

Through love, painful heartbreaks, personal reflection, therapy, self-study and years of experiential learning, I began to understand more deeply how we connect, how we lose ourselves, and how our patterns shape the way we love.

I explored relationship psychology, emotional intelligence, conscious communication and the ways our earlier experiences influence our connections with others.

Some of my most meaningful learning came not only from books or training, but from the challenges I encountered in my own relationships.

As my Christian faith developed, I also began discovering the wisdom Scripture offers about love, marriage, commitment and the way we treat one another.

What had fascinated me for so many years began to take on a deeper meaning.

Traveling, Exploring and Following an Inner calling

Travel has also played an important role in my life.

After moving to Belgium, I spent a period working in a natural health shop, where my interest in holistic wellbeing continued to grow.

Later, I travelled through Asia and New Zealand for approximately ten months.

Being immersed in different cultures, landscapes and ways of life gave me a sense of freedom and connection that I had deeply longed for. I realised how much we can learn when we step outside what is familiar.

It was the beginning of my meditation and health journey. Learning to clear the mind and the body. Which helped me to connect with God more deeply, even though my understanding of Him was still unfolding.

I also began writing a story called The Golden Path, a book intended for both children and adults, inspired by my experiences and the questions I carried about life, love and our connection with something greater. The words seemed to flow without effort, almost as though I was simply receiving them and putting them on paper.

Although I never published it, the story has remained close to my heart, Today I’m rewriting it, in the hope that it may finally find its way into print.

The Golden Dolphin (Nai’a) & The Holy Spirit

In 2018, I spent eleven days in a dark-room retreat, an experience that became one of the most profound moments of my spiritual journey.

During that time, I experienced vivid inner visions, sounds and an extraordinary sense of closeness to God.

One vision in particular has remained with me.

I found myself underwater, surrounded by dolphins bringing light, cleansing and healing. Then a golden dolphin was placed inside my heart. I experienced what felt like a baptism in water and the receiving of a new name.

At the time I didn’t fully understand what had happened, but I knew something deeply sacred had taken place. Only years later, as I came to know Christ, did I recognise the Golden Dolphin as a symbol of the Holy Spirit dwelling in my heart.

Since then my connection with the Holy Spirit has continued to deepen, especially through prayer, singing and speaking in tongues.

Finding My Way to Christ

Although I had spent much of my life seeking a deeper connection with God, there came a time when I felt I had lost that connection almost entirely.

After a deeply painful relationship in which I had gradually lost myself, I found myself in a place of profound emptiness.

It felt as though the light and closeness to God that I had known for so many years had disappeared.

I couldn’t understand how I had allowed myself to become so disconnected from what had always been most precious to me.

When that relationship ended, I knew that healing, for me, would mean finding my way back to God.

But this time, I longed for something deeper.

I wanted a relationship with God that could truly become my anchor. Something that would not depend entirely on my feelings, spiritual experiences or ability to keep myself connected.

Gradually I felt drawn to learn more about Jesus Christ.

I began studying Scripture, listening to Christian scholars and questioning beliefs I had held for years. I had always been skeptical of the Bible, yet the more I explored, the more began to unfold. I remembered profound visions of Jesus I had received throughout my life, and experiences I had never understood began to make sense in the light of the New Testament.

For much of my spiritual journey and the self development world, I had believed that healing and transformation were things I had to accomplish through my own awareness and effort. There was beauty in that, but also an enormous weight. When I surrendered my life to Christ, something softened within me. I no longer had to carry everything on my own.

I began to understand the difference between striving to find my way to God and allowing myself to be held by His love. In that surrender I found the freedom and peace I had been searching for all along.

My journey of faith is still unfolding, and I know there is so much more to discover. But Jesus Christ has become the foundation upon which I want to build my life and work.

Where My Journey Has Led Me

Looking back, I can see how the different parts of my life have gradually come together and have shaped the person I am today.

My incredible awe for nature and creation, My curiosity about the human heart. My experiences of relationships, heartbreak and healing. My years of spiritual exploration. And ultimately, my growing relationship with Jesus Christ.

In all of it, I’ve always been a devoted student, I learned to live with the limitations of chronic fatique and my neurodivergent brain. It hasn’t been easy to walk an unconventional path, and for people to understand my choices and experiences. But I learned to accept that I’m not here to please people, I’m not here to do what all the rest of the world does, I came here to show a different way of living.

Today, these threads find their expression in InSpirit Mentoring, where I bring together my life experiences in embodied practices, relaxation, emotional and relational awareness, meaningful conversation and spiritual reflection.