I never expected that a small sanctuary hidden in the rainforest of Sarawak, Borneo, would help change my life.

Before coming to The Secret Sanctuary, I had spent years struggling with burnout, illness, emotional collapse, and the effects of long-term treatment. For many years, I was in and out of mental health institutions in Canada. I was trying to survive, but rarely felt truly alive.

At some point, I understood that staying in the same environment was no longer helping me heal. I needed to step away, breathe again, and give myself a real second chance.

That decision brought me to Borneo.

What I found at The Secret Sanctuary was not a luxury retreat. It was not a commercial wellness center. It was a simple, living place built around nature, regenerative gardening, herbal wisdom, community living, and ancestral knowledge.

For the first time in many years, I felt my nervous system slow down.

I started helping in the gardens.

I shared meals with people.

I spent time in the rainforest.

I learned about herbs, medicinal plants, food growing, and living in deeper connection with nature.

Slowly, I began feeling alive again.

The founder, Cyril Lim, 林世修, has spent decades building this sanctuary through landscape artistry, regenerative gardening, environmental stewardship, and ancestral ecological practices.

His Chinese name carries a beautiful meaning:

林 means forest.

世 means humanity, or the world.

修 means cultivation, restoration, and healing.

Together, his name speaks of “one who cultivates and restores the world through the wisdom of the forest.”

That meaning feels deeply connected to what this place has become.

I came to realize that many people in countries like mine are silently searching for spaces like this. Places where healing does not only happen through pills, hospitals, or isolation, but through nature, purpose, community, meaningful work, food, plants, and human connection.

Since COVID, The Secret Sanctuary has been struggling financially. Like many small sanctuaries, land-based projects, and community spaces around the world, it has been trying to survive quietly, without much support.

Today, this place is at risk of disappearing.

That is why I decided to start this GoFundMe campaign.

This is not only about saving a piece of land.

It is about protecting a living sanctuary that has already helped people reconnect with life, and that still has the potential to help many more.

I am inviting anyone who feels called to support, share, contribute, or even speak with me directly about this project.

Because I believe places like this matter.

And I know, from my own life, that sometimes the right environment can help a person come back to themselves.

www.thesecretsanctuary.com