“The excavation process expands your sense of the possible because it provides you with inner knowledge.”  Sarah Ban Breathnach

How are you doing so far on your transformation?  Are you finding that Sarah’s book is helping you to discover and appreciate the real you?  I have found that the inner knowledge I have gained through this soul work has helped me to identify where some of my improper thinking has come from.  To gain this knowledge, to identify the errors in our thinking, is the first step in making real, authentic change.

“Would you really dig into yesterday’s garbage to make tonight’s meal?  Do you dig into old mental garbage to create tomorrow’s experiences?  The past cannot be changed.  The future is shaped by our current thinking.”  Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life

By identifying the errors in our thinking about ourselves, we can change our thought patterns, and hence our future.  Do you think you are not good enough?  Not talented enough?  Not smart enough?  Not _______ enough?  Fill in the blank.  Whatever it is, you are wrong.  For each and every one of us was created exactly as we are meant to be, perfectly designed to fulfill our individual purpose.

“Self-approval and self-acceptance in the now are the main keys to positive changes in every area of our lives.”  Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life

Whatever your erroneous thoughts about yourself are, and wherever they came from, it is time to change them and recognize the perfection that is you.  Not in an arrogant way, but in a way that you have the knowledge that “God don’t make no junk,” and He created you the way you are for a reason.  If you start each day affirming this to yourself, I guarantee you’ll have a better day, and you will see your future begin to change.

Shalom!

“We must dig patiently with our pens to excavate our real selves.”  Sarah Ban Breathnach

It does take time to discover who we really are, doesn’t it?  Or maybe we know all along, but we deny it or ignore it out of fear.

“Maybe being oneself is always an acquired taste.”  Patricia Hampl

I never liked myself growing up.  I always wished I was more like someone else.  I wanted someone else’s hair, someone else’s body, someone else’s athletic talents, someone else’s “coolness.”  I always felt awkward, like I didn’t fit in.  As an older adult, I learned that my shyness was sometimes taken as an aloofness by others.  Boys I had crushes on were actually afraid to approach me.  I guess the joke was on me.  I wish I could go back to that young girl and tell her that she was just fine, just the way she was.  Teach her that by being so shy, she was robbing herself of so much.

“Faith Baldwin tells us: ‘Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations.’  The delay of our dreams does not mean that they have been denied.”  SBB

So the teenage me missed out on some things due to her lack of confidence.  But the beauty of life is, I am still ending up where God had planned for me to be all along.  It may have taken me longer to get here, and there may have been some painful detours along the way, but the final destination is the same.  Here I am in 2014, transforming my life with Simple Abundance and becoming the woman that I was always intended to be.  Doesn’t get much better than that, does it?

Shalom!

P.S.  If you are new to these posts, Transforming 2014 is an online book club of sorts.  We are reading Sarah Ban Breathnach’s book, Simple Abundance:  A Daybook of Comfort and Joy, together so that 2014 can be a transformative year for all of us.  Use the comment section to inspire fellow readers or share your difficulties so that we can support you.  You can find Sarah’s book on Amazon, and it is available in the Kindle version as well!

“The reason we want to awaken the authentic archaeologist is to excavate the real you.”  Sarah Ban Breathnach

Memories.  There are so many piled on top of one another in a lifetime.  How is it possible to remember it all?  I have never had a good memory, and as I do this work on the path of Simple Abundance, I wonder if part of the reason is because there are so many memories that I am trying hard to forget.  Being teased in school.  Inappropriate behavior by an uncle and the husband of a babysitter.  The loss of a child.  Divorce.  The painful aftermath of divorce with my children.  So much pain.

“Prepare yourself for a gentle but authentic dig that will help you discover the Mystery in which your soul abides.”  SBB

I am beginning to recognize the importance of allowing all memories to coexist, because if you block out some, you block out all.  No wonder I have lived much of my adult life on autopilot, failing to live in the present.  If you are working so hard to forget, you can’t really enjoy and cherish the good times either.  Walls are erected to block it all out, growing stronger over time as the sediment thickens and passage becomes more difficult.  But outside those walls there is so much joy just waiting to be discovered and enjoyed.

To live a life full of abundance and authenticity, the walls must be destructed.  One by one, the bricks must be dismantled so that the light can shine in on your soul once again.  The bricks didn’t harden and thicken overnight, and the walls won’t disappear overnight either, but with time and patience, it can be done.  The painful past can be revisited as the distant memory that it is.  Wrongdoers can be forgiven.  Joy can replace sorrow, and you can live the life that you were created to live, learning to be the very best version of yourself possible.  What better way to make a truly amazing transformation in 2014, don’t you think?

Shalom!

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”  J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien is telling us that as we take this journey of self-discovery, we cannot ignore our fears.  If you don’t know what you are afraid of, how do you have any chance of conquering it?

I think that, in addition to acknowledging and addressing our fears, we also must look at our belief system.  Specifically, our beliefs about ourselves.  For example, poor self-esteem or feelings of unworthiness are major contributing factors to many of our fears.  If you overcome an improper belief system, you will conquer your fears.

Sarah talks about T.S. Eliot’s belief that there is really nothing to fear from self-awareness because at the end of all our personal exploration, we will arrive back where we started and know in our hearts that we finally belong there.  I personally know this to be true.  Having taken the journey of self-exploration and facing my dragons head-on with the help of prayer and meditation, I am back where I started – finally writing, creating, and developing meaningful relationships through my real estate career – and knowing unequivocally that I am doing what God intended for me to do.

“As in the best old tales, at the end of your exploring, you will live happily ever after.”  Sarah Ban Breathnach

How wonderful is that??

Shalom!