DISCOVERING YOUR TRUE BRILLIANCE
Discovering Your True Brilliance is my personal journey of healing and transformation to live the most positive life that I can. The idea was to share the tools and thoughts that have worked for me, my friends, family and even the children in my life.
Negative words and messages blocked me for some forty-five years. I pray that no child has to wait that long to discover his/her brilliance! My Mother’s Sister, Aunt Marie, was the one who gave me encouraging words. The words she spoke to me were always positive. Those words are the ones that gave me the courage to become the person I am today. When I was around Aunt Marie all my self-esteem balloons were flying high around me. Each lifted my spirit and built my self-esteem when I was with her, which was very rare.
Children are the most honest people I have come across. They are born believing the best about themselves and others. On their arrival, they come into this world to a party filled with hopes and dreams. With balloons all around them, called “Happy Balloons.” As our children grow, someone may come along with negative words, and pop a Balloon with a sentence like:
“You will break that!” Pop!
“You can’t do anything right!” Pop!
“You are a bad girl!” Pop!
Having some positive affirmations or words to use would make the difference in the world to a child. Allowing them to be able to replace any negative words spoken to them.
Having had four divorcees, I knew I had to change the way I looked at men. I made a list of the qualities I desired in a best friend, and taped it up to be seen often. At the time I was renting a room from my girlfriend, I went back to bowling with my old league. This is where I met my now husband, Ed who had the qualities I was looking for. Ed and I were living together in 1992, when I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my back. Being flat on my back for over a year, depression set in and surrounded me from all sides.
My get up and go, got up and went and I wanted something, besides meds to wake me up so I could feel like living again. I wanted more energy and better health so I could be successful in my life. Having a purpose to get out of that bed, and believe in me again was my way out of depression.
I needed to find strength in each situation I found myself, starting by telling myself there is a bigger picture than this broken back, allowed me to move into a more positive frame of mind. The time flat on my back did give me opportunity to be with myself, my thoughts, and to discover what my desires really were. In time, I came to believe breaking my back was the best thing that ever happened to me. It gave me the opportunity to do some soul searching and some major life adjustments.
To understand the power of positive thinking, I began writing down my inner thoughts. This is where the tools were created for my success, to keep me on my path, and to bring me up when I am down. Finding and using the tools religiously caused me to see miracles as prayers being answered. I was happy again, and with greater energy.
The healing continued as I began reading books Oprah shared with us for enlightenment. Some of her guests talked about higher power, affirmations and meditating. Soon I found myself meditating a few hours a day. Oprah also taught women to take care of themselves first. I had always taken care of my children and the men in my life before myself. Wow, what a difference it made to put myself first for a change. Since I couldn’t do anything else while healing, I meditated, read and jotted notes in my journal.
Some of the lessons I learned from my Soul Journaling are:
Realize what is important in my life
Discover my own beliefs
Encourage myself to step out of the box
Learn to redefine my goals
Trust myself and my higher power
Miracles continued happening in my life. I continued setting goals and noticed I was reaching them much sooner than I thought possible. I meditated on having a circle of adults where we could verbalize and share our truths and dreams of new beginnings in our lives, and to stay positive for a two hours period. The ‘Power Circle’ was born. One of the main reasons I created a group to come together was for us to feel heard, to pay attention to our words and to learn to listen at a special level. Power Circles are an opportunity to be with friends new or old, or with your family in a positive setting. Tools sharpen your listening skills and create a habit of speaking in the positive. Doing it with others, allows you to become powerful, soulful and wiser. I now have on-line Power Circles with people from Canada, Australia, India, and throughout the United States.
With these tools, on the path to see the goodness in our lives, your window of visions will grow in clarity. Then we used the game called “Stretchers”. “Stretchers” are half sentences that we complete allowing us to learn about ourselves in a very positive way.
Here are a few examples of “Stretchers” we would write and discuss:
This week I was proud of myself for: ……
I recognized answered prayer when: ……..
I always feel good after: ………
Starting from this moment, know all things are possible. It is with this open mindedness that you allow a miracle to transport its gift to you.