All About Me

Do you ever wonder about life?

Do you ever find yourself wondering if your life the way it is right now is all there is?

It’s not that your life is bad, really. Truthfully, there’s probably a lot that you like about your life. But even so, from time to time, maybe you notice yourself wondering if there’s something more. You can’t really put your finger on it, but you still have that wonder.

Maybe you wonder too, sometimes, why you’ve made different choices in your life, or why you respond to people or situations in the ways that you do. Maybe some of these choices or responses have frustrated you, and maybe you wish you better understood why you’ve made them. So you still wonder.

I wondered a lot about these things too. And I never expected to find some of my answers where I found them.

I also never expected that I’d come to feel so incredibly freed by what I found, or so much more peaceful with myself and my life.

And I really couldn’t have known how truly honored and humbled I’d feel to now offer my process to you.

When I grew up, there were three people in my immediate family. My parents were the other two people. Now, my parents no longer exist in physical form here on this earth.

In their absence, I wondered and asked, and wondered some more. I liked a lot about my life and felt grateful for so many things. Yet, I had so many questions.

Something stirred within me at this time in my life. Something led me to explore my life and my parents’ lives in a way I’d never done before. And in doing so, I couldn’t believe what I was discovering.

I looked back at my life and at theirs, and I really zoned in on where I was in my life and how I felt about some of my experiences. I also took a much closer look at different ways that my parents had impacted me. Some of those ways I’d loved, and others were a lot more challenging for me to understand.

Then I tried something more. I tried looking at my parents as people first, parents next.

What I discovered truly amazed me. I went from at times feeling anger, judgment, and blame towards my parents for different reasons and ended up with so much more empathy, compassion, and much greater understanding of my experience of them. And the gratitude I’d already had for them and their roles in my life? That grew even greater.

Not only did this process transform the way I viewed my parents, but it completely transformed the way I viewed myself and my whole life.

I now understood so much more about my life and some of the choices I’d made. As I was able to look at my parents in a new way, I was able to understand and be kinder to myself at a level I hadn’t known was possible. I was also able to find such a deeper level of peace and of satisfaction with myself and my life. And I was able to own my personal power to shape the next stage of my life.

I knew in my heart that I had to share this process. I knew that if it helped me so much, it had the potential to help you.

I hesitated a bit at first, though. It really wasn’t reinventing the wheel. Seriously—all I’d done was look at myself and my parents with this different perspective. But yet, it had affected me that much, in such a transformative and positive manner. I couldn’t just let it sit in my head any longer. I knew that you were also just as deserving to let this process give you a fresh perspective of your life.

I knew that if you came to this process with an open heart and mind as I’d had, you also would have unlimited potential to grow in your own deeper levels of empathy and compassion. And I knew that the discoveries you could make might also guide you and inspire you to shape your life for the better as well.

I discovered that there was so much more to my life than what I thought there was. I also realized that I had a lot more of my own answers than I ever thought I did. I was so right to wonder, and I was so right to seek answers, not only in the outside world, but also deep within myself. And you are so right to do so too.

I want you to know that I deeply honor your openness and curiosity about this process a thousand times over. That said, I also don’t want you to feel that I’m taking advantage of either of those with the expansiveness of what’s here.

That’s why I want you to understand that this material is packed to the brim, waiting for you to open to your own personal insights. However, this is not by any means a book you need to rush through. In fact, I encourage you to see it as just the opposite. There is not and never will be a deadline attached. I truly hope that you’ll take time and care with it. There is no way you can do it wrong.

The reason I’ve packed so much in here is simple. You and I, although likely total strangers, have something really important in common. We are both human beings. And like me, you’ve probably realized that human beings can be very complex creatures. Sometimes, in order to help us better understand really complex things—or creatures—it helps to simplify the process.

As we simplify something, it can be very useful to break it down into smaller parts. Yet, the amount of parts can seem to increase for a time as we do that. But when we take a closer look at each part and how it affects the whole, that is when our understanding of both the parts and the whole can really increase.

I could tell you all about my own life experiences, or I could try to explain complex theories to you with the hope of guiding you to understand yourself or others more deeply. Those two ways of learning about the world can indeed be quite valuable and helpful. But I wanted to give you something different.

I know that you, as a human being like me, have no doubt had your own wide variety of life experiences. And as a fellow human being, I care about you as a person—one human to another. I also trust in your humanity as I trust in my own. That’s why I wanted to give you the reins and support you as you take a closer look at parts of your own experience.

In order to help you make the most out of this process, I’ve lovingly created a diverse assortment of statements which are left open for you to complete. I’ve worded them simply in order for you to get right to your answers. All I ask is that you give honest answers to the statements. There are no right or wrong answers to any of the statements in this book. There are no better or worse answers. There are only the answers that come to you as you read each statement. As you fill in the statements, give yourself the gift of trust, knowing that whatever you answer will serve you during the process.

If you’re curious about discovering more about yourself, your past, your present, and potentially shaping your future, and if you’re open to being honest with yourself about your feelings and discoveries so that you may gain greater understanding and peace within your heart, I invite you along on your own personal journey of discovery. I’m honored to be your guide.