April 21, 2011: Start with yourself

Hola, All! As I was reading the book "The Intuitive Spark" by Sonia Choquette, a particular paragraph jumped out at me. It brought back to mind about how I was raised which affected how my children were raised.
" If you are extremely goal oriented, evaluate your self worth by your performance, and don't tolerate slipups, then chances are that your kids will also strive for success in the same way in order to gain your approval. This kind of upbringing creates extremely anxious children, making it very tought for them to access their intuition, because whenever we're afraid, our distress overrides our inner voice or completely drowns it out. As a result, we grow up listening to our fears instead of our heart."
I can relate to how my self worth was related to my performance in school, etc; how I started having headaches in high school, never realizing it was the stress I put on myself; how my intuition was shut down for years; and how I listened to my fears instead of my heart. None of this could I have verbalized for years, and yet, looking back, this one paragraph from Sonia's book seems to sum up most of my life pretty well. I can't tell you how thankful I am for the people, books and experiences in my life that started changing my perception of myself, because that's where it has to start. I love the song by Michael Jackson........."I'm starting with the man in the mirror, I'm asking him to change his ways, And no message could have been any clearer,......take a look at yourself, then make a change". What great lyrics; we can even learn lessons from songs! I hope everyone knows that each of us is worthy of the best that life can offer. That all of us, no matter what religion or no religion, are children of an abundant God Who always showers us with His Love. To forgive ourselves is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and others. And, to connect with our intuition, is really connecting with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which is in all children of God.
Pay attention to your inner guidance,
Dawnie