Discovering Your Authentic Self

To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.
-OSCAR WILDE


One of the surprises that comes when you catch glimpses of your authentic self is the discovery that she's such a positive, upbeat woman. She's always smiling. She's always calm. She's always reassuring. She exudes confidence. Who is this woman, you might ask, and does she bear any resemblance to you?

Yes and no. This is who you are on the inside. The real you. If you don't act this way all the time, it's simply because you haven't evolved to a higher plane of existence yet. Neither have I. Marianne Williamson believes this will come when we "embrace the Goddess" who resides within. "When a woman falls in love with the magnificent possibilities within herself, the forces that would limit those possibilities hold less and less sway over her," she writes in A Woman's Worth.

But occasionally, we get glimmers of what it's like on this higher plane: on a good-hair day; when we've had twelve hours of sleep; when we soar through a business meeting, thoroughly prepared; when we fit into last year's clothes; when we throw a great party and everyone enjoys themselves immensely. When moments like these occur, we tend to think that all's right with the world. Everything just fell into place. What we don't realize is that all's right with ourselves. We're in the flow of life and loving it. We're in place: that special alignment when authenticity and reality merge into Wholeness.

But how do we tap into this spiritual energy source more often? How do we access the flow of life more frequently? How do we learn to live at full throttle?

Meditation helps. So do long walks, soaks in scented bubble baths, washing our hair a day before it needs it, smiling at everyone we meet, being more gentle with ourselves, watching a sunrise or a sunset, petting an animal, playing with a child, having some small pleasure to look forward to every day, being grateful.

But above all, being open to change. Welcoming it. "Watch. Wait. Time will unfold and fulfill its purpose," Marianne Williamson advises. "While we wait, we must not go unconscious. We must think and grow. Rejoice and dream, but kneel and pray. There is holiness in the air today; we are giving birth to goddesses. They are who we are, for they are us: friends, therapists, artists; businesswomen, teachers, healers, mothers. Start laughing, girls. We have a new calling."

Source: Simple Abundance

Reordering Your Priorities

ost women I know have only one conscious priority: making it through the day. This is a direct
 result of having been torn in a thousand different directions in anyone twenty-four hour period for decades. Writer, pilot, wife, and mother Anne Morrow Lindbergh calls it "the centrifugal forces of today" that pull at women. But acknowledging, recognizing, and reordering our priorities so that they can give purpose to our days is a deeply personal task that we all need to do if we are to learn how to live by our own lights.

A priority is anything that is important to you. Providing for your children's education by starting a systematic plan of saving could be a priority. So could increasing your health and vitality through diet and exercise. Achieving financial serenity is another priority for many of us, as is nurturing a family and sustaining a loving, happy marriage.

Priorities are not written in granite. They need to be flexible and change
as we do. I find it helpful to think of priorities as the wooden frame upon which we stretch the canvas of our days so that we may apply color and form to the work of art we are creating without the entire painting collapsing in the middle.

It takes peace of mind and clarity to recognize and reorder meaningful, personal priorities. Maybe that is why so many of us procrastinate. But the more our lives and attention spans are segmented by our children, our careers, our homes, our marriages, and our needs for personal expression, the more we need to identify what is truly important in our lives.

Many of us assume that we can continue to get along just by "winging it" indefinitely. We can't. We need an antidote for the hurried and harried lives that threaten to tear us apart. Follow the advice of Anne Morrow Lindbergh and make carving out a small portion of each day for yourself a personal priority. "Quiet time alone, contemplation, prayer, music, a centering line of thought or reading, of study or work. It can be physical or intellectual or artistic, any creative life proceeding from oneself. It need not be an enormous project or a great work. But it should be something of one's own. Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day. . . . What matters is that one be for a time inwardly attentive."

Today make getting in touch with the Silence within yourself your first priority. As you do, you will be amazed at how everything else seems to find its own order.

Big Dreams Do Come True: The Golden Mirror Meditation

For years I have used a special meditation I call the golden mirror meditation. I visualize in my mind an enormous mirror the size of a room, with an elaborately carved, 24-karat gold frame. This is my materializing mirror. Those dreams I wish to materialize in my life are first viewed here.

Now let me share with you an amazing coincidence that a French proverb would suggest is "God's way of remaining anonymous." After I had been doing the golden mirror meditation for about a year, I was invited on an all-expenses-paid business trip to Dublin, one of my favorite cities. I was to stay at one of Dublin's oldest, most beautiful, and expensive hotels, the Shelbourne, where I had never been before. When I arrived at the hotel and walked into the lounge, what should I see but the physical manifestation of my daily meditation: a beautiful mirror with a gold-leaf frame that was so large it took up an entire wall of the lounge. I laughed with delight when I saw my reflection in it, for here was the Universe's way of demonstrating to me that whatever we visualize in our minds can come to pass in the physical world.

Today, find a few minutes to get quiet and journey within. Close your eyes. Visualize a beautiful, large golden mirror surrounded by shimmering white light. This light is Love and it surrounds you, enfolds you, enwraps you, and protects you as you look into the mirror. See the reflection of an extraordinary woman. She is beautiful and radiant. She possesses a strong, healthy, vibrant aura. Her eyes are sparkling and she is smiling warmly at you. Do you know who this woman is? You feel as if you have known her 'all your life. And you have. She is your authentic self. Spend a few moments with her now. What is she doing? How is she doing it? Visit her as often as you like. She is waiting to help you find your way as you make the journey of self-discovery.

There are days when we all fear the harsh glare of the looking glass, but there is never a time when you should hesitate to encounter the woman in the golden mirror. She is the highest reflection of your soul, the embodiment of the perfect woman who resides within and she sends you Love to light your path.


Source: Simple Abundance