Shauna Hoffman

The glorious new world to be discovered is YOU!

 

There is a glorious new world to be discovered! It’s not some far off island or a tiny village in an uncharted land. You can’t get there by car or sailboat or jet. And you can’t hire someone to plan your trip. Some of you may take years to get there and some of you may arrive over night. But for all of you the adventure has already begun! The glorious new world to be discovered is YOU!

 

Issue by issue in this column we will try and navigate the hidden parts of your psyche and soul. We will play and have fun, ask questions and share answers. We will release your deepest fears and discover your greatest joys. But we can’t do it unless you come along for the ride! So…you wanna come out and play?

 

The first adventure we will be taking on our road to self-discovery is the concept of becoming “SELF AWARE”. Self-awareness is the first step to any self-help program. I mean, if you don’t know what you feel, know what you believe, what you desire and what you dream, how can you change? How can you grow? And most importantly, how can you be happy? Notice how I wrote the word YOU. Becoming self-aware means that you are able to differentiate what YOU feel, from what others want you to feel; what you believe from what you have been programmed to believe. It is becoming aware of your judgments and deciding that you really agree with that judgment and it fits with your true morals, ethics and values! In a nutshell…it is experiencing, discovering and living your own belief system! Now isn’t that a glorious new world to discover?

 

So, lets try this exercise. It will be an opportunity to look deep inside yourself so see what you truly believe. Pick any political subject…women’s rights, the greenhouse effect, the war, our safety, the economy…. just pick one for this experiment. Now close your eyes and listen. Think about the subject and experience what thoughts go through your head. You will hear your parents talking to you. You will hear rhetoric and slogans. You will hear newscasters and politicians. You will hear your lovers and friends and ministers and teachers. You will see flashes of the past and see images of the future. Take a moment and let them float through your mind. Now comes the fun part….give yourself permission to let those thoughts and voices disappear! That is right! Disappear, go away and dissolve into nothingness! Now…sit in silence and breath…listen….feel.

 

It may take a while. But eventually an incredible thing happens. You feel your heart and experience your own voice. All of a sudden you know what YOU believe about the subject. It may be scary. Some of you may even feel some guilt because you may have just realized that what you feel is different from what you were taught, or what is expected of you. Others of you may have known these were your beliefs all along but never allowed them to come to be labeled as your truth.

 

Here is a clue. Once you accept these values as your own true core, you have discovered a treasure! You have just found inner freedom! You have just separated out all the programming you have received in life from your true SELF. You have become SELF AWARE.

 

WRITE ME AND TELL ME WHAT YOUR DISCOVERED IN YOUR NEW WORLD! Your Traveling Partner….Shauna