How I Learned to Love ALL of me

Part II: My Story into Being

This is what I share with my clients about my journey and how I learned to love all of me

I now realize that self-love was the root of my awakening. When I learned to have compassion for myself, when I learned to truly love all the parts of me, is when womanhood felt real and where I could experience the fullness of my contribution to humanity. One could fast forward the story of my life with about 5 major benchmarks.

1. Joining the military in 1999. At 17-years-old, I felt invincible and empowered. I got to see the world through a new perspective and officially, now there was nothing that I could not do. I didn’t know what self-love was and I got to learn what it was not.
2. Turning 21 in Iraq, my coming of age.
3. Turning 30 and having the divine enlightenment of being a woman.
4. Beginning and completing transformational personal development. Without realizing it, I was being attracted to personal development programs that would help me to recreate who I was. No, actually, I was creating someone entirely different. She was not me anymore.
5. Meeting the love of my life. The transformational work made this possible. This was the ultimate fulfillment of self-love in my life. Because I loved myself so hard, I was able to create the ultimate love in relationship with a partner.

I recall after one of the trainings, in 4 short days, I would emerge as someone who had the power to shift my life. The “realist” turned into an optimist and solution-creator.

The mess and chaos, sadness, fogginess, and toxic relationships were all becoming less and less. Then I would find a life coach that helped me look at myself through an entirely different lens.

Questions for Reflection

I would find myself asking, “How am I responsible for this?” It was a very powerful question. Or my favorite is, “What is possible when I _____?”

Or anther, “How does this serve me?” These were just 2 of the many questions that I would learn to reflect on as I was building myself into the woman that I knew I was meant to be. 

Inner Work is a Mental & Emotional Muscle

Next, as a result of my inner work, I didn’t worry anymore; I was attracting love in all the right ways; I was experiencing healing conversations with my loved ones; I was finding that I could be “selfish” without the guilt. I felt liberated. 

Anything is Possible for You, You can love ALL of you!

I am still on this journey of discovering myself (we are all like onions, I believe). AND the good news for you is that anything is possible for your life. 

The biggest lessons that I learned are:

1. How to love myself.
2. How to be present at the moment.
3. How to give up my ego (well this is a work in progress). 
4. How to be quicker to embrace giving apologies (it’s usually for the other party’s good and not just for me). 
5. How to embrace neutrality versus right and wrong. 
6. How to be generous and compassionate with myself.
7. How to be a contribution from a neutral space.
8. How to use my voice.
9. How to embrace my inner nerd and querks.
10. How to have fun and not always take myself so seriously (also a work in progress).

IF you are at a cross roads as I was.

Ask yourself How You can Love all of You …

Let’s quickly go through a few points that may support you in reflecting on whether it is a good time to work with a life coach. 

1. How would you like to be different in your life? 
2. What is getting in your way?
3. How are you attracting what you want in your life?
4. What results would you like to create in working with a coach? 
5. How do you identify with the world when you have success and challenges? 
6. What practices are in place in your life that do not support your creation of your 10-life? 
7. What practices would you like in place to support your goals?
8. What would you create if anything were possible?
9. How would you like to be remembered?
10. Is there a gap between who you are and who you want to become?

Featured photo: @nathaliarodrigues via Twenty20