Excavating the Real You, Part II
‘We’re back at the site of your soul this morning for some more digging. Perhaps you wonder why we are spending so much time excavating. Maybe you balk at having to search your past for clues as to how to live contentedly in the present. Please be open: the excavation process expands your sense of the possible because it provides you with inner knowledge. Pick up your pen to play and in your daily dialogue pages return to the home of your childhood.
How was it decorated? Do you remember? Take a walk through the rooms and see them once again. Did you clean your room? Was the door usually kept closed? What was your favorite spot in the house? Was your mother a good cook? Do you ever prepare any of the special recipes for yourself?
How did your mother comfort you when you were sick? When was the last time you had alphabet soup and saltines for lunch on a tray in bed?
Where did you go on vacation? To your grandmothers’ houses? Can you remember them? Is there a sense memory you associate with childhood vacations?
Now fast-forward to your teenage years. Were there any girls in your class that you admired? Envied? Who were they and why? Did you go to a prom? Describe your gown. How did you fix your hair? Who initiated you into the feminine rituals of good grooming? Was there an older woman in your life whose sense of style impressed you?
Let’s move forward to when you set up your first home, either as a young working woman or when you first got married. Where was it? How was it furnished? Are you still living with some of your early decorating choices? Do they reflect who you are now or have you outgrown them? Are you living with things that you’ve inherited from your family? Do they really suit you?
Now slowly let your attention return to the room. You have excavated some more chips to place into your authentic mosaic. “Minor things can become moments of great revelation when encountered for the first time,” the great ballerina Margot Fonteyn observed. We tend to think it is the major events that mark our lives, when really it is the minor moments that resonate in memory. Lovingly pick one pleasant recollection and think about it today.’ -Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance A Daybook of Comfort and Joy
Did you miss Part I? No worried read it here: Part I.
Oh my goodness… is this a therapy session or what? I am going to prescribe us all a healthy dose of Prozac and a good nights rest.
Take two of these and more therapy to come…