Finding our way in the world will surely be more than a step! It will be a lifetime of many steps to many places to fulfill many dreams. We are responsible for this step. We may have been gravely abused in the past, and we may have spent much of our life as as victims. But now we know the truth! Now it is up to us to get to know our real selves and to carve a path in the world that will allow our real selves to grow and flourish. If we don't do this, no one else will do it for us! If we don't do this, we will be throwing away the precious gift that is our life.
So how do we even begin to find our way? Finding our way should be a natural extension of making space for our real selves. But it may also include an element of courage and risk. We may need to go back to school, or change careers, or end a relationship, or begin a new relationship. We may need to try something completely new and different that we've never let ourselves try. It will feel scary to many of us to "step out of line" and do something risky. Old tapes may play in our heads that make us feel "selfish" or "self-centered" if we try to make a big life change for ourselves. But it is not selfish to care for our real selves, any more than it is selfish to bathe our real bodies or buy vitamins to keep our bodies healthy. It is important that we find a life path for ourselves that takes care of our real selves - that nourishes, supports, and encourages the person we were meant to be.
Does this mean we have to leave everything in our past life? No! We may not have to change very much in our life - at least at first. But we do need to re-evaluate everything in our life, and look at the path ahead of us in terms of how well it is going to meet the needs of our real self. If we realize that we need a big change, we need to make ourselves go to work on finding a way to begin to make that change. We need to take a first step. The biggest changes always begin with a first small step, and even the smallest step forward is empowering. Each day we need to think about our lives, our paths, our real selves, and where we are making our real selves go. Is this where the real us wants to go, or are we forcing our real self into a path of martyrdom and victimhood? If we are thinking and looking ahead, we can find a way that is right for our real selves as well as for those people we choose to have in our lives. There is a way that will work! We need to use all our creative, problem-solving talents to find that way! We need to do it for us. We need to do it as a "thank you" for the lives we were given.
One last step will complete our metamorphosis - Finding Meaning.
