My Soul Restoration experience has been a journey of remembrance. I have been reminded of and from who and where I came, who I am to my very core - good and bad, where I have always dreamed I'd go with my life, and the detours that altered my direction along the way. I found the Brave Girl site through a friend who suggested I sign up for the encouraging "Little Bird Told Me" emails. I liked what I saw, stayed to search the site, and I fell in love with the idea of taking this class when I read this simple post on the Brave Girls website:
After reading:
"This is where your soul lives. Things sometimes happen in life, sometimes quickly and sometimes over time, that kick our doors in, break our windows and destroy our walls….[during the course we will] restore our dreams, our favorite things, and make a beautiful place for our souls to live... all while having a blast making art to remind us.”
I was hooked. I KNEW this class was for me. I was at a place in my life where I was feeling a little beaten down and worse for the wear. I had just turned 40 and, to me, that's the first number that held grave meaning. I thought everything that I’d ever dreamed for my life was now unattainable... that the one dream I remembered all through my life, to be a mother, was hanging by the finest thread of hope possible. I was so focused on what I thought I couldn’t have that I was neglecting all the GREAT things I DO have. This realization was my major motivation to stop, take some time for myself, and take the course.
And so it began…and soon each Tuesday, when the new lessons were unveiled, I looked forward to opening each class document and watching the videos that guided me through my soul work. In the videos the brave and wonderful Melody Ross (who shares her own story) speaks to you as if you are sitting there with her. She is just having a conversation that draws you into this comfortable place where you know your thoughts and feelings are acknowledged and safe… and that feeling continues to the “Red Carpet.” The Red Carpet is our own private online forum on the Brave Girls site for classmates to interact, discuss, contemplate, support, and encourage each other through every step of the way. Each and every woman involved has had something they were dealing with - no matter the size or severity of the issue - and each found their way to this class at the right time. Having such a great mix of nurturing, straight talking, outgoing, timid, young, young at heart, creative, and BRAVE women made the Red Carpet a place many of us went to share and learn from each other.
Lesson after lesson posed a special hurdle to leap – something that challenged me to face and move past in order to reach my personal goal: to become the very best possible version of myself... to like myself again. I was coming to terms with issues that needed resolution, and finally able to see new possibilities that a simple change in my attitude allowed. Truthfully it hasn’t been easy to face some of the issues raised... knowing, now, that I have made choices in the past for the wrong reasons. One example of such a choice had me move three hours from my home town:
I was happy in my home town - the only one of my graduating class that never said "I can't wait to get out of here." But in the years right before my move I had so many people telling me that I should get out that I began to believe it WAS the right thing for me to do. I don't blame anyone for my choice to move. I made that choice. But this class brought to light the fact that it was not my dream to leave, it was not what would make ME happy. Happy to me was being close to family, being involved with community theater, spending time with good friends, working out at the local hospital to lose weight, and working at my family's business (so much so that I stayed in that line of work after I moved when everyone URGED me to choose something in the field of Art. Thank goodness I showed some willingness to listen to my own heart, on that front at least.)
That is only one in many many things I learned about myself during the six weeks (with bonus seventh week wrap-up.) Working through the lessons and coming out on the other side of each step in the process with greater insight and the tools to deal with future issues that life presents is well worth the work! You don’t HAVE to be an artist to complete the assignments – you just have to be willing to be open to the process and do whatever you can to express yourself (some simply wrote everything out in their journals and THAT'S OK!)
I am excited about the future. I am amazed and thankful for the wonderful gift this class has given me. I am thankful for the friendships formed - the camaraderie within our classroom community - that has been and will continue to be a blessing!
I’ve learned so many things… not necessarily all new concepts – but new perspectives on the concepts. Simply changing the way I look at a situation or an idea can completely shed light on it – which brings me to my favorite new phrase: “shine a light on it!” Posted on the Brave Girls page one day was,
“Shine a light on it – whatever it is – if it’s scary…it’s not in the dark anymore and loses all it’s power.” And if it’s good – shining a light on it makes it easier for others to see and attracts others to it … just like I was attracted to the Brave Girls website…just like I hope this post reaches out and attracts others who might want or need to “shine a light on it!”
A very timely and encouraging fortune came to me in the fifth week...
If you want to know a little more about my experience, please feel free to view the other posts I have here. I blogged about a few of the lessons and have links to the Brave Girls site - but please don't forget to head back to the
Brave Girls Facebook page and
"like" my wall post that mentions this blog entry - I would love to win the opportunity to pay it forward and send another deserving soul the chance to attend
this amazing course!
