WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOURSELF, CAN AND WILL HURT YOU, NOT TO MENTION OTHERS. – Ian Cron

For many of us, it is hard to take a good long look in the mirror. To really reflect and ask what we see. To take a deep breath and sit with the difficult questions.  But Mr. Cron is right;  what we don’t know about ourselves, can and will hurt us, not to mention others.

At The Exchange, one of our goals is to offer us tools for our “toolbox of life”. Tools that enable us and empower us to live our best lives.  And this past week, we studied another tool called The Enneagram. The Enneagram is full of wisdom for anyone that wants to get out of their own way so they can become who they were created to be!   And according to the Road Back To You, “getting out of our own way has to do with SELF-KNOWLEDGE. It is super important that we question the lens through which we see the world – where it came from, how it shaped our lives, and even IF the vision of reality it gives us – is distorted or true.

As long as we stay in the dark about how we see the world and the wounds and beliefs that have shaped who we are, we’re prisoners of our history. We’ll continue to go through life on auto-pilot doing things that hurt and confuse ourselves and everyone around us.”  The purpose of The Enneagram is to develop self-knowledge and learn how to recognize and dis-identify with the parts of our personalities that limit us so that we can be reunited with our truest and best selves!

In September we had the opportunity to anonymously write down lies we as women believe.  When I got home that night, I sat down in my office and read each and every one. It was sobering.  My heart broke.  Like REALLY broke. I don’t want my daughters believing such lies.  I don’t  want my friends believing them either. And I am no longer content sitting back and letting women in MY community be prisoners of their history! And I refuse to be a prisoner of mine!  Not on my watch. Not anymore.  There is still work to be done.

We need to destroy these lies so that we can be reunited with our truest and best selves.  Who’s with me?

Grateful to be on this journey with you,

Elizabeth