The Journey: Part 2

After living here a while I had started to work at a spa as an esthetician and massage therapist. The owner of this spa was a shrewd, money hungry, success-driven megalomaniac. Although she herself was unappealing to me - all the increasingly ridiculous sales goals she thrust upon us - she did provide me with valuable information, things I still call on today. She shared with us You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra, Beyond Fear and The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz.

It is the information in these books that I believe helped her reach success. And even though the work situation was unsatisfactory (she treated us more like worker-bees than employees), I learned so many great things from that job, although they may not be the things you'd expect...

This was my first job out of trade school. I was eager, excited, hard working, and above all naive. Through this job I learned what it feels like to be over-worked, under-paid, taken advantage of, and lied to. I know what it feels like to have people talk about you behind your back, and to be the person doing the talking. I learned what it's like to stand up with others for what's right in a court of law and win. I also learned valuable skills pertaining to my career that I didn't receive at the high-priced institute I attended.

All-in-all it was an alright first job. A lot of ground was covered, wouldn't you say?

Now, I had all the right books, all that wonderful information at my fingertips, but it wasn't until several years later that I put it into use. I was just so turned off by the whole experience that I put the books on my bookshelf and forgot about them. Anything someone that selfish and greedy would recommend was not anything I wanted to learn from.

True to form, it wasn't until I hit rock bottom that I started looking inside myself for answers. Each of us has such a wealth of intuition, the trick is tuning out what you've been taught and replacing it with what you know deep down to be true. When I started to do this, things got better. There have been hiccups along the way, but with each one my path becomes clearer.

It's like going to the opthamologist. He asks you repeatedly, "Better or worse? Better of worse?" Each time I made a choice it became more clear. Sometimes the lesson was how to treat others, sometimes it was how to treat myself. I'm not perfect. I have made enemies over the years, I have made mistakes, but each situation showed me -even if it was down the road a bit- how to become a better me. The best me.

It is my intention to be the best me I can at all times, and to know I am perfect just the way I am. I am so happy and grateful now that I love and approve of myself.