Have You Had Your Epiphany Yet?

Have you had your epiphany yet? Some people have an epiphany as midlife hits and they call it a midlife crisis. They question major decisions that brought them to this point in their lives and they do something drastic to make changes. Others have an epiphany when something bad happens: a friend dies unexpectedly, there is a disaster at work or they have major health issues that inspire them to live differently.

My interpretation of an epiphany is the third definition listed in Merriam-Webster:

"a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something; an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure"

It's like an optical illusion, once your mind "gets it", you understand it forever.  I've had several.  One of my personal epiphanies is that loving myself is one of life's most important lessons.  I'd heard it, of course we are supposed to love ourselves.........but the illuminating part was that once I realized I didn't fully, unconditionally love myself, I had the awareness of seeing the negative effects of conditional, partial love.

An example of self-love would be, "I made a mistake, OK, I'll learn from it and do better next time". Back in the day, I used to want to take out full-page ads in the paper explaining why I ended up making a mistake.  It's about worthiness and feeling deserving too. 

Having to over-analyze every decision is time-consuming and exhausting.  A good friend once said, "I bet you are exhausted living life the way you do".  At the time, I thought everyone was doing the same over-analysis and I wondered why they weren't exhausted too!!

Forgiveness plays a key role in unconditional self-love.  We made mistakes, we need to make amends and LET IT GO.  So when your brother comes up to you at the next holiday gathering reminding you of the transgressions of your youth, laugh and walk away.  The more we buy into other peoples' judgments of us, the more we judge ourselves.  Do not pass GO, do not collect $200, just walk away:)

Change awaits us when we are ready.  If you are not ready, no worries.  When you do become ready, look for intuitive clues about realizations that can help you lead a more joyful life.  We all deserve a joyful life and we all deserve to love ourselves unconditionally.  When you are open to change, the epiphanies come to you.

Have a great day!

xo
Conni