The Complete Being E-Book

Tami Brady

• Herausgeber: Loving Healing Press
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Serie: Spiritual Dimensions
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2006

Seitenzahl: 176

Beschreibung

Like many people, I used to spend a good deal of my time fantasizing about the life I wish I had. Caught in the mindset of "I could never do that," "why can't I be more like so and so," and "nothing is ever going to change", I felt my dreams slipping away. But one simple question, why not?, changed my life forever. This phrase challenged to take control of my life and start driving towards the me I always hoped I could be.
The Complete Being: Finding and Loving the Real You will help you realize your own hopes and dreams. This book contains the wealth of my own personal journey to contentment in easy to adapt exercises that you can use to identify and strive towards your own life ambitions. You will regain control of your own destiny by applying these simple yet thought-provoking exercises in the mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical aspects of your life.
What People are Saying About The Complete Being
"The main point I saw in this work, and one I thought was outstanding, is that we are all individuals, unique and that one set formula may not work for everyone. I believe that is what makes her work different than other self-help books."
--Shirley Johnson, Midwest Book Review
"I found myself submersed in this book, discovering it a true source of encouragement, that however overwhelming life becomes, we should stay aware of what we want, never forgetting where we come from or what our dreams are."
--Tracy Jane-Newton, An Alternative View
"The Complete Being is meant to aid you in the further exploration of your wants, needs, and desires as well as your hopes and dreams. It is a very suitable guide for those painful first steps toward selfknowledge."
--Robert Rich, PhD, author of Cancer: A Personal Challenge By Tami Brady
Psychology / SELF-HELP
The Spiritual Dimensions Series
Series Editor: Robert Rich, Ph.D.
More info: www.LovingHealing.com

Leseprobe

The Complete Being

Finding and Loving The Real You

By Tami Brady

Spiritual Dimensions Series

The Complete Being: Finding and Loving The Real You

Copyright © 2006 Tami Brady. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

First Edition: May 2006

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brady, Tami, 1968-

  The complete being : finding and loving the real you / by Tami Brady.– 1st ed.

      p. cm. – (Spiritual dimensions series)

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-932690-20-0 (trade pbk. : alk. paper)

  ISBN-10: 1-932690-20-4 (trade pbk. : alk. paper)

 1. Self-actualization (Psychology) I. Title. II. Series.

BF637.S4B669 2006

158.1–dc22

     2005034314

Distributed by: Baker & Taylor, Ingram Book Group, New Leaf Distributing

Published by:Loving Healing Press5145 Pontiac TrailAnn Arbor, MI 48105USA

http://www.LovingHealing.com [email protected] Fax [phone]

L  o  v  i  n  g   H  e  a  l  i  n  g   P  r  e  s  s

What People Are Saying About The Complete Being

“In this informative packed work, author Tami Brady sets you on the course for success. Have you agonized wondering why others seem to achieve and you do not? Have you wanted to know something that may turn your odds around? If so this book is for you.”

—Shirley Johnson, MidWest Book Review

“I found myself submersed in this book, discovering it a true source of encouragement, that however overwhelming life becomes, we should stay aware of what we want, never forgetting where we come from or what our dreams are. If you want something, go out and get it, with the help of Tami Brady and her enlightening book, of course! The Complete Being should be on everyone's bookshelves.”

—Tracy-Jane Newton, An Alternative View

“The Complete Being is meant to aid you in the further exploration of your wants, needs, and desires as well as your hopes and dreams. It is a very suitable guide for those painful first steps toward self-knowledge. Language is lucid and clear, with easily discernible logic to the argument. This is no stuffy academic work, but a lady chatting to you in a way you can understand.”

—Robert Rich, PhD, author of Cancer: A Personal Challenge

The Spiritual Dimensions Series:

The Complete Being by Tami Brady

Turtle Dolphin Dreams by Marian K. Volkman

Dialogues: Conversations with my Higher Self by K.J.M. MacLean

The Vibrational Universe: Harnessing the Power of Thought to Consciously Create Your Life by K.J.M. MacLean

Series Editor: Robert Rich, Ph.D.

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capableof becoming,is the only end in life”

—Robert Louis Stevenson (June 1880)

Loving Healing Press is dedicated to producing books about innovative and rapid therapies which redefine what is possible for healing the mind and spirit.

     

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Mental Aspects

What exactly are mental aspects?

How do mental aspects affect daily life?

What does this mean for you in particular?

How can you figure out what your particular mental aspects mixture should include?

How can you go about changing or altering your current mixture of mental aspect?

What next?

Spiritual Aspects

What exactly are spiritual aspects?

How do spiritual aspects affect daily life?

What does this mean for you in particular?

How can you figure out what your particular spiritual aspects mixture should include?

How can you go about changing or altering your current mixture of spiritual aspects?

What next?

Emotional Aspects

What exactly are emotional aspects?

How do emotional aspects affect daily life?

What does this mean for you in particular?

How can you figure out what your particular emotional aspects mixture should include?

How can you go about changing or altering your current mixture of emotional aspects?

What next?

Physical Aspects

What exactly are physical aspects?

How do physical aspects affect daily life?

What does this mean for you in particular?

How can you figure out what your particular physical aspects mixture should include?

How can you go about changing or altering your current mixture of physical aspects?

What next?

Conclusion

Bibliography and More Resources

Mental Resources

Spiritual Resources

Emotional Resources

Physical Resources

About the Author

Index

If you try to compete with others, you are destined to fail.

Someone will always be richer, better looking, or faster.

However, if you strive to be yourself, you can't help but succeed.

You are the only person who can be you.

You are the only one who really knows who you are and the true

depth of your dreams.

Therefore, in order to be truly successful,

You need to explore who you are

And follow your most heartfelt desires.

Preface

Like most individuals on this planet, I have spent a good deal of time fantasizing about the life I would have if only I could choose. I would be more confident. I would be more adventurous. I would get more education and get a better paying job. I would choose satisfying and complementary relationships. I would feel like I had a valid place in this world.

As much time as I spent fantasizing, however, I had spent even more time wallowing in the misery of my real life and making excuses about why I couldn't accomplish these things. I began to assume that every day would be the same as the last. I even started to believe that dreams were for kids and for irresponsible people that intended to bounce from one failure to the next.

Then, one day I had an epiphany. At the time, I was a housewife raising three small children. Though I had the amazing ability to stretch a dime into a dollar, money was always extremely tight. My life centered around taking care of my children and finding ways to stretch the budget just to pay for the necessities of life.

I really loved being with my kids. I felt it was an important job and was willing to sacrifice to do what I felt was the right thing for my kids. But I had a good number of aspirations that didn't involve cleaning up messes, rereading stories for the hundredth time, or playing with bugs in the park. I wanted to be able to pay the bills each month. I wanted to become more confident and able to be part of an adult world. I wanted the freedom and ability to drive my children to various places. I wanted to see and learn a little bit about the world. I wanted to go to university and get my archaeology degree. In short, I wanted to be Tami, the person, and not just Mommy or Mrs. Brady.

For several years, I stewed about my quandary. I had always said I was going to go to university but frankly no one believed I actually ever would. The most vocal members of my family questioned why I would even want to go to university, especially to take archaeology. Archaeology was a career for single men. The only mothers who would dare train for such a job were simply trying to run away from their responsibilities. I had no intention of abandoning my family and so I eventually decided to give up on my dream.

My brother came to visit one day. We were both venting about our lives and talking about our bleak futures. I told him that I had finally given up on my hope of becoming an archaeologist. He asked me why I had to give up on this goal. I remember him saying “why not”. Rather irritated at my single brother's grasp of the seemingly obvious, I explained the situation to him: my responsibilities, my lack of finances, my confidence issues, my lack of an adventurous nature, etc.

Over the next few weeks, for some reason, I just kept replaying that conversation in my head. I kept hearing “why not”. Yes, I could list a whole book of reasons why I couldn't become an archaeologist. Strangely, however, these reasons seemed more like excuses.

I started wondering what I would tell my children if they were in my place. Surely, I wouldn't tell them to settle and be miserable. I started questioning why I was so willing to run away from a challenge. Finally, I realized that if I didn't at least try to reach my goals, I was going to regret my decision for the rest of my life.

Within six months of that epiphany, I started taking university classes. I researched and found student funding. I volunteered and then got a part time job at the local museum on weekends so that my husband could take care of the kids while I was working. I practiced my driving skills and learned how to take public transit. I pushed myself to interact with other students and resisted my natural urge to run away from the large crowded campus. I scheduled my classes around my children's school schedule, even taking a few late night classes, so that my children would not require daycare and would never come home to an empty house.

Seven years later, I had earned an undergraduate honours degree in Archaeology and graduate degrees in Archaeology and Heritage, awarded with distinction. I now run my own archaeological consulting company out of my basement. This allows me the freedom to choose my projects so that I don't have to stay away from my family for long periods of time. It also allows me the option to take on non-archaeological projects such as the writing of this book without the loss of income associated with working part-time. Moreover, I found that as I reached towards my objectives (sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing in my attempts) that in moving through or around these obstacles and challenges, I became happier in my life and more confident that I could achieve other ambitions that I had. My husband says I also became a lot nicer to be around.

In this way, the phrase “why not” changed my life. I hope that by reading this book, you can also start to ask yourself “why not”. Perhaps, you too can change your life.

Introduction

Wouldn't it be nice to be completely at ease with yourself, your life, and the world around you? Wouldn't it be great to come home every night refreshed after working the job that you truly love? Wouldn't it be amazing to have plenty of time, energy, and motivation to spend quality time with your family and friends?

Like most individuals, your initial reaction to these questions was likely a resounding “yes”. However, probably immediately following that initial reaction, you started to question the reality of such a situation. Possibly, just bringing in enough money to pay the bills takes most of your time and effort. You may even hope endlessly for a bit of extra energy just to complete some of your responsibilities at home. Almost certainly the thought of being energized, motivated, and spending real quality time with your loved ones not only sounds like a delusional fantasy, but just the mere thought of striving towards these aims is overwhelming, tiring you out even further.

Can you expect that just by simply reading this book you will learn magical secrets that will suddenly make your dead end job fulfilling? Does this writing contain a recipe that will add hours to your day so you can complete all the things on your to do list or motivate you to reread your child's favourite storybook for the twentieth time? Or maybe this work comes complete with a guaranteed winning lottery ticket or free maid service?

The short answer is no. This book is not a quick fix. It contains no magic secret, recipe, or pill. Sorry, no lottery ticket either.

Is life hopeless then (and was buying this book an exercise in futility)? Is the rest of your life going to look very much like today? Are you going to wake up every morning for the rest of your life still tired from the previous day's stress and defeat? Every night are you going to go to sleep with regrets that you didn't get your to do list completed or that you didn't get to spend enough time with your loved ones?

What a completely depressing thought! No, life isn't hopeless. No, life does not naturally stagnate. No, life isn't about falling helplessly deeper into a spiral of defeat and despair. No, you don't have to accept the lot that life has given you.

Though this book does not hold any magical or secret quick fixes, it does contain ideas about how to get to know and understanding yourself better. I know that sounds a little touchy-feely, but without knowing and understanding yourself you cannot possible know what is really important to you and what you need to change in your life to make yourself content, refreshed, and motivated.

It's kind of like buying a book that has no cover, no title, and no blurb on the back of the book. How are you supposed to know that you would even enjoy the story if you have no idea what the subject is? You may get lucky and love the topic but you may also get unlucky and hate the writing (wasting your money, time, and energy).

Continuing this analogy, perhaps, while waiting to purchase this book, you see others reading it. These individuals seem to be enjoying the experience. Therefore, based upon perceived popularity, you decide that it must be a good read and buy the novel. Perhaps, you too will love this story.

However, what if these individuals are all related to the author and are just trying to support him or her despite that the contents are complete trash? What if these individuals coincidentally happen to enjoy the same strange and warped type of stories? What if most of these individuals are too intimidated to say that they hate the writing? Just because this book seems popular doesn't mean everyone actually likes it. Furthermore, as each person is an individual with unique likes and dislikes, even if everyone else actually did like this work doesn't mean that you will automatically love it too.

The same is true of life. You can journey along life hoping that you will find happiness and fulfillment. Perhaps you will get lucky and find these things. Similarly, you can follow the crowd, trying to live your life the way your parents, friends, colleagues, or other individuals seem to live. This path may lead you to contentment and wonderful opportunities. Unfortunately, it is far more likely these actions will lead you directly to the miserable conclusion that your life is stagnant and hopeless.

The alternative? Again using the book example, if you wanted to learn more about the topic of a novel, you would possibly start by thumbing through the pages a little. You may also start a conversation with several of the individuals reading nearby to ask what the story was about. You may ask your relatives, friends, colleagues or other trusted individuals if they had heard anything about this book. You may also do a little research on the Internet or look up the author's name to see if he or she had written anything else giving you a clue to the subject of this work. In short, you'd do a little research (formal and informal) to give you an idea of the novel's topic. Then, you'd use this information to make a decision to buy the volume or not, hopefully based on your own individualized tastes and interests. Finally, you'd have to read through the pages to see if you actually enjoy the subject or not. If you love the story, it may even become a favourite that you reread over and over again or you may seek out similar topics. However, if you didn't like the story, you would begin looking for a different book.

The same is true of life. In order to determine what would make you happy and fulfilled in life, you have to do a little research (formal and informal) to give you an idea of your potential options. Then, using this information, you have to determine what you want from life. Finally, you have to begin working to make your ideas into reality in order to see if this lifestyle actually gives you what you need. You can then make alterations or changes as required.

There are four main aspects of change needed in a person's life: mental (formal and informal knowledge), spiritual (belief systems), emotional (personality and emotional health), and physical (bodily health and function). To become a complete being, you must define for yourself what you want your life to look like in each of these areas. That is not to say that you need to master or evolve to a specific level in each of these qualities in order to become a master or some sort of higher being. The nature of such an evolution is extremely subjective.

Yes, our society has some very specific notions of what the pinnacle of each of these facets should be. As you first read through the list of subdivisions, you possibly had preconceived thoughts and mental pictures of what a master of each of the areas may look and act like. For the intellectual portion, you may have pictured a doctor that has found the cure for cancer or a high-powered lawyer who works for the rich and famous. For the spiritual part, you may have visualized a religious leader who ceaselessly prays for world peace or a monk mediating in a cave. For the emotional section, you may have imagined a psychiatrist with remarkable communication skills or a stoic soldier. For the physical component, you may have thought about a supermodel or a professional athlete. Put all of these attributes together and you've got a pious doctor saving the world with his or her amazing communication and mediation skills all while stoically looking like a model running in a marathon. How ridiculous! While this scenario may be possible (perhaps through reincarnation), it is not very probable. There are only so many hours in the day and to expend that much energy in so many different places in one life is a bit on the unrealistic side.

Even if it were possible for you to become all of these things, would you really want to be exactly like everyone else? The world would be such a boring place if everyone were completely alike or all aiming for the exact same goals. There would be no individualism and no change, just the constant hum of everyone miserably working and competing towards the same bland end.

Using the book analogy again, imagine a library with only one book or billions of copies of the same book. If you loved that book, it may be a good library to frequent. At least you'd know your favourite story was always available. However, if you didn't like this piece of writing, you'd be less impressed by this library. Nonetheless, even if you did like this book, you'd possibly want to read a novel on a different topic eventually. In reality, being stuck reading one book forever sounds pretty boring. You'd likely be attracted to a library with more choice.

By this point in your life, you have possibly started to realize that you are an individual with unique talents, qualities, and aspirations and that the true pinnacle of your success involves making the best use of your own unique talents. You may have had many experiences where you tried to be something you weren't and failed miserably or where you did something to please or impress someone else but ended up feeling like a hypocrite. Perhaps, even if you did succeed in these endeavours, your impressive lifestyle and grandiose accomplishments didn't make you happy. Following someone else goals and life agenda almost always leads to disaster and unhappiness.

Nonetheless, in experiencing these situations, you have already begun to understand yourself just a little better. You have learned a little about your likes and dislikes. Perhaps you have learned more about the specific qualities you find attractive in friends and lovers. Maybe you even learned some of the details concerning your life dreams.

The Complete Being is meant to aid you in the further exploration of your wants, needs, and desires as well as your hopes and dreams. This book looks at the most important qualities needed to know and understanding yourself better, so that you can determine what type of life would make you content, refreshed, and motivated. Using this information, you can then start moving away from the parts of your life that make you overwhelmed, drained, and depressed and start modifying your existence into something that refreshed, energies, motivates, and validates you as a unique and valuable individual.

This book is divided into four sections, one section for each of the four main parts of a person's life: mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical. Each of these chapters is completely self-contained. Therefore, you are encouraged to read the sections in this book in any desired order as is relevant to your personal needs and ambitions. It will be beneficial, however, to take what you learn about yourself in any of the previously read section or sections and use this