Reclaiming Your Joy
By: Susan Deborah Schiller
A sure clue that your identity has been stolen is when you lose your joy in life. You end up in the routine of chores and responsibilies but your own needs are often neglected.
You support others while letting your own dreams die.
For years, I woke up from dreams where my passport was missing and I needed to get on an airplane for an important trip! Or I'd be at church only to discover that someone had stolen my purse. I had numerous dreams, warning me that I had given up my identity.
Once your identity is missing, your purpose in life is aborted.
You might still be living in hell, or not quite free of the trauma. It can take years before you feel like yourself again, and that's okay. This activation may help you to see what's possible, and it may also quicken your recovery time.
Your 60-second story will answer three primary questions your listener wants to know:
- Who you are (or want to be)
- What you do (or want to do)
- What you have they may be interested in (or what you would like to produce)
If you feel you can't answer the first question yet, that's okay. Discovering your identity is a great place to begin.
Knowing who you are leads to your purpose in life – what you do. Once you're doing what you've been designed to do, you will have something to give to the world. We are created to be producers – that's the nature of our work. Money follows production.
When we work for money, often money is the only thing we receive. We aren't meant to be robots, building someone else's dream. We aren't designed to be automatons, waking up each morning with a complete to-do list already prescribed for us to mindlessly fill.
We are humans! Humans are creators. We are designed to co-create with God!
Jot down some bullet points, perhaps taken from your resume, portfolio, or autobiography. If you're really stuck on this and can't think of anything, perhaps consider thinking about who you WANT to be! 🙂
Train your brain to reign!
Once you have it written on paper, keep repeating it to yourself, because you are training your brain to reign. Your story, first of all is about you and for YOU!
You are God's child and everyone who has been victimized needs brain-training in the area of identity, because our core identity is the bull's eye target of an abuser. In "The Widow Maker" I share the story of how my identity was attacked and stolen, and how I had to name my adversary in order to reclaim my power.
Here's my identity statement, my 60-second story, as an example:
I had always been a "good girl," obedient, and submissive, since childhood. The enemy used my meek nature to tear down my defenses and sabotaged my talents and gifts with verbal and emotional abuse. I ended up becoming the woman my counselors described as "the most abused woman" they had ever met.
I lost everything. Most of all, I lost myself, even in the midst of doing good things!
It took a period of wandering in the wilderness to unlearn most of the beliefs I had been programmed to believe. Some people call it persecution, but to me the pain was a gift! It woke me up and I began to rediscover how much God loves me! In intimacy with God my identity was restored!
Today I am Abba's beloved child living the adventure of freedom and fullness. I am a heart scribe with a mother's heart, nurturing a tribe of women to be storytellers, writing ourselves into a better world. Through art we create beauty out of chaos.
I help survivors of injustice rewrite their future, through life story writing prompts and step-by-step guidance and support as they create heirloom quality books. We are writing ourselves into a better world.
This memoir becomes my compass. By intentionally writing it and memorizing it, it charts my path.
Okay, so that leads in to the next phase. We're going to wrap this up in a story.
Writing Prompt: How did you lose your identity? How did you give up your dreams, and why? What put you in hell? What was your wake up call? What alerted you that something was wrong? How did you get free? How are you beginning to learn to come alive?
Try to relate your story to how your listener may be feeling, to those universal problems we all experience. It will help them to feel involved in your story and to connect with you.
My Full Story What I Believe Contact Me
With all my love,
Sue
Copyright © 2010 to 2015 Team Family Online, All rights reserved. For reprint permission or for any private or commercial use, in any form of media, please contact Susan Schiller.
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