This video shows some simple but very effective tools to help our children to face and resolve challenges by using practices of self-inquiry and self-awareness. This is a story of self-love, self-appreciation, courage and forgiveness.
“Self love, self respect, self worth. There is a reason they all start with ‘self.’ You can not find them in anyone else.” – Unknown
Is Loving Yourself Being Selfish?
Some say that loving ourselves is being selfish. I think it is quite the opposite.
When we love ourselves we feel so fulfilled, empowered and great that we are eager and open to give and to share. The nature of a self-loving person is that of compassion, kindness, appreciation, acceptance, courage and freedom.
On the other hand, when we don’t love ourselves we feel unworthy and become needy, disempowered, critical and judgmental. We need to take from others and attack others so we can compensate for our feelings of lack and limitation.
Loving ourselves brings us to be the best givers and receivers, whereas the lack of self-love brings us to be egotistic and greedy.
So in actuality, who is the selfish one?
Ingrid Honkala, PhD.
Conversations with the Beings of Light
Just Be Yourself And The Rest Will Unfold:
As a teenager, I continued at the same Catholic girls’ school I had been in since the sixth grade. Life was easier and happier at home; however, at school things were still very challenging. Since birth I had continuously battled with respiratory problems. I also had a constant fight with food. I was never hungry or thirsty; thus I was always very skinny and due to my appearance people often called me names. But I refused to let my health stop me from being active. I tried to participate in sports and become more social, but was unsuccessful in both pursuits. Even though I had made a couple of friends, we didn’t really have much in common. So, I was back to being alone. It seemed that the harder I tried to fit in, the less people liked me.
“Just be yourself,” was the advice I got from my grandma Lilia.
“I can be myself at home, Grandma, but no one at school likes me the way I am. I even heard rumors that some kids were afraid of me. They say that I am too odd.” At this point in my life, it was completely clear to me that I wasn’t like anyone else I knew, not even like my grandmother. “Why do I have to be so different from everyone else?” This was my ongoing question, no matter how many times I heard that my uniqueness was a gift.
In my sophomore year, our religion teacher decided that we would play a group game. The game consisted of assigning an animal to each person that seemed to fit her personality. During the game, each person would sit on a chair in the middle of the classroom while the rest of the class would take a few minutes to discuss which animal. Then someone would announce the animal, and explain the group’s choice. People were assigned different animals, from dolphins, to eagles, to horses, even a unicorn. When my turn came, I was anxious to hear what they had to say about me. I always felt that I wanted to be a bird. If I could just grow wings I could fly anywhere I wanted and I would be free.That’s what I was thinking while the rest of the class was debating.
There was a lot of commotion in the room until the teacher yelled, “Everyone please silence.” Then my heart sank very deep into my chest when one of the popular girls murmured, “A tick.”
“Excuse me?” the teacher said sternly.
“A tick,” the girl reaffirmed. Some of the girls burst into laughter while others remained silent.
“Everybody quiet,” the teacher demanded. “Why is she a tick?”
“Because she is annoying and hard to get rid of.”
At that moment, the school bell rang and everyone except two girls and the teacher left the classroom. I felt so sad and humiliated. “We do not agree with them,” one of the two girls said to me, “That was mean and childish.” From that day Luisa and Monica walked away from their own groups, and we became friends.
Amazingly, only a couple of weeks before the animal game, I had decided to follow grandma’s advice: Stop trying to make friends by doing things I didn’t like, including playing sports. Since I did like to play chess I joined the chess team, which only had a few members, one of whom was Luisa. I remember thinking how much I enjoyed chatting with her while playing chess.
While talking to the Beings of Light about the class incident and my new friends, they made me laugh by saying, “Ticks are also part of God.”
“I know, but you are being silly,” I replied.
“Thanks to that tick you have gained two new friends.”
“You couldn’t be more right,” I laughed.
To my surprise, only two weeks later I also made another friend named Thomas. Since I had shown a strong interest in becoming a marine biologist, our principal asked me if I wanted to meet her nephew, who was working with the Colombian National Park Service in that field. I was very excited to meet him. He was about fifteen years older than me, but from the moment we met we connected and became very good friends.
“Wow, I didn’t know I was ready to meet all these new people,” I said to the Beings of Light.
“To be ready you don’t need to make any huge effort. As we told you before, the more you focus on the positive, as you have been doing at home and lately at school, the more you make yourself ready to meet your dreams,” they replied.
Thomas happened to be a very wise and a sensitive person and he taught me much of what I learned about metaphysics. My friendship with Thomas, Monica and Luisa grew and remained strong throughout the rest of my high school years.
Ingrid Honkala, PhD.
From the time I was a little girl I always felt as if I was an observer. In young adulthood I was able to ask, “What is that that I am observing?”
“All of life,” the Beings of Light answered, then after a pause they added, “through your personal experience.”
This helped me understand the unique importance of my existence. I know that although we are one with the Whole, each of us is a unique emanation of the One, or God, or Whole. This is why the Beings of Light always referred to each one of us as special. Nothing in the universe lacks purpose. Every one of us is special because of the unique way in which we experience and perceive life. We are part of the universal flow of infinite creation always reinventing itself, manifesting, and eternally expanding.
Ingrid Honkala, PhD.
To see a list of the most frequent questions and answers about my near-death experience, the Beings of Light and much more visit my website at frequently-asked-questions
Thanks so much for all your support.
Tons of Love, Light and Blessings,
Ingrid.
In-Lak'esh (I am you in Mayan)
