Entering The Meantime
YOU'VE GOT TO CLEAN THE HOUSE BEFORE YOU CAN LIVE IN IT!
welcome!Chances are, if you have put forth the effort and energy to find this book, you are in the"meantime."I welcome you because I know something wonderful is about to happen -- in your life and for you.
You probably think your life or some part of it is falling apart. The truth of the matter is everything is about to come together just the way you have always wanted it to!
The objective of thismeantimeworkbook is to help you put the pieces of your life together -- the missing pieces, the broken pieces, the confusing pieces, and the lost pieces. We are going to go through every inch of your emotional and spiritual house
and clean up the mess, clear out the debris, fix the leaks, stop the
squeaks, and reveal and repair any damage we can find. This workbook is designed to support you while you do the work required to build a solid structure that is grounded in love. Let me warn you right now, it may not be easy! But then, you knew that, didn't you?
ARE YOU READY TO WORK?
Themeantimeis a working time. It is the 9-5 of your life to which you bring all that you have studied, learned, been told, understand, and recognize about yourself and life. Themeantimeis a time of strengthening that knowledge so that it can work through you and for you. Themeantimeis where you land when you saw it coming, did not know what to do about it, ran around frantically for a while, and finally said, "Okay! Okay! I don't like it, but I am willing to deal with it!" Willingness is the key that transforms a character-developing experience into a soul-enhancing one. At the core of your soul is the essence of love.
In themeantime,you get to deal with all the pieces of your experience that you do not like, but are at least willing to understand. Understanding is the ticket through themeantime.Every step or misstep you have ever taken has led to this moment. You are exactly where you need to be, doing exactly what you need to be doing in order to move into a higher consciousness. This is the place you had to come to in order to "bump" your life up to the next level. Themeantimeis about pumping up the volume -- the volume of love you are willing to give and receive.
In the midst of themeantime,it mayappearthat you are standing on shaky ground. The truth is you are standing onHoly Ground.Oh by the way, did I mention that the meantime is grounded in truth? The truth of who you are, the truth about what you do, the truth about what you want, the truth about what you see, the truth about what you know, and the truth about what you do not know. Furthermore, in the midst of themeantimeexperience, there is the truth about your ability to recognize each of these, and it isthis truththat ultimately determines how you make it through whatever you are going through.
In themeantime,you are engaged in a Holy Healing process which your soul signed up for because, at the deepest level of your soul, you know that love is the only way to get what you really want. In themeantime,you will have to work through your stuff.
WHERE IS THE MESS?
A feeling is the energy that moves you in one direction or another. If you get stuck in a feeling, you won't move in any direction at all. What you arefeelingdetermines the kind of work you must do to make it through themeantime.The following is a basic guideline you can use to figure out where you live.
you are doing basement work if you are feelingdisappointed, betrayed, rejected, and/or like where you are is someone's fault. You've got a problem, but you don't know it.
you are doing first-floor work if you are feelingangry, frightened, confused, unhappy, and/or apprehensive, or believe your life is falling apart. You've got a problem, but you don't know what it is.
you are doing second-floor work if you areending a relationship that you don't want to end, leaving employment that you didn't have the courage to leave, going back to school, moving to a new location just to get away from the old one, opening a business because you got kicked out of your job, and/or facing a serious health challenge because of lack of self-care. You've got a problem, you know what it is, but you don't know what to do about it.
you are stuck between the second and third floors if you are askingWhy me??? Why now??? Why should I??? How come??? How can I??? When will it end??? When will it begin??? What the heck is going on??? You've got a problem, you know what it is, you know what to do about it, but you are afraid to do it.
you are doing third-floor work if youare seeking closure to dysfunctional relationships, ready to forgive people you've been in relationships with, ready to forgive yourself for staying in relationships and situations you knew you had no business being in, and/or you are ready to assume full responsibility for every aspect of your life. You don't have problems. You have challenges, and you feel perfectly equipped to handle them.
you are doing attic work if you are feeling or sayingI am grateful! I am hopeful! I am ready! I am open!
MAKE SURE YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT HOUSE!!!
Just to be on the safe side, let's take a quick inventory to make sure that this is the book you need.
You are in themeantimeif:
You are confused, angry, disappointed, frustrated about something that has happened in your life.
You have just been fired, left, divorced, had surgery, or been released from prison.
You feel anxious, apprehensive, beat up, beat down, sorry for yourself, unhappy with yourself, numb, or generally wiped out.
If, however, you are in rage, depression, seeking vengeance or revenge; if you are seeing red, black, or green at the thought of a particular person or situation,you are not in themeantime.You are in a valley!
A valley experience is very different from ameantimesituation. When you are in a valley, you are having an experience that fosters character development. When you find yourself in a valley, it is because you have missed the boat! You have displayed either an inability or an unwillingness to examine and accept the truth about yourself. You are learning a lesson that you missed because you insisted on"having it your way"or"doing your thing,"even when you knew that your way would not work. If you are in a valley you are probably crying in anger, breaking dishes, talking really badly about someone, and being a victim -- again! You probably sound something like this, "I gave my all and got messed over -- again!" Or, "I bent over backwards trying to do it right, only to be overlooked, left, mistreated -- again!"
If you find yourself in a miserable experience you swore you would never be in again, chances are you didn't see it coming. Not because you couldn't see it, but because you didn't want to see it. Now that what you saw and refused to accept has bitten you on the butt, you are really, really, really pissed off! It's calledpissosity!That is the state in which most valley dwellers find themselves before they become aware that there is work to be done. They are either comatose or in a highly agitated state ofpissosity.
If this clearly or closely describes your current state of being, I humbly suggest that you go back and readThe Value in the Valley: A Black Woman's Guide Through Life's Dilemmas.Do not get hung up on the fact that you may not be black or that you may not be a woman. Read it anyway! I can almost guarantee that there is something you need to know about yourself in the pages of that book.
If you are actually in a valley, you may find there is a little help for you in this workbook; however, you must bewillingto do the work required. This means no more blaming. Blaming is pointingout there,rather thanin here,into your own mind, when you find yourself in a painful or uncomfortable experience. Blame means shifting the responsibility for where you are onto someone or something else, rather than accepting responsibility for your role in the experience.
Ameantimeexperience is a very different experience. When you are in themeantime,you are hurt, but you are not blaming anyone else unless you are in the basement. You will know you are in the basement if you are ready to feel better by any means necessary. You are angry, but you are willing to forgive, even if forgiving means acknowledging thatyou made a mistake,a poor choice, or a big boo-boo. You are confused, but you have not pulled the covers up over your head, refusing to come out until someone or something has its head ripped off.
If you are able to show even the slightest degree of willingness to work on yourself, you may find solace in these pages. Otherwise, until you becomewillingto work through some of the anger, pissosity, and blaming, you are going to find that it is very hard to do the healing work required. But, I will leave it up to you to decide where you are and where you want to be.
YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE YOUR NEW HOUSE!
In themeantime,you are asking:What?What can I do? What did I do? What should I do? What am I learning? You are asking:How?How can I stop this cycle? How did I get here? How come...? You are asking:Why?Why am I here? Why is this happening? Why this? Why now? This is a very different scenario from the valley scenario. When you are in the valley, the only thing you are asking is"Why me?!"You are also placing more emphasis on theme,as opposed to thewhy.This is precisely why themeantimeis a very different experience. You have come to themeantimeto evolve, not to develop; to get clear, not to find your eyes! More specifically, you have come to themeantimeto learn about love.
Love does not hurt. It gently guides you to where you need to be at any given time in your life. Love is not out to crush you. Love opens your eyes, clears your mind, and above all, opens your heart to a greater experience of yourself. Now, I will admit that there are those situations when itappearsthat love has left you high and dry on the desert, without so much as a thimbleful of water. That is, however, just an appearance. Things are rarely as they appear to be, and the purpose of ameantimeexperience is to move you beyond appearances to the true essence of you: love.
If you are not giving and receiving love in all of your life's experiences, you will find yourself in onemeantimeexperience after another. To move from one level of consciousness to another, from one level of self-awareness to another, you must be grounded in love, you must engage in loving behavior. In this workbook, you will repeatedly be asked if you have engaged in loving behavior, or if you have acted out a habitual thought pattern, such as fear, greed, or the most common of human behaviors, unconsciousness. Under all circumstances, life expects us to behave in a loving manner, whether we are conscious or not. I hope the work you will do in this book will support you in maintaining a loving consciousness.
LOVING BEHAVIOR REFERENCE
For reference, whether you make it through the work in this book or not, the most loving way you can behave through any experience is:
Ask for exactly what you want.
Tell the absolute truth about what you want.
Clearly let others involved know your expectations of them.
Ask for clarity about what is expected of you.
Tell the absolute truth about your ability to live up to the expectations of others.
Renegotiate any agreements you have made if you find that you're unable to keep the agreement.
Honor what you feel, first to yourself, then to others around you.
Remain open to hearing what others want and expect without feeling you have to do anything about it.
Never dishonor or deny yourself or what you feel simply to please someone else.
Be willing to surrender (give up) what you want or expect when surrendering it serves a greater purpose, such as healing or generating more love.
Be willing to forgive people for the things they do or fail to do in fear or anger.
Be willing to forgive yourself for the things you do in fear or in anger.
Bless every experience and ask that Divine will and understanding be granted to you and others.
ROLL UP YOUR SLEEVES!
This workbook is designed to support you as you examine and explore the situations that brought you to themeantimeexperience. At first, some topics may seem to have no relevance to your situation or experience.TRUST THE PROCESS!All is relevant, and as you go through the process, all you need to know will be revealed.
The idea behindmeantimework is tosave yourselffrom having the samemeantimeexperience in the future. Something you are thinking, believing, saying, or doing is taking you away from your heart's desire. Our goal is to get to the heart of the matter in order to find love that you can give away, in order to receive. Your objective is to identify the contributing elements of yourmeantimesituation and break them down into bite-size pieces that you can ingest and digest. You will do a great deal of writing so that you can get clear and be clear before you make another move or give birth to more of what you do not want to experience.
There are a few things you can do to make your healing process more effective in themeantime:
FORGIVE YOURSELF!
You have never done anything wrong. Now you can forgive yourself for ever believing that you did. Oh by the way, everyone else you have ever encountered is as innocent of wrongdoing as you are! (Take a breath! You will understand what I mean later.)
TRUST YOURSELF!
Because you are a unique and divine expression of God (known by whatever name you are comfortable with), you are worthy and can be trusted, because you really know what to do.
SUPPORT YOURSELF!
You deserve a kind word, a good thought, a loving gesture every now and then, so give them to yourself!
HONOR YOURSELF!
Stop criticizing, judging, denying, and second guessing what you feel and who you are!
FORTIFY YOURSELF!
Get lots of rest. Eat good healthy foods! Spend some quiet time alone withyou.And, don't forget to have some fun! Playing is a big part of a good life.
COMMIT YOURSELF!
Take some part of each day and use it to take one step toward accomplishing a daily, weekly, or monthly goal!
LOVE YOURSELF!
You are the one that the world is waiting for! You are so precious to life, you must make it a high priority to letyouknow that you are loved, needed, and wanted by God!
YOU'LL NEED A BROOM
This workbook is a healing process designed to help you remember what you forgot; become conscious of the things you may not now be conscious of; and to get to know parts of yourself that you don't know. To accomplish any or all of this is a process!!! Do not try to rush through this book. You will fall! You will crash! Healing takes time, so feel free to take as much time as you need to complete the work in this book.
You may find it is easier to use a notebook or journal to do the actual work. In this way you can reuse a particular page as often as you feel it's necessary. Please feel free to do and redo the same worksheet as many times as necessary to get to higher ground, a deeper feeling of peace, or to gain more clarity. As you are writing, honor what you feel.
Your feelings are the keys you need to unlock the mystery of yourmeantimeexperience. If at any time, whether you are doing a worksheet or not, you become overwhelmed by a need to express what you are feeling, you can use your journal to vent, capture, cleanse, and heal the experience. Whether you are angry, sad, excited, happy, confused, frustrated, or highly pissed off, you must vent. It is good for the soul. Venting also helps you to get clear about what you are feeling in the privacy of your own mind before you bite someone else's head off!
It is also advisable to use a pencil rather than a pen, because as you get clear, you may need to add or subtract from your response. Know that whatever you decide to do is fine.
NICE AND EASY IS MORE THAN HAIR DYE!!!
To complete one exercise a day is wonderful. It would be even better if you complete one every three or four days. In this way you give your mind and soul the opportunity to integrate and heal whatever you may discover or uncover.
You may work through the book in any manner you choose. You may follow the order of the book, doing one exercise at a time. You may zero in on one issue or a particular area, and complete that work first. You may just open the book and begin working in a particular section. You have many, many options. If, however, at any time you are working in this book and find that you feel afraid, overwhelmed, or that your mind has gone blank, STOP! Take a few deep breaths. Stretch your body and take a drink of water before you go any further.
BREATHE!!!
I hope that in the process of working through this book, you will have many revelations. You may realize that things you have done have not been in your best interest. When this happens, you may be overwhelmed with the feeling that you have"done it wrong."If or when this happens, take a breath. Take a long, deep breath! You are not nor have you ever been wrong. You may have been unconscious at a particular moment, but you are never wrong! Remember, where you are is exactly where you need to be in order to get to where you want to go. Breathing deeply and releasing fear will help you get to where you want to be.
If at any time when you are working in this book, you feel that you cannot breathe or that your breathing has become labored, STOP! Close the book. Take a nice hot bath or shower. You can try again at another time. Your body knows how much you can do. Do not push yourself. That is not a very loving thing to do when you are healing.
Before you begin any exercise, be sure you have adequate time to complete an entire process. Select a time and place where you will not be disturbed. You may want to take a relaxing bath first. It may also be helpful to have some soothing music playing. Also, give yourself permission to participate fully in this process and experience whatever comes up for you. If you feel the need to stomp, scream, cry, laugh, or throw somethingunbreakable-- GO FOR IT! You are safe! You are allowed! Just remember to breathe. Love is always around you. Breathing allows you to take in as much love as you need.
DON'T FORGET TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF!
Each section of the workbook also provides aCaring Exerciseto be usedbefore you beginandwhen you enda workbook exercise. The purpose of caring for yourself before and after an exercise is to avoid the possibility ofdrowningin a sea of fear, anger, or confusion. It is necessary so that you do not become overwhelmed by the information that is revealed as you move through the workbook pages. The purpose of caring for yourself at the end of an exercise is to support the integration of what you discover, remember, or realize in the process. Beginning and ending with the Caring Exercise is a good way to coordinate your healing steps with the day-to-day activity of your life.
There is also aGlossaryat the back of the book. The purpose of the glossary is to assist you in understanding what you are workingwith,what you are workingthrough,and what you are workingtoward.If you are not clear about how you can transform your choices or approaches to a particular situation, the glossary will help you make a loving choice.
BEHOLD! YOU WILL DO A NEW THING!!!
On some pages, you will be asked to write with your nondominant hand. This means, if you are right-handed, you will write with your left hand. If you are left-handed, you will write with your right hand. The purpose of this is to reprogram the conscious mind about the issue you are healing. Completing these particular exercises will require focus and energy. The greater the energy you put forth, the greater the healing that will occur. Do not get hung up about what the writing looks like or whether or not you can read it. This is not an art project! It is a healing process. Healing requires focused energy and effort.
"NOW WHERE DID I PUT...? "
You may find throughout the process that there is something you want to write, but you simply can't find the words. At these times, you will find it helpful to stimulate theTrigger Pointsof the brain.
1. If you are right-handed, gently place your second and third fingers over the center of your left eyebrow. Place your thumb over your right eyebrow. If you are left-handed, place your second and third fingers over your right eyebrow. Place your thumb over your left eyebrow.
2. Gently massage these areas for about thirty seconds while thinking about what you truthfully want to write.
3. If you find that the words still do not pop into your mind, use the list of trigger words on the following page to support your description and experience.
positive triggers
Accessible Creative Inviting Self-reliant
Affectionate Daring Kind Sensitive
Agreeable Debonaire Lighthearted Serene
Alert Dependable Loving Sexy
Assured Determined Loyal Sincere
Attentive Enthusiastic Mature Soothing
Available Fair Objective Spiritual
Bold Firm Open Spontaneous
Brave Flexible Open-minded Stable
Bright Frank Persuasive Strong
Calm Gallant Playful Sunny
Caring Gentle Pleased Supportive
Cautious Giving Polite Tactful
Certain Glad Precise Tender
Cheerful Grateful Proud Thrifty
Cheery High-spirited Reassuring Tolerant
Concerned Hilarious Reliable Tranquil
Confident Honest Respectful Trusting
Connected Humble Responsible Virtuous
Content Independent Safe Vivacious
Cordial Inquisitive Satisfied Warm
Courageous Inspired Secure Wise
negative triggers
Afraid Impatient
Annoyed Inappropriate
Arrogant Inflexible
Attacking Intrusive
Boring Irrational
Brash Jealous
Brutal Judgmental
Cold Malicious
Complacent Mean
Controlling Narrow-minded
Cruel Rigid
Dangerous Rough
Depressed Shy
Dishonest Sneaky
Disinterested Stingy
Envious Strict
Fearful Tense
Fragile Tolerable
Frightened Unavailable
Frightening Unemotional
Grumpy Unforgiving
Harsh Unreliable
Immature Wounding
just a prayer away!
If at any time you need support, or guidance in the form of prayer, 24-hour help is available to you. The following nondenominational prayer services have staff available to hear your concerns and to pray with you. (These are not counseling services, they are prayer services.) When you reach out to these services, someone will pray with you regarding a challenge you may be experiencing. Prayer changes things! As you pray and are prayed for, things will change for you.
World Ministry of Prayer
(800) 421-9600
Silent Unity
(816) 969-2000
Inner Visions
(301) 608-8750
If you get a recording, press 1 for the Prayer Line.
IF YOU MADE IT THROUGH THE PAST, YOU PASSED!
This workbook is not meant to be the end-all, do-all for you. It is designed to support you in identifying the things you do that could be done in a more loving way. Do not assume, even if you are in themeantime,that you are worse off than anyone else. There may be some exercises you may not immediately relate to. There may be some questions that seem totally irrelevant. That's fine! This workbook is designed to make you think and to simplify the process of making better choices in your life in general and in relationships specifically. By the end of the process, you will realize you are the Beloved. Throughout the process, you will get clear about who the Beloved is and what the Beloved does. As you move into a greater awareness of yourself, by acknowledging what you do and accepting yourself just as you are without judgment or criticism, a more loving state of mind unfolds in you and the Beloved comes into full view.
I wish for you loving days, loving experiences, and a loving state of mind. You are the Beloved and all that you are, I AM!
Copyright © 2001 by Inner Visions Worldwide Network, Inc.

Excerpted from Living Through the Meantime: Learning to Break the Patterns of the Past and Begin the Healing Process by Iyanla Vanzant
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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Living Through the Meantime Learning to Break the Patterns of the Past and Begin the Healing Process

9780743227100

0743227107

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