Marsha Sinetar is most well known for her book Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood
Both of these books explore self-employment as a spiritual calling and a path to personal learning and self-growth. They are filled with stories and examples of people who have followed their hearts calling and who are simultaneously building a life that supports them economically, as well as, spiritually.
These are the first two titles I discovered by Marsha Sinetar. But, she has written many more books, before and after, most of which explore the spiritually awakening individual.
Today, I would like to talk about one of her earlier books, Elegant Choices, Healing Choices.
In the introduction she begins by explaining that our choices can heal, that ‘each and every thing you and I do has the power to knit us up on the inside where we are split, separated, fragmented.’ Her choice of the word elegant, is used because it ‘describes that refinement, that personal grace, that effortlessness, that lovely naturalness commonly embodied by supremely well-developed persons.’
Now that last quote scared me. I do not view myself as a ‘supremely well-developed person’. I am on a path of awakening to my true self and to becoming a fully actualized person, but I don’t see myself there yet.
But, the next line from the introduction calmed me back down, ‘the elegant choice enables us to become increasingly individuated: more of what we know ourselves to be, on the inside, at the core of our most noble self.’
This book does not give advice or tell you what to do, it instead shares with you chapter by chapter, stories and examples that illustrate how our choices ‘help us be, and become optimally healthy.’
Instead of reviewing and trying to sum of the essence of this book in five-hundred words or less I have decided to share with you some of the notes I made to myself while reading and some of the things I learned:
• I don’t need to explain.
• I don’t need to be understood.
• I don’t need outside approval.
• It takes time to grow and it’s okay to accept that there are no time limits for this journey.
• To grow I must take risks and choose to do the ‘distasteful’ things in order to live the ‘good life.’
• I need to consciously choose to push beyond my comfort level.
• Accept where I am today.
• It’s natural to be afraid.
• It may be necessary to let go of people and things.
• Don’t be harsh with myself.
• It’s okay to seek outside help from a spiritual teacher, therapist or support group.
• It’s okay to take breaks and rest.
• Accepting who I am doesn’t mean that everyone else will accept who I am.
• It’s okay to just ‘be’ in my free time. I don’t always have to be doing something.
And, my absolute favorite quote by Helen Nearing when describing what the ‘good life’ meant to her,
“To grow, to learn, to experience, to contribute, to share, to be intensely in the moment in which you are living, to get the most out of everything that happens to you and to realize that we are all here to contribute and share.”
This resonated so greatly with my heart that I copied it down and I have adopted it as my own life’s philosophy.
This book and Marsha Sinetar’s ideas, theories, philosophies and teachings will not be for everyone. But, if you are on your own path of self-discovery, growth, healing and spiritual awakening, this is a worthwhile read.
You can find a full listing of Marsha Sinetar’s available titles: Marsha Sinetar on Amazon.com
What are you reading? Comment or reply.
Thank you Susan for taking the time to comment and share your thoughts on Marsha Sinetar’s “Elegant Choices, Healing Choices”.
~Sandy
I am reading Elegant Choices, Healing Choices right now and it is wonderful. It is thoughtful, encouraging, wise, simple, and complex. I look forward to reading it. I savor each sentence and take great comfort from the concepts it shares — that honoring who we are is elegant. I recommend this book highly. Maybe we all need permission to be who we are, not who we think we should be. This book gives us that.