Question & Answer

 
Q: By A Reader
 
How does one begin the journey of personal transformation?
 
A: By Rev. Deshna Shine
 
Dear Reader,

Big question, and one that I won’t really be able to answer in a few paragraphs… but as you ask about the beginning, we will start there, even at the risk of gross oversimplification.

Personal transformation begins with going within and getting to know yourself — your thoughts, beliefs, and core patterns that all dictate your reactions and emotions. Until we go within, we are not able to transform or affect our internal world which guides our outer experience.

With mindfulness and observation of our inner dialogue we are able to engage in a new way of being. We have the power to create an extraordinary existence by learning how to navigate ourselves and become the architects of our own minds, emotions, and bodies rather than the victims of a ceaseless pre-programmed script.

When we become the observers of our human emotional minds, we can detach from identifying as our thoughts and emotions and begin to see them as clues to our patterns, limiting core beliefs, traumas, wounds, and fears. Then we can have compassion for ourselves and begin to make choices about how we want to think and behave.

Although radical transformation takes time and practice, stepping out of suffering and pain and opening ourselves to all that is possible in this human experience does not have to be a lifetime challenge.

Transformation can actually happen in the space of one moment. It can happen in the moment when we go deep within and dig out the roots of the weed to change our core beliefs and patterns.  As we begin to align our minds with the high vibration of divine love and expansion, rather than fear and contracting thoughts, we can establish new patterns of thinking that will benefit us and all those around us.

~ Rev. Deshna Shine
 
About the Author
Rev. Deshna Shine is Project Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org’s Children’s Curriculum.  She is an ordained Interfaith Minister, author, international speaker, and visionary. She grew up in a thriving progressive Christian church and has worked in the field for over 13 years. She graduated from UCSB with a major in Religious Studies and a minor in Global Peace and Security. She was Executive Director of ProgressiveChristianity.org, Executive Producer of Embrace Festival and has co-authored the novel, Missing Mothers. Deshna is passionate about sacred community, nourishing children spiritually and transforming Christianity through a radically inclusive lens.