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Anyaa's
Story
My
story begins in Bath, England
where I was born and raised. The
first half of my life was much
like many others. My childhood
was largely uneventful until I married
at the age of
nineteen and
immigrated to Canada a few
months later. The first of my three
daughters was born shortly
afterwards, but the marriage was
abusive as my husband was an
alcoholic and only lasted a
little more than four years.
My
divorce was followed by a return
to England where my daughter and
I lived until she was ten years old
and we decided to go back to
Canada. Shortly afterwards, I
met and married husband #2 and
gave birth to two more daughters. That
marriage lasted almost eleven
years, but also ended in
divorce.
The events that
precipitated that event are
recorded in my article The
Question. From
that moment on, my life was never the
same. In fact, I feel I grew
into an entirely different
person and even changed
my legal name.
The
Question was the commencement of my spiritual journey
- when I started to
live my life consciously. Prior
to that time, I had been living
unconsciously... as do most people
in this world. Thus began the most exciting (if not
challenging) part of my life,
which is proving to be far more
eventful than the first
half!
The ten years following my
divorce were fraught with huge
changes. They began when I
started Transcendental
Meditation, followed shortly
thereafter by reading an
incredible little book called Living
in the Light by Sanaya
Roman. So many of my questions
were answered in that book, yet
it also brought other unresolved
issues to light.
In
an attempt to discover the
answers, I attended meditation
groups, read everything I could
lay my hands on about
spirituality and personal
growth, followed various New Age
practices such as drinking
coloured solar water and using
crystals and semi-precious
stones, learned Reiki (I'm a
Reiki Master), was ordained a priest
in the Order of Melchezadek, was
opened to Subud, attended
workshops and courses, had channeled
readings, joined Al-Anon, and on
and on.
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My
appetite for information seemed
insatiable... as if I was making
up for lost time... and it became a
period
of intense learning and
discovery.
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The
following ten years, however,
became opportunities to assimilate
and apply all that I had
learned. This was the decade
when I finally overcame codependency
(one of my greatest
challenges), made "The
Decision" you can read
about below, was introduced to
the Law
of Attraction, changed
my name,
learned about Ho'oponopono,
read Eckhart Tolle's books, plus
a host of other incredible
experiences.
As
you may know already if you've
read the Home page of this site,
I have also been plagued by poverty
for the better part of my life.
Although my second husband and I
had a relatively high income, we
were always broke and after the
divorce my financial situation
worsened.
A
short time after separating, I
was laid off my computer
operator job and ended up
buying a small word processing
business. It paid my expenses -
usually - but in an effort to
increase my income and save
money for my retirement, I got
into a couple of additional
businesses which eventually
resulted in bankruptcy and I
almost lost my word processing
business.
After
seven and a half years though, I
decided to make a change. I had
done my best to expand and grow
my business, but it was just
another example of nothing
working out. It had become
getting harder and harder to be
passionate about it so I made
the decision to sell and find
something different. It had
served me well, but I knew it
was time to move on.
Career
Change
After
selling my business and paying off
some outstanding debts, I decided
I'd had my fill of working at
office/computer/bookkeeping-type
jobs. As Robert Kiyosaki points
out in his video about the Cashflow
Quadrants, there was no way to
amass any kind of wealth in those
occupations. Plus, after thirty-five years
in those fields, I longed to
do something completely different.
My new
occupation also had to meet two
very important criteria:
-
It
had to be fulfilling (I
became bored once I’d
mastered the initial learning curve of a new
occupation).
-
It
had to be something that
would provide an income
for my current needs and
for my
retirement.
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In
an effort to accomplish these objectives, I tried several
different vocations: I became a
real estate agent (and failed
miserably after almost two years);
I taught English in Thailand for
six months; I helped a friend
write a book (and wrote one myself
called Joy
Makers: My Tools for
Self-Empowerment); I worked in factories
for temp agencies; I tried a
couple of different MLM
opportunities - all over a period
of approximately five years.
There
were many times when I became very
jaded about my goal as it
seemed virtually impossible for me
to make any significant money no
matter what I did.
Nothing worked out financially,
although I gained a lot of
experience and loved Thailand...
especially the weather!
At
one point I had serious health challenges
which forced me to go on welfare
as there was no way I could work
at anything. With a severe
case of sciatica, I couldn't
stand up or even sit at the
computer! In fact, for a while, the only way I
could get around was on my hands
and knees. It was a very bleak
time for me in every way.
When
I was able, I also did a variety
of odd jobs to make ends
meet, such as painting furniture
for a friend, dog/house-sitting,
doing yard work, etc. All
the time I was searching for
answers to my lack of prosperity
and reading whatever I could.
Still,
I never gave up!
I
applied for retail work at one
point when I was feeling
desperate, but my age was probably
not an asset and I didn't get
hired. Even a part-time job would
have helped while I pursued
other interests :). I took it as a
sign that retail was not the
answer and that I really needed to do
something different... but what?
It
became painfully obvious to
me that I still had nothing in the
way of a retirement fund and time
was running out! I needed to find a
solution that didn’t involve
working for anyone else in any
capacity - and find it fast! As
Robert Kiyosaki recommends, I had to get out of the
"E" quadrant completely.
Besides, I longed for the freedom to set my
own hours and work for myself.
How
was I to go about
remedying my situation?
How was I to do it?
I
asked myself that question
over and over. I meditated on
it, prayed on it, thought
about it, but I never seemed
to get any answer. Perhaps I
simply didn't hear - or didn't
want to hear!
The
Decision
Finally,
I decided that the solution for me
was to reject
the conventional employment path completely
and the
day I made The Decision is forever etched in my memory.
The phone
rang one morning and I knew it was
a temp agency with an assignment for
me – probably in some factory or
another as
I had stipulated that I didn’t
want office work. But, at that
moment it didn't matter
what the assignment was. I was
short of cash at the time (as
usual), but I didn't even care how
much they were paying!
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When
I picked up the phone, I
told the agency I would no
longer work for them!
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My
knees were shaking as I hung up
the phone. It
was a HUGE decision and one I
didn't take lightly. How was I to
create an income? What was I going
to do?
Scared as I was, part of me
knew The Decision was a sign to
the universe that I was willing
to do whatever was needed to
reach my goals and it felt right
for me. Fortunately,
I only had myself to support...
and myself to blame if I failed!
The
Decision and my new beliefs about
having a JOB (Just Over Broke) led
me down many paths, but I always
held onto my dream of not
returning to the "E"
quadrant. To me,
getting a job would have been a
cop-out, although I must admit
that I did work part-time at
a video store when times were
particularly tough.
Still,
I never gave up!
In
addition to my perseverance,
there was something else in
my favour: As mentioned earlier,
for quite a few years I
had been reading lots of books
about financial matters
(including the Rich Dad series by
Robert Kiyosaki), personal
development, and spirituality.
This was when I was introduced to
Wallace D. Wattles and his book
The Science of Getting Rich
based on the Law
of Attraction.
The
book also prompted Rhonda Byrnes to
make The Secret. Much has
been written about this DVD and
the law in recent times, so I
won't go into it here, but if
you're interested, there's more information
here
on my Joy Makers website. Suffice to say, it
opened a whole new realm of
investigation for me. But even
THAT didn't help!
I
watched the video dozens of times
and followed all the suggestions
religiously for many months, but
the
bottom line was: My monetary
situation remained the same. Eventually,
I learned there was something Joe
Vitale (one of the stars of The
Secret) calls
‘counter-intentions’ at work
within me. These are unconscious
beliefs that actually oppose what
we say we want.
No
matter how much I visualized and
affirmed, I realized there was
nothing I could change in my outer
reality until I changed the
underlying beliefs I clung to in
my unconscious. It was at this
point that Joe Vitale helped me
out again.
This
time, he introduced
Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len and Self I-Dentity
Ho’oponopono
to the world in his book Zero
Limits. Click on the link to
read about this amazing Hawaiian
practice.
With
the financial assistance of a very
good
friend, I attended Dr. Hew Len's
Ho'oponopono class in Montreal and
immediately started practicing
Ho'oponopono daily.
That's when a shift began to
take place. It was a slow
process that continues to this
day, but gradually I began
clearing some of those unconscious
beliefs or memories about money and
prosperity.
There
were insights that helped
me on my journey. One was a vision
of a past life as a monk where I
had relinquished all my worldly
goods and lived in a cold, stone cell in
total poverty. At the
time, I believed this was
necessary for me to reach God,
and that unconscious belief stayed
with me into this lifetime.
I
used a number of clearing
methods as outlined in Joe
Vitale's book Attractor
Factor which is an extended
version of Spiritual
Marketing. Little by little my
life changed and I started
to experience more and more
abundance in my life. In
addition, synchronistic events
took place that led me to
opportunities along with the
information necessary to put
that information into practice.
There
came a time when I felt drawn to
use the Law of
Attraction again, but this time
there was a confidence within me
that I had rarely felt before. Gratitude
became a vital part of my day.
I had always recognized the
value of it, but except for a
few occasions, I had found it
difficult to truly connect with
the feeling. Now, it is
almost always there.
I
cannot express to you how
much of a difference this has
made in my life. Doors have
opened up that I never knew
existed. Life is getting
better and better all the
time.
My
story isn't over by any means.
It continues day to day and I
will continue to share my
insights, ahas, and knowledge
with you... if you allow me
to. Please click on the link
below if you would like to be
part of this group of
Perseverers who seek to live
the life of their dreams.
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