If you wrote it Autobiography, What Would the Chapter Titles Be?

What links your life together?

Start with ten. (This is one of the assignments I frequently give my clients.)

You can choose life events, demographics, influential people you’ve known, talents, even “aHa” moments.

Mine might be:

Born female, in the USA, to a progressive, liberal mother.
“Abandoned” at four years old (for a year).
Abused by my stepfather, resulting in their divorce.
Moved, age 10, from a middle-class neighborhood to poverty neighborhood. I was suddenly a “minority”.
My mother worked 18 hours a day, so my siblings and I raised ourselves.
Growing Up in the 70’s.
Studied spiritual philosophies, finding an affinity with Christian, Buddhist, and Taoist ideas.
Became a mother of twin boys.
Started my own business as a psychotherapist.
Killed a person in a car accident.

(Wow! I just did that off the cuff! Very powerful!).

Next, you fill in the chapters. What about (That) affected you? What characteristics were created because of ________? You might ask yourself:

Using one of mine as an example:

Yes, I killed a person in a car accident.

I discovered that life can change – drastically- in an instant. And in THAT particular instant, I didn’t even know it. For a long time, I’d have terrible dreams, I’d have flashes of people appearing in the road before I could do anything about it… I struggled with my connection to God (I’d like to have made it through my life without killing someone).
I discovered that I loved and understood myself, even if society didn’t. I confirmed my value of always telling the truth, as I knew it, and that I continue to do what I think is right – even if others disagreed (I wrote to his family against the advice of my attorney, who thought such an act would be misinterpreted as guilt).
I had to learn to live with knowing most people would make up stories about me that weren’t true (“she must have known!”, “She must have been drinking!”). I had to overcome needing people to understand me.
I will always have this heavy burden in my soul.
I am grateful for the people in my life that tried to help me. I’m grateful to learn that other peoples opinions of me no longer affects what I think of me.

What have been the greatest influences in your life? What ties your life all together?

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