On Tour with Your Truest Self by Jan Lundy

Please note: this is an informational post only.

Your Truest Self: Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be
Book Description

Within every woman there is an essential Truth waiting to be claimed, a Truth that will empower her to claim a spiritual life that is real and authentic, one that will nourish and sustain her every day. Janice Lynne Lundy thoughtfully guides readers toward finding that essential truth for themselves. Drawing from her personal encounters with twelve spiritual mentors—Frances Moore Lappé, Daphne Rose Kingma, Iyanla Vanzant, Naomi Judd, and more—she has created twelve Transformational Truths to guide and enable women to live more peaceful, confident, and open-hearted lives.

(Released by Sorin Books, Oct. 2008)


Living as Your Truest Self
Janice Lynne Lundy

Our truest self is a woman who is living from her fullness, not from her pain or woundedness. She lives a mature spirituality. She has fully embodied the qualities we attribute to Spirit itself—peace, lovingkindness, generosity, confidence, courage, and more.

Living as our truest self is a lifelong process. It is a journey, a pilgrimage. For many of us, this journey begins with a life crisis. Mine began in the mid-1990s with the loss of my health. I was the mother of three, pushing myself far too hard to be a perfect wife, mother, co-worker, and friend. Stress had permanently set up housekeeping in my body, and after ten years of stress-related illnesses, I finally “crashed and burned.” It took nearly a year to recover my physical and emotional health. During that year of “sabbatical,” I began to catch glimpses of my truest self, a woman who was “holy” and whole—by birth and destiny—as are we all.

We launch our pilgrimage when we acknowledge that we are spiritual beings, then set an intention to live in that bold, new way. We vow to do everything we can to let go of old, disempowering messages about who we’ve been told we are. We embrace new personal Truths and explore how to connect more fully with our spirit, and the greater Spirit, or God. I call these Transformational Truths and there are twelve of them:

I Am Free to Live a Spiritual Life of My Own Making

I Trust My Body's Divine Connection

I Choose Thoughts and Feelings That Honor My Sacred Self

I Engage in Daily Spiritual Practices That Nurture My Spirit

I Cultivate Compassion for Myself

I Experience the Divine in Everything and Everyone

I Know Divine Assistance is Available to Me at All Times

I Acknowledge that Difficult Times Bring Healing and Deeper Wisdom

I Can Create My Life Anew Each Day

I Trust the Divine Timing of My Own Unfolding

I Courageously Live and Speak My Truths

I Open My Heart and Celebrate Our Oneness

These Truths were not something I consciously sat down to create. They seemed to emerge as a result of meeting one dozen truly amazing women: Joyce Rupp, OSM, Jan Phillips, Iyanla Vanzant, Dudley Evenson, Sue Patton Thoele, Daphne Rose Kingma, Doreen Virtue, Naomi Judd, Michelle Tsosie Sisneros, Joan Borysenko, Frances Moore Lappé, Mari Gayatri Stein.

These “spiritual mentors” are from a wide variety of religious backgrounds, yet, they are similar. Each has successfully embodied her sacred self; living with great joy, inner peace, and love, in service of others. Yet, each has done so through her own unique life expression— as a writer, artist, musician, talk show host, environmental activist, scientist, therapist, and so on.

The Transformational Truths, I believe, are universal. They apply to all people in all times from all spiritual persuasions. They are powerful precepts for living that any woman of any faith can incorporate into her life.

I hope every woman will someday come to understand that she truly is a sacred being; that she is glorious and wonderful, a walking glimmer of God on the face of this earth. Because when we are able to do that, we will all begin to heal and move toward a more peaceful, loving, and compassionate world. After all, isn’t that why we are here? To make manifest the Love that is our Source?

My Personal Thoughts: Jan is a lovely lady and her writing style is so easy and conversationall. BUT, being a strong believer in Jesus Christ and a student of the Bible, my faith is more than my 'religion'...it is who I am. For me, I found much of the spiritual wisdom in the book to go contrary to God's Word, and that makes me uncomfortable.

I live by the Bible as best I can. That's my litmus test for all that I read. While Jan's book is well written, much of what I read went contrary to Scripture. So, read with caution. This is nothing personal against Jan or any of the wonderful ladies she shares from.

This is MY personal faith relationship, which comes first above anything else in my life. It's who I am, and if you'd want me to be anything but me, I make no apologies for who I am--but I do apologize if my words offend. Not for the message of the truth of Scripture, but if I come across as harsh or haughty.

I truly love Jan and this is nothing personal against her at all. I just encourage you to seek God first, then you truly WILL find your truest self. While it might sound good to think we all carry the divine within us, and I know it isn't politically correct, the truth is unless we know Jesus, we really don't hold the divine.

Scripture says we are created in His image, but apart from Him we can do nothing. Great news is He didn't leave us in our imperfect condition. He made a way that is just and fair for all of us...we just have to search the Scriptures and believe.

And I so want you to search the Scriptures for yourself on that...so would you?

Happy Reading!