From Slave Camp To Freedom - Page 10 of 36 - Carla's journey and what it took to make it happen

The Beginning

“Shared by Carla”

Has your world ever stopped? Has your heart ever sunk to your knees and your stomach to your toes? That visceral experience of every hair in your body stiffening because you are so shocked is one I pray to the Universe I never ever have to experience again. In 1986, when my mom committed suicide – my life turned inside out and upside down. The excruciating scream inside, was like a wild animal in so much pain – and it couldn’t come out of my mouth. It was stifled by the shock and deep despair that my mother was gone…forever.

Silently I screamed inside of myself, “No no no, dear God don’t do this to me. I need her. She’s my mother. Why? Why? Why are you doing this to me?”

She decided to take her life on Friday June 13th 1986 and she died on Father’s Day, June 15th. I was informed of this life changing event by a police officer at 6 am in the morning, Saturday June 14th. We had to drive 1 ½ hours to get back to the hospital and it felt like I was in slow motion. I was dying inside and horrific thoughts and memories flooded my mind of how she had attempted to kill herself…once again. This was not the first time, however, it was the last.

We finally made it to the hospital and I flew into the intensive care. I had aunts and uncles there with my father and brother. As if I was out of my body I heard the warbled words, “it looks like she’s stable”. All I wanted to do was see my Mom, touch her, hold her and tell her that everything will be alright. I went into intensive care and saw her attached to tubes and wires. She was unconscious, however she was alive. I touched her hair and kissed her cheek… or I think I did. Everything is such a blur…like the worst nightmare you can imagine. I said to her, “Mom you can’t go, we need you. You are so important to us. How can we live without you?”

With the reassurance of the doctors we went home and I called my sister who was studying on the west coast. How the hell do you tell your sister who is so far away that our Mom, once again, tried to take her life. With the most love and compassion I could muster up I dialed the phone. Within one hour she was booked to fly home and was back early Sunday morning. She’s my older sister of one year – my rock. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw her because everything will now be okay.

Early Sunday morning we returned to the hospital, and once again we were surrounded by so many aunts, uncles and cousins. Our family is the most awesome family one can ever have. My grandparents had a farm during the Depression and strong family values were breed into each and every one of us. As a side note, my grandmother, known as GGma, by the great grandchildren, use to feed not only 8 children but the hobo’s (as they were called back then) who got off the train. She always had a hot meal and homemade biscuits ready for all. This is why many family members were surrounding us.

Then, all of a sudden, there was a loud speaker that yelled, “code red, code red”. Everything became surreal, and once again, in slow motion. A team of doctors and those shock paddles flew into my mother’s room. My body turned to jello and it felt like all my blood was draining from my body. We had to leave her room and stand in the hall waiting for the verdict. All I remember is leaning up against the cold wall, trembling and shaking with agonizing pain. Then everything stopped. Silence was upon us. The doctor’s told us my mother was dead… and then, I did scream. Or I thought I screamed.

I loved my mother more than words can describe. Kind of like that book by Robert Munsch, ‘Love You Forever’, which I could never read to my children without crying.
Fifteen years later our family went through the same thing. My father remarried a lovely woman who killed herself in 2001. Why, oh why is this happening again? Why do people do this? I don’t get it.

I get it now. This pain has sparked my passion, the fire within, to assist and guide people to not only see their inner beauty but feel it. Unfortunately, my Mom, step-Mom and many others who have committed suicide could not see their wonderful strengths and gifts they were born with. That intense pain spurred me to believe in people and mirror back to them their shining light. I call myself a ‘belief buster’. Those pesky beliefs such as, I’m not good enough, or I’m not important or I’m failing, are corrupt stories that we all develop, however they have a powerful affect on our thoughts, choices and our lives. Many people feel that the only way out is to leave this planet. I believe there is another way and I guide others to see this Divine way.

To close, I’d ask you to…Imagine….every single person is a unique piece of a puzzle which makes up the Universe. Now imagine that each piece is important, connected and dependent on all the others. Our distorted beliefs make us shrink, which affects the whole puzzle…the whole universe. Playing small, shrinking creates a misaligned world. Being you and allowing your authentic inner light to shine puts the puzzle back into alignment…and we all thrive together. You are needed…you are awesome…and you have a purpose in this four letter word called life.

Cathy Lumsden is a psychotherapist, author, and speaker who has over 25 years of touching thousands of individual adults, families, teenagers and children’s lives. Cathy is the host of a weekly TV show called “The Best Advice”. She interviews experts on relationships from all over North America – inspiring people to create vibrant healthy relationships with their partners, children, colleagues, and most importantly…with themselves.

By Bob Proctor

I learned a ton from Frank Deardurff in his “Web Graphics Explained” course. If you see a bit of web graphics in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/XitiWW

The Power of Your Mind

Shared By Carla

In 1980 I was diagnosed by several doctors in Toronto, Canada with a rare illness called environment hypersensitivity disorder, also called 20th Century Disease. I had become allergic to everything I ate, touched, or breathed. For 4 years I lived in a bare room that was lined with tin foil, slept in a metal bed (no wood), aluminum blankets and at most times, I kept my hands in a glass box. I had 20 health care professionals tell me that due to my severe sensitivities, they couldn’t see how I would ever be able to work again. Now, at that time, not knowing what I know now, I believed them. I was rock bottom, depressed and broke.

One afternoon in 1984, I heard Bob Proctor on CFRB radio promoting a seminar he was doing at the Triumph Hotel in Toronto. I heard him say something that changed my life. He said to the radio host, “What the mind can see – the mind can believe – the mind can achieve”. It was like a light came on in my head. I started to think if my mind got my body in this situation, then maybe the mind can get me out of it. I realized I had to talk to Bob himself. I called his office and within a few minutes he called me back. We talked for a while about my situation. He suggested I come out to his Thursday evening seminar. I said, “Bob, you don’t understand, I can’t go out in crowds because of all the fragrances and smoke”. (I was so sensitive at that time that water would make my tongue crack and bleed). Bob said, “No, you don’t understand. I hope to meet you at my sem inar on Thursday”. We hung up and I said to myself I have to see this man. I called his office and booked a ticket I couldn’t afford, so I put it on my Visa card.

I went to the seminar; I left my oxygen in my car, walked in looking like a healthy man and sat at the back of the room, away from the crowd. Sitting and listening to Bob that evening, I realized that the body is an instrument of the mind and I could re-create my world when I started to believe it. The next day I started some serious visualization, affirmations, and wrote out a goal card I carried with me and placed 8 copies of it in different places in my home and car, where I could see it day and night. Bob said in his seminar that to change your life its simple, but it’s not easy. It took a lot of re-training my mind, study and discipline, to not allow the present circumstances in my life affect the way I was feeling, thinking and acting.

Over a period of time, my health and life started to change and I was able to return back to work. I worked as the Director of Education at the private career college in Toronto for the next 17 years. I ended up having 4,000 students who travelled from over 12 countries to attend my classes. I used a lot of what Bob Proctor had taught me and shared this amazing information with my students. Now, many years later, I am retired and I’m in great health. I’m now 64 years old, I feel and act like I’m 24 years old. My wife and I spend most of our time riding around on our Harley Davidson and are enjoying our life together. I now do my own personal development-motivational seminars in the Toronto area. I work with a lot of martial arts clubs, that way I get the teenage students and their parents in my seminar together, this way I get them all on the same page at the same time.

I have thanked Bob several times for how he changed my life, He always replied back, “I show lots of people how to change their life; you took this information and applied it. You changed your life. It was always an inside job.” I will always be grateful to Bob and I am thankful I attracted him into my world. To anyone who is reading this, please understand you also can re-create your world when you see it clearly in your mind and believe and expect it in your heart.

By Bob Ross

I learned a ton from Frank Deardurff in his “Web Page Secret Revealed” course. If you see a bit of Web Page Secret Revealed in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/15UZaGH

Helping Them Grow – A Passion For Golf

“Shared by Carla”

After traveling around the world teaching people on virtually every continent and working with corporations large and small, helping them understand how to develop their greatest resource — their human resource — I had something happen in my own company that caused me to stop and think we could be doing a better job than were doing with our own people.

You see I happen to believe that as a business owner I have an obligation to create an environment where every person in our company grows as a human being and develops more of their potential so they can truly become all God meant them to become. To do that, I believe every person in our company must have a dream, a goal that they are working towards. And I feel it is my responsibility to help them follow that dream.

I was helping a young lady in our company follow her dream by making a video for her when the thought crossed my mind that there was a very powerful lesson in this that I should share with you in a Friday Story for Insights … while at the same time give you a really unique gift idea for the holidays.

This story began when Kathy Gallagher came to work with us in LifeSuccess Productions. Kathy plays a key role in the coaching division of our company. She brought important talents to the job when she started, since coaching was a part of her profession and a good part of her life. Kathy is a professional golfer. She is an active member of the LPGA and the PGA. She was for a good period of time a touring pro and for a number of years has worked as a teaching pro.

Kathy was working as a professional instructor at a club in Florida where many of the members come from the North to escape the cold winters. However, the downside of this particular job was that when summers arrived the snowbirds would go back North to be with their families, leaving many of the club staff members with little to do. It was during one of those slow periods that Kathy came to work with us and fortunately for us never left.

I was visiting with Kathy one day and asked her how she was doing in her new position, how she enjoyed working with us. She replied that she enjoyed it very much and loved the people she was working with and the work she was doing. However, as we got talking further she mentioned that she really missed running her Ladies Luxury Golf Vacations. I didn’t know what she was referring to so I asked her to tell me about it.

As she began to tell me about her Ladies Luxury Golf VacationsI could feel her energy shift. I saw a smile break out on her face, and her eyes literally began to sparkle. I could see this was a burning desire for her, a dream she wanted to pursue. If it got her so jazzed I knew it must be a good idea, so I listened carefully as she explained that Ladies Luxury Golf Vacationswas something she started 8 years ago….

She would take a group of women to 5 star resorts for 4 days of golf, pampering and fun. The women would come from all over the world to spend these 4 days together. When they arrived, they’d get settled in and then come together as a group for cocktails, visiting and dinner. Kathy explained that although this was the first time meeting each other, they always blended in with each other fairly quickly and many of the women developed friendships that would last forever. Kathy guessed that was because they were all there for the same purpose, and that made good sense to me.

Over the next 3 days the ladies would breakfast together and then go out and play a round of golf. Kathy would play in various groups with them and give them tips on how to improve their score. After the golf they would all get together for lunch. In the afternoon, those who wanted would be pampered in the spa. Or some would just lay by the pool reading and visiting with each other. Then they’d all come together again for dinner each night. On the 4^th day they would breakfast together and then leave for home, each person with a number of new friends.

That sounded like a lot of fun to me … and just watching Kathy light up I knew the experience was a unique one for each lady that participated…. That was proved out when Kathy told me that she had collected many notes telling her about the friendships and memories that had developed and a number of the ladies returned more than once.

I was curious if all the ladies were good golfers and that got a laugh out of Kathy – she said “heaven’s no! Some of them are pretty good but some are really terrible golfers and the beauty is that doesn’t matter because we were all there for one purpose – to have a good time – and that we did! The objective of Ladies Luxury Golf is to get a small group – 20 or so – of women together to make new friends and have a memorable vacation.

I interjected – and to get to play with a professional golfer – something most people never do – and Kathy agreed that was a big thing for some of the ladies who really enjoyed watching Kathy hit the ball. In fact, she said one of the beautiful parts of the luxury golf vacations was that with just a couple of tips from Kathy some of them played a much better game.

Here’s where I realized we could be doing a better job as a company growing our people – it was clear that Kathy was very passionate about her ladies’ luxury golf vacations, so why wasn’t she doing them anymore? I asked her. And her answer rather shocked me.

She looked a little sheepish and she told me that she didn’t think we would want her working at something else when she was working here.

This is one of the main points of me sharing this story with you – I well remember many years ago places where I worked where they didn’t want me doing anything else. I explained to Kathy that LifeSuccess Productions wasn’t like that. I said we believe in practicing what we preach. We believe the purpose of every company, in fact the purpose of all human organizations, is to make life more meaningful. As a company we have an obligation to help every person in the company become everything they are capable of becoming.

I told Kathy we not only wanted to encourage her to do this, we wanted to help her. I told her that so long as she was doing her job, it was none of our business what else she may choose to do as well….. And that led to me doing the video for Kathy, a great lesson on how we can always do better in integrating our belief with our behavior.

The second point of me wanting to do a Friday story on this is that I thought it was such a great idea that I wanted to share it with all our readers and everyone else I can. I believe there are all kinds of women that would love to go and play golf with a professional, with a small, friendly group of like-minded women at a 5 star resort where they will be pampered for 4 days.

I told Kathy I was all for that. I was certain that a number of people that receive our Insights every day would like to be a part of it as well. In fact with the holiday season coming up this would be a great gift to give to your mother, your wife or a loved one. I told Kathy I would share the idea with everyone I could ….. She looked very surprised AND very appreciative.

If this story has moved you at all and caused you to think “I bet that would be fun” go to Kathy’s site and leave your name and let her get a hold of you and explain just what a fun trip this would be. You may end up doing what a number of people do that go on a ladies luxury golf vacation –go back again next year.

Kathy Gallagher is a beautiful person. She is a good friend. I feel very fortunate being able to introduce you to her and to her Ladies Luxury Golf Vacations.

By Bob Proctor

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “CD- BTS Home Study” course. If you see a bit of CD- BTS Home Study Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/142wj4U

Traditions

Shared By Carla

When I was a child my family had traditions for every holiday. I took comfort in always knowing that Thanksgiving Day would be spent at our house with my Dad barbecuing the turkey, and Christmas Eve would be a gathering of my father’s family at the home of one of my Uncles. There was never any question of where we’d go or who would be there, although there was always interest in what new boyfriend or girlfriend our teenage cousins would bring along. Even after I married, my husband and I lived near my family, and he fit into the established pattern. When we had children, they just fit in too.

Then we made the radical decision to move to Oregon, and I was worried about what I’d do without the traditions that had defined the holidays for my whole life. My fears were unnecessary, since my parents soon decided to retire and move here too, as did two of my Aunts and Uncles. With some modifications we once again had the comfort of the routine. Thanksgiving was at my parent’s house, with barbecued turkey, playing pool and watching football. Christmas dinner was at our house, with my husband barbecuing another turkey. New Years day was ham at my Aunt Carol’s, and Easter was family brunch at the Country Club. It was a comfortable yearly tradition that gave our holidays structure and that we raised our children on for 20 years.

However, in the past few years our children have grown and moved away, my mother, father, Aunts and Uncles have died, and the big old house with the pool table, is now a lovely memory.

So here I am, wondering what does one do to celebrate the holidays. I must admit I wasn’t prepared to deal with this new dilemma, since I naively assumed everyone would always be here and things would just go on as they always had.

Since our children moved away and my parents died I’ve taken each holiday as it comes, and tried to find the true meaning in what the day represents. Before it was always about family, but now that my family is dispersed or gone, what does that mean?

I’ve come to realize that there are many definitions of “family”. It’s not just the people connected by marriage or blood, but it’s also the people to whom we’re connected by friendship and love. In these past few years I’ve looked around and realized my husband and I are blessed with lots of “family”. Our dear friends, who travel with us and put up with us at all hours of the day and night (even those grumpy morning hours), our friends who play cards with us, and with whom we laugh late into the evening. The women I’ve connected with on a deeper level since we’re no longer spending time parenting, and so have time for each other. All of these and many more are family, and on every holiday I do what I can to gather together as many of these wonderful folks as possible.

Of course, the “tradition” has changed. There is no routine anymore. Every holiday is different, depending on who is available to share the day. I’ve realized that tradition isn’t really about what we eat or where we go. The thing that continues to make each holiday “traditional” is that it is a gathering together of people who care about each other. I now know it’s a time to celebrate one another and remember once again how we are all family.

By Sandra Abell

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “CD- Maximum Confidence Audio” course. If you see a bit of CD- Maximum Confidence Audio Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/ZTKQdF

A Kings Son

Shared By Carla

A great and powerful king decided to send his son to be educated in a distant land. He could have let him stay in the palace itself and brought him the best teachers and the best possible education. But the king knew that the prince will get a lot of experience when he is out of the palace. Good education plus physical distance from the palace will toughen and strengthen the confidence and independence of his son.

In that distant land, the king’s son began to study. He worked hard and experienced life differently, which made him stronger. But along with all the hard work and accomplishments, he began to enjoy the joys of life which that country offered him. He no longer felt obligated to keep all the trappings of monarchy as had to in his father’s palace.

He abandoned his studies and began to neglect or postpone the execution of tasks, responsibility and duties… and all this for the parties and small pleasures that the new life offered him. Without realizing it, he began to neglect his own appearance. And people started to flinch and keep a distance from him. He had hit rock bottom!

He had slumped to a low point in his life. When the situation was so bad that he could not bear it any more, then he remembered… He recalled the king, his father, who had sent him on a journey to strengthen his capacities, and he was ashamed that he had deteriorated to such lows.

The king’s son decided to act. He decided to return to his father’s palace knowing that his father wouldn’t deny him.

The king’s son came to the palace gates; he wanted to go inside, but two armed guards with bayonets blocked his way.

“I am the King’s son” he said.”We are too,” they replied, laughing at the man in torn clothes with overgrown unkempt hair and beard.

After several vain attempts of trying to convince the guards to let him enter the palace, the prince decided to go close to the window of his father’s room to call him.

”Father! Father!” called the king’s son.
”Father! Father!” the king’s son cried again.
The king recognized that voice as the voice of the son he had not heard for many years. The king rushed to the window and saw a strange, unkempt looking man standing. Is that the son whom he had sent to school many years ago?

”Father, I came back and I want to come home…” said the king’s son.
The king, whose heart was filled with longing for his son, called the guards and ordered them to bring his son into the palace.

Dear Reader,
You are the king’s son!
You do not need to reach low life to go home like the king’s son.
Your palace, your home is within you; it is in your heart. Listen to your heart; only there you will find the answers to your destiny and your success.

By Jacob Shekrel

I learned a ton from Jack Canfield in his “CD- The Success Principles: 30 Day Audio” course. If you see a bit of CD- The Success Principles: 30 Day Audio Course in your future check him out, he really is a good teacher. ==> http://justclicknow.ca/105RsrC