Learning From Your Past

Sophie’s father was diagnosed as bi-polar when it was still called manic depression. He vacillated between violent temper tantrums, morose feelings of worthlessness and grandiose orations on being ‘king of the castle’. As Sophie grew up and had more exposure to other people, she realized that her childhood wasn’t normal or healthy. She spent decades learning to overcome her early programming and learning how to trust and interact with people in a positive way. Sophie realized that as challenging as her early years had been, they had forced her to develop a useful talent. To protect herself from her father’s erratic mood swings, Sophie learned to be a keen observer of

human behavior. She would know that a mood change was coming by seeing a small alteration in his facial expression or posture. She could sense a shift in his energy and learned what type of energy predicted which behavior. She learned that the more quickly she could identify what was going to happen, the easier it was to escape to her room before he exploded.

Sophie took her skills for observation and compassionate nature, and developed them into a talent for counseling. Over the years, she has helped hundreds of people deal with all different types of challenging life situations. Sophie hasn’t forgotten the stress and fear that dominated her childhood. But, taking the lessons that she learned and using that knowledge to help others has helped bring balance into her own life.

Dead people say: Dwelling on the past won’t change it. But, using it for something positive will change the present and the future.