{"id":2376,"date":"2012-01-30T22:43:02","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T03:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/?p=2376"},"modified":"2012-01-30T22:58:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T03:58:25","slug":"the-real-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html","title":{"rendered":"The Real You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/01\/THEREALYOU.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2377\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/107\/2012\/01\/THEREALYOU-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, I attended a workshop during which the facilitator shared about her first spiritual experience at age 3 when she\u00a0peered into a mirror and inquired &#8220;Who&#8217;s in there?&#8221;\u00a0 It got me to considering who it is that reflects back at me when I mirror gaze. Sometimes, like many of us, I find fault with what I see, like looking into a fun house mirror, with a distorted image. I don&#8217;t think I know any woman who is completely satisfied with her body; how about the guys? Since I can&#8217;t speak from experience, perhaps you can tell us. In the past year since shedding over 40 pounds, I have peeled off layers of facade as well as inches. That&#8217;s not me either, it&#8217;s just my body.<\/p>\n<p>I have been through various career incarnations in the past 30 some years&#8230;.lifeguard, magazine publisher, freelance journalist, massage practitioner, social worker,\u00a0author, clown, minister, waitress, ice cream scooper, greeting card text writer, supervisor,\u00a0 motivational speaker\/workshop facilitator, organic product demonstrator, PR Goddess, volunteer organ donor educator&#8230;the list is still growing. That&#8217;s not me either, just work I have done in the world.<\/p>\n<p>Once upon a time I was married. That changed when my husband died 13 years ago and I became a widow. Since then, I have been both single and part of a couple. I am the mother of a 24 year old young man. I am the\u00a0oldest of two, with a\u00a02 1\/2 year younger sister. I am the\u00a0aunt of 6 nieces and nephews. I am the cousin of many more than that.\u00a0\u00a0I am sister in-law to 4. In the past nearly 4 years, both of my parents have passed, making me an &#8216;adult orphan&#8217;.\u00a0 That&#8217;s not who I am either, just family\/ancestral connection.<\/p>\n<p>I love music, art, reading, writing, drumming, dancing, singing, yoga, chanting, nature, massage, channeling words and images that come through me, and connecting with kindred spirits. Those things bring me into a joyous state. That&#8217;s not me either, just activities in which I engage and people with whom I gratefully interact.<\/p>\n<p>So, who am I?\u00a0 I am a Divine creation, love incarnate, a haven, a home for my heart and hopefully those I draw into my life. I am a wonder-filled being who discovers delight in the miraculous occurrences that are always calling to be noticed.<\/p>\n<p>WHO ARE YOU?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; A few years ago, I attended a workshop during which the facilitator shared about her first spiritual experience at age 3 when she\u00a0peered into a mirror and inquired &#8220;Who&#8217;s in there?&#8221;\u00a0 It got me to considering who it is that reflects back at me when I mirror gaze. Sometimes, like many of us, I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":233,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2,33,4,7,38],"tags":[4856,1405,345,1406,1397,942,1402,1410,1409,1400,1401,1399,1403,1407,1412,4841,346,1413,1396,1398,1404,1411,1414,1408,4857,4854],"class_list":["post-2376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-attracting-what-you-desire","category-bliss","category-creativity","category-inspiration","category-re-creating-your-life","category-transformation","tag-art","tag-author","tag-chanting","tag-clown","tag-dancing","tag-drumming","tag-freelance-journalist","tag-greeting-card-text-writer","tag-ice-cream-scooper","tag-lifeguard","tag-magazine-publisher","tag-massage-2","tag-massage-practitioner","tag-minister","tag-motivational-speakerworkshop-facilitator","tag-music","tag-nature","tag-organic-product-demonstrator","tag-reading","tag-singing","tag-social-worker","tag-supervisor","tag-volunteer-organ-donor-educator","tag-waitress","tag-writing","tag-yoga"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Real You - The Bliss Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Real You - The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; A few years ago, I attended a workshop during which the facilitator shared about her first spiritual experience at age 3 when she\u00a0peered into a mirror and inquired &#8220;Who&#8217;s in there?&#8221;\u00a0 It got me to considering who it is that reflects back at me when I mirror gaze. Sometimes, like many of us, I&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bliss Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-31T03:43:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-01-31T03:58:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/01\/THEREALYOU-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EdieWeinstein1\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Real You - The Bliss Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Real You - The Bliss Blog","og_description":"&nbsp; A few years ago, I attended a workshop during which the facilitator shared about her first spiritual experience at age 3 when she\u00a0peered into a mirror and inquired &#8220;Who&#8217;s in there?&#8221;\u00a0 It got me to considering who it is that reflects back at me when I mirror gaze. Sometimes, like many of us, I&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html","og_site_name":"The Bliss Blog","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/snuggleyoga","article_published_time":"2012-01-31T03:43:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-01-31T03:58:25+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/01\/THEREALYOU-300x300.jpg"}],"author":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EdieWeinstein1","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html","name":"The Real You - The Bliss Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/01\/THEREALYOU-300x300.jpg","datePublished":"2012-01-31T03:43:02+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-31T03:58:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/01\/THEREALYOU-300x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/blissblog\/files\/2012\/01\/THEREALYOU-300x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/2012\/01\/the-real-you.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Real You"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/","name":"The Bliss Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Edie Weinstein","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/edcd643a643a9ca91adb1e8f9e177386","name":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/blissblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0d6\/0d6cd7619da51a9a40cc705280e88f9cx96.jpg","caption":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW"},"description":"Edie Weinstein, MSW, LSW is a colorfully creative journalist, inspiring transformational speaker, licensed social worker, interfaith minister, editor, radio host, BLISS coach, event producer, Cosmic Concierge, the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary and co-author of Embraced By the Divine: The Emerging Woman\u2019s Gateway to Power, Passion and Purpose. She has also contributed to several anthologies and personal growth books. Edie has interviewed such notables as Ram Dass, Wayne Dyer, Debbie Ford, don Miguel Ruiz, don Miguel Ruiz, Jr. Marianne Williamson, Grover Washington, Jr. Noah Levine, Shirley MacLaine, Dennis Weaver, Ben and Jerry and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She calls herself an Opti-mystic who sees the world through the eyes of possibility. 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