I can do much better. I am going to make my own personal modern day Cinderella story.

Fairy tales not true?

Well, don’t be too quick with your opinion.

Once upon a time a little soul prepared to go to earth, eagerly making plans to have the time of her life.

While waiting her turn, the little soul dreamt of beautiful gardens, woman friendly sailing yachts in tropical waters and a blissful life with a prince; imagining that together they would make the planet a joyful and prosperous place.

After her arrival the little soul was lovingly received and fussed over by an older sister and three brothers.
For years life was good.
She was a delightful little soul, trustingly holding on to her dream, being totally and fully self expressed.
Just as she imagined it would be before her arrival on earth.

But little did she know then that there was a ‘very big web’ waiting for her.

Sure enough, one ordinary day little soul got dressed, ate her breakfast and was ready for a day of bliss at home, when mum told little soul she had a surprise.
“Guess what”, said mum; “You are going to school today, just like your bigger brothers and sister. Isn’t that wonderful, from now on you belong with the big kids.”

The fact that little soul had other plans was of no importance and dragged to school she was.
Little soul tried to make the best of it.
Was the teacher going to replace mum, giving her attention and help when she couldn’t make sense of things?
Soon little soul found out that; No, the teacher was definitely not mum, not even a step mum. She was told several times to shut up, go and sit down and No she was NOT allowed to go home yet.

Once the web had hold of little soul, little soul fell asleep but didn’t dream her old dream, no she dreamt the wicked web’s dream.
And so she studied something she thought she liked, she married somebody she thought was different, she had long holidays abroad she thought were bliss, worked for someone else in a job she thought was worthwhile, gathered money she thought would make her independent and in the meantime her life became more and more boring as the years went by.

Little soul didn’t know what to do with those feelings.
According to the advertisers, she had it all.
According to people around her she had it all.

Little soul couldn’t put her finger on it, but somehow she knew there was more to life than this.
Little or no alignment or communication with husband, long lists of chores to do in the weekend, long drives in heavy traffic five days a week to a job that had lost all its appeal and was hierarchy at its worst, no desires to move towards, just a dull feeling and a brave face.
Even trips to Europe were not that interesting anymore.

But what, where, who was missing, what was wrong and who was I?
Am I this Cinderella for real?

Having these doubts and thoughts was of course a sign that little soul’s sparkle wasn’t completely crushed and must have sent ripples.
Because one day the Fairy Godmother did show up and did her magic.

She had me meet the famous sailor, David Lewis.

By that time David Lewis was an old man, but that didn’t stop him from living the life of his dreams.
He had no money, he had no security, his boat was all he had and yet he never let anything like that stop him.
He was there on his boat, relaxed and surrounded by a joyful group of volunteers, preparing for another adventure, a trip to the South Pacific Islands to return a sacred stone.

Somehow I knew he had escaped ‘the web’.

Then I knew that I was slowly on the way to nothingness and would die full of regrets.

In that moment I came alive again and noticed how dulled down, cynical and resigned I had got.
I realized I had turned into a Cinderella, doing chores and duties for a demanding society with demanding people and never going to the ball myself.

But that didn’t last long as I also knew what that meant.
It meant if I really wanted to give little soul the life she was meant to live, I had to do the most difficult thing in my life; leaving my old life and husband behind.
But I also knew if I stayed, I couldn’t keep hold of little soul.
Somehow in that life ‘the web’ became too dense and I knew I couldn’t untangle myself.
I would be pulled back into a life that was going nowhere, although on the outside it looked comfortable enough.

Knowing I would wreak havoc in my children’s and husband’s life was hard, how could I do that after years of having their interest at heart.
What would the world say, what would the world do, punish me and make me an outcast?

It was torture to live with the knowledge that to choose myself I had to do the most horrible thing I could ever think off.
Could I do it, was I brave enough?

Then one day I did it.

After leaving it took little soul quite some time to find her own desires, to access joyful feelings and to get the courage to follow her own path.
It took some doing to untangle herself from ‘the web’ that for so long had told her what to do, how to behave and what to want.

BUT then Cinderella met her prince; a prince whose own little soul’s journey had stayed intact and who could guide and teach her about how to shed the feelings of only doing duty and only desiring other people’s desires; how to shed a world of musts, slavery and oppression.

Now life is vibrant, adventurous and soulful again.

I got to see that we are all Cinderellas and the entanglement in ‘the web’ causes our feelings of discomfort, boredom and unease.

To untangled myself from the web and prevent me from slipping back, meant that I had to learn a new set of behaviors, skills and habits.
I learned to change from an oppressed servant to a princess, learning Life Leverage.

Since living with John, what did I learn about Life Leverage?

• First I needed to be open to a whole new way of learning. Although I was used to learning, this was not the institutionalized learning I had done all my life. This was learning from experience, this was learning engaging the heart and not only the mind.
I had to feel the teachings and access my desires again, knowing they were mine to have and to enjoy.
This is a total new way of learning that engaged and fascinated me.

• To access desires I was taught to distinguish ’structures’ in my life that supported my desires and that served me instead of dominated me.

• I needed to learn that this is not to be confused with pursuing self interests; most of my so unselfish actions in the end were actually NOT serving anybody and certainly not me.
To get my head around that took my mind on a 180 degree spin around and I can assure you the mind muscles did do a lot of work there.

• One of my biggest fears was of making the same mistakes and falling back into the same bad habits. I know how hard it is to keep myself on the right track.
However I got to see that making the same mistakes comes from not fully understanding what is going on.
I had to ask John over and over again to explain certain things to me as I couldn’t always get my head around this new stuff.
The whole desire thing had me baffled for a long time. How could you desire something for yourself and NOT be selfish.
How could you trust that it would happen.
How would I know if my actions were appropriate or enough to have my desire come true?
What if my desire was too big and too greedy?
What if?
What if?
What was I supposed to do? These were the questions I constantly asked for years, until I finally got it.

What now?
My dream is – together with my prince – to have lots of people experience themselves as joyful and prosperous on this awesome planet.

That is happening too!

Next week we will announce our online course, so that you too, can stay true to your little soul’s plans and dreams…

Feel free to forward this blog onto any other little soul who’s looking to escape from ‘the web’.