The Power of the Personal Memoir
Writing stories and examining them helps you know yourself better, and to see areas of your life that you need to change. When you start writing, you don’t know where it’s going to lead you. Many of my stories led to deep healing between myself and others, and within myself. “One of the reasons, I wanted to write this book was to encourage other women to stand up. Because I know there are lots of other women who are struggling as I did, because we’re trained not to make waves.” - Mary Sue Rabe Experiences from our past either make or break us. And truly, the choice is in our hands for we steer the course of our destiny. Whatever it was, negative or positive, we have the power to transform it into something we can learn a lesson from, heal from, and also be empowered on. And writing it into a memoir lets others get a glimpse into our world and inspires, as well as influence them to do the things that they ought to do and make a profound impact in this world. In this episode, Mary shares what the content of her book is all about, from the challenges she faced as a child and as an adult, of finding her voice, taking a stand, and saying something to those happy memories of being loved by other people of color. And that of being grateful for what has life taught her and what has become of her. What you will learn from this episode: Learn how to find your voice, make a stand, and act on it Discover about the healing power of forgiveness - learning how to forgive and asking for forgiveness Find out why showing vulnerability in your story matters Link to a Free Resource: Stand There and Look Pretty Darlin’ by Mary Sue Rabe Topics Covered: 02:01 - The challenges of finding her voice - what her book title is all about 02:37 - One of their missions in Women Healing the World is to heal race relations. When she didn’t know how to start it, she went on to write a blog as a tribute to African people who helped raise her 03:14 - The book brings with it memories for people, especially for women to think about things that happened in their lives that they might want to heal or that they might not have healed in the past. This closely relates to how things should happen in the organization she founded. 04:34 - When you haven’t expressed emotions to truly express your gratitude to people who have shown you love, somehow, this book relates the story of bringing back those memories and being grateful for it. 06:37 - Her vulnerability shows in the book: one mistake from her childhood that she regrets 08:58 - The healing power of forgiveness - that big relief of a feeling that you are forgiven 12:07 - Her stories of not only standing up but saying something for what you believe is right 13:41 - Doing the things not because you want it done but because you needed it for yourself. Being proud of standing up and not just looking at and standing there. 14:39 - What empowerment looks like - when you are making waves when most don’t do that 15:39 - Doing it for her daughters but taking all the risks 16:40 - Technique she uses that have been helpful in her life: 'The ho’oponopono' - Mary Sue's story of forgiveness brought about by this prayer 22:21 - Her thoughts on setting a new paradigm and magical story brought about by that Key Takeaways: “I do regret that I didn't express my gratitude to them more and so that was one of the reasons for it. Wanting to write a tribute to them and post it on the blog page so that people could see it or write a story in a book to put the energy out there of my appreciation for them.’ - Mary Sue Rabe “With forgiveness, just like the weight of the world had been lifted from me and like, all the cells in my body were excited and relieved and juicy. It was an amazing experience.” - Mary Sue Rabe “I had to get past the obstacle. I know that it was about the lesson and I wanted to learn the lesson.” - Mary Sue Rabe “When I look back on that situation, I feel like we were setting a new paradigm. I know we were not the only couple in the world doing the same thing. But a lot of times families did choose sides or friends chose sides. And our goal was for that not to happen for us to have the type of relationship where we could be friendly towards one another.” - Mary Sue Rabe Connect with Mary Sue Rabe: https://marysuerabe.com https://womenhealingtheworld.com Book: Stand There and Look Pretty Darlin'