Author
Nancy Forbes, author of Courageous Butterfly: A journey to self-acceptance
A message of hope, love and courage.
Nancy Forbes spent the first nineteen years of her life in Montréal, Canada. After moving to Toronto in 1982, she married and had three children. A devastating tragedy forced her to change her path, and embark on a spiritual journey to find herself. The next ten years, she devoted her time educating herself to understand her strange behavior. On her way, she remembered where she came from, and with the help of God, she made the choice to create herself anew. Nancy practiced yoga and meditation for over a decade.
In 2003, she enrolled in a two-year yoga teaching program. She now teaches in her own studio.
Emerging Butterflies Yoga Studio, in Brampton, Ontario. Through her teaching, Nancy hopes to bring moments of peace, harmony and joy to her students. She also want to fund a Community Centre, in which to share love with others and collectively delivering positive energy into the world.
I have kept a journal since I was fifteen years old. In November 2004, at the age of forty, I stopped writing, and for two years, I abandoned recording my life on paper. It seemed that the passion had gone — until the magical night of February 9, 2007. I shall take you through this chapter of my life, however before going there, I would like to share with you the foundation, the footprint of my story, the beginning. To understand my path — the road to self-acceptance, you need to know where I was mentally and emotionally in my early years, and who I became because of it, and later on, you will see, who I am today. I can finally say I love who I am, because I am finally giving myself permission to be me. As you read the first chapters of my life, please keep in mind that I now call my past "so what." I am not bitter, I am not resentful, I am not a victim. I am no longer in that place. Although, I do not like to talk about the past, since I now understand the effect my thoughts and words have on my wellbeing. However to write this book, I am willing to go there once again.
My past is simply a story — my story.
The reason for writing about it is to offer you three wonderful expressions of life, Hope, Love, and Courage. To reveal that in time, we have to move on, to awaken, to evolve, to grow up, but most importantly, we have to remember where we came from — who we truly are. We must stop blaming and feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to be responsible for our own lives, and if we have to, we must create ourselves anew. Even though today I call my past "so what," during the writing of this book, I revived a lot of old pain, experiencing first hand, the power of my thoughts. While writing, I had allowed my past to resurface, and my mind to experience the drama all over again; as a result of this, the emotional pain of my upbringing materialized, making it impossible for me to feel good while writing my story. Fortunately, this time, I was aware of what I was doing. I understood why I felt this way. I could shift my attention to the present moment at anytime, and instantly make a difference in how I was feeling. This is how powerful our thoughts truly are!
Although I am considering my past as stepping-stones, gifts that served me well, I learned that the past can also trap us in vicious cycles of pain, and fear can immobilize and stop us from moving forward. True power is when we are fully present and recognize that reality exists only in the now. Freedom will come in the awareness of loving and trusting life, moment by moment, day after day.
Nancy Forbes, author of Courageous Butterfly: A journey to self-acceptance
A message of hope, love and courage.
Nancy Forbes spent the first nineteen years of her life in Montréal, Canada. After moving to Toronto in 1982, she married and had three children. A devastating tragedy forced her to change her path, and embark on a spiritual journey to find herself. The next ten years, she devoted her time educating herself to understand her strange behavior. On her way, she remembered where she came from, and with the help of God, she made the choice to create herself anew. Nancy practiced yoga and meditation for over a decade.
In 2003, she enrolled in a two-year yoga teaching program. She now teaches in her own studio.
Emerging Butterflies Yoga Studio, in Brampton, Ontario. Through her teaching, Nancy hopes to bring moments of peace, harmony and joy to her students. She also want to fund a Community Centre, in which to share love with others and collectively delivering positive energy into the world.
I have kept a journal since I was fifteen years old. In November 2004, at the age of forty, I stopped writing, and for two years, I abandoned recording my life on paper. It seemed that the passion had gone — until the magical night of February 9, 2007. I shall take you through this chapter of my life, however before going there, I would like to share with you the foundation, the footprint of my story, the beginning. To understand my path — the road to self-acceptance, you need to know where I was mentally and emotionally in my early years, and who I became because of it, and later on, you will see, who I am today. I can finally say I love who I am, because I am finally giving myself permission to be me. As you read the first chapters of my life, please keep in mind that I now call my past "so what." I am not bitter, I am not resentful, I am not a victim. I am no longer in that place. Although, I do not like to talk about the past, since I now understand the effect my thoughts and words have on my wellbeing. However to write this book, I am willing to go there once again.
My past is simply a story — my story.
The reason for writing about it is to offer you three wonderful expressions of life, Hope, Love, and Courage. To reveal that in time, we have to move on, to awaken, to evolve, to grow up, but most importantly, we have to remember where we came from — who we truly are. We must stop blaming and feeling sorry for ourselves. We have to be responsible for our own lives, and if we have to, we must create ourselves anew. Even though today I call my past "so what," during the writing of this book, I revived a lot of old pain, experiencing first hand, the power of my thoughts. While writing, I had allowed my past to resurface, and my mind to experience the drama all over again; as a result of this, the emotional pain of my upbringing materialized, making it impossible for me to feel good while writing my story. Fortunately, this time, I was aware of what I was doing. I understood why I felt this way. I could shift my attention to the present moment at anytime, and instantly make a difference in how I was feeling. This is how powerful our thoughts truly are!
Although I am considering my past as stepping-stones, gifts that served me well, I learned that the past can also trap us in vicious cycles of pain, and fear can immobilize and stop us from moving forward. True power is when we are fully present and recognize that reality exists only in the now. Freedom will come in the awareness of loving and trusting life, moment by moment, day after day.