About the creator of this site
Discovering How To Change My Beliefs
Photo of the Option Institute grounds.
One day I Googled the phrase “Class on Happiness.” To my shock and delight such a class existed. The place was called the Option Institute and I signed up to attend a weekend workshop. I was so impressed with what I learned in only two days that I signed up for their eight-week program called, “Living the Dream.” Over those two summer months I learned more about myself and happiness than I had in decades.
The most profound shift happened during an Option Process® Dialogue. I was struggling with feelings of self-loathing and believed I was a bad person. After being asked some peculiar questions by the mentor, I had a light bulb moment. I realized my belief was complete and utter hogwash.
What belief did I change? To be honest, I can’t remember the specifics. If I had to take a guess, it probably went something along the line of, “I have done [insert some horrid behavior] so that means I am a [terrible] person.” The mentor asked very logical questions and I gave her logical answers. I was genuinely surprised that I had reasons for the things I did. Honest to God, real, legitimate, (maybe misguided) but completely understandable reasons that I had never heard myself voice before.
I wasn’t necessarily hideous — I was just doing the best I could, based on what I believed to be true at the time. I marveled that I could hold a belief that there was something wrong with me for so long and within 30 minutes, be able to see myself in a completely different light.
I left that dialogue session feeling changed to my core. And it wasn’t hard to do or require some superhuman will power for me to change how I felt about myself. The belief that had fueled those feelings of self-hatred was poof — gone! More importantly, I had finally found a reliable tool for changing all of my other beliefs that were causing me pain or holding me back. It was that powerful.
So I returned home and made the following changes…
- I had a long, long, honest talk with my wonderful-unique-special-brilliant-husband. We established a new set of guidelines for loving each other and for running our marriage.
- We moved south for more sunshine and the ocean lifestyle. No small endeavor, considering both of our families lived within 15 minutes of each other.
- We purchased a new home surrounded by nature. The home so closely fit the picture in my head that it was downright scary.
- I started my own web design business. (Hire me to do your next website!)
- I built the selfcreation.com website.
Creating This Website
After settling into our new life, I wanted to find a way to combine my love of website design with my passion for personal development. I kept thinking how different my life might have been if I had been exposed to the Option dialogue at an earlier age. From my perspective, if I helped just one person bypass the misery I had experienced, it would be worth it. (If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can read about how I came to this conclusion.)
So in 1999, I launched selfcreation.com. The website has been online since then, ad-free, with no requests for support. I just wanted to help someone . . . anyone. Since its inception, I have continued to grow, read, attend programs, do Option dialogues and journal. Occasionally I would post updates, but for the most part selfcreation.com sat idle for about 13 years. Until now.
