How to Form a Daughters Of Destiny Seminar

[Miriam K. Center]

To Begin The Group
A Circle is formed
When we gather in a circle there is no beginning and no end, we are all links in the same chain.


THE FORMAT
The leader sounds a Tibetan bell and waits for the chime to subside and then says, “Listen, listen, the wonderful sound of this bell brings us back to our true selves.”


This page is read aloud to the group:
Welcome to Daughters of Destiny. Our mission is to provide a safe and loving environment for each of you to find the courage for your own particular mission in life.
In Daughters of Destiny we talk about making changes. Sometimes when we try to release a pattern the whole situation seems to get worse for awhile. This is not a bad thing. It is a sign that the situation is beginning to move. Our affirmations are working, and we need to keep going.
I call this chunking-bit by bit things are releasing.
(Three volunteers are asked to read handouts)

Please repeat the following with me:
“In the infinity of life where I am, all is perfect, whole and complete.
I see any resistance patterns within me only as something else to release.
They have no power over me. I am the power in my world.
I flow with the changes taking place in my life as best I can.
I approve of myself and the way I am changing.
I am doing the best I can. Each day gets easier.
I rejoice that I am in the rhythm and flow of my ever changing life.
Today is a wonderful day.
I choose to make it so.
All is well in my world.
You Can Heal Your Life --Louise L. Hay


After the prayer is read the leader continues aloud:
The leader reads, “To grow one has to follow her inner spirit and in that process, you have to do these thee things.”

1. Identify the problem
2. Acquaint herself with the solution
3. Make the twelve promises to guide her growth

THE PROBLEM
Many of us found that we had several characteristics in common as a result of being brought up woman.
We had come to feel isolated, at times especially with authority figures. To protect ourselves, we became people-pleasers, even though we lost our own identities in the process. All the same, we would mistake any criticism as a threat.
We lived life from the standpoint of victims. Having an over-developed sense of responsibility, we preferred to be concerned with others rather than ourselves. We somehow got guilt feelings when we stood up for ourselves rather than giving in to others. Thus, we became reactors rather than actors, letting others take the initiative.
We were dependent personalities-terrified of abandonment-willing to do almost anything to hold on to a relationship in order not to be abandoned emotionally. Yet many of us kept choosing insecure relationships because they matched our childhood relationship with a parent.
These symptoms made us “unsure”. . . we learned to stuff our feelings down as children and kept them buried as adults. As a result of this conditioning, we confused love and pity, tending to love those we could rescue. Even more self-defeating, we became addicted to staying in denial, rather than facing the issue.
This is a description not an indictment.


THE SOLUTION
The solution is to become your own loving parent.
As Daughters of Destiny becomes a safe place, you will find the freedom to express all the hurts and fears you have kept inside and to free yourself from the shame and blame that are carryovers from the past. You will become an adult who is no longer imprisoned by childhood reactions. You will recover the child within you, learning to accept and love yourself.
The healing begins when you risk moving out of isolation. Feelings and buried memories will return. By gradually releasing the burden of unexpressed grief, you slowly move out of the past. You learn to reparent yourselves with gentleness, humor, love and respect.
This process allows you to see your biological parents as the instruments of your existence. Your actual parent is a Higher Power, some of us choose to call God. Although our parents did not teach us this, our Higher Power gives us the steps of recovery.
This is the action and work that heals us; we use the promises, and solutions; we use the seminars; we call on each other. We share our experience, strength and hope with each other. We learn to restructure our past thinking one day at a time. When we release our parents from responsibility for our actions today, we become free to make healthy decisions as actors, not reactors. We progress from hurting to healing, to helping. We awaken to a sense of wholeness we never knew was possible.
By participating in these processes, you will come to see parental behavior for what it is: a condition that infected you as a child and continues to affect you as an adult. You will learn to keep the focus on yourself in the here and now. You will take responsibility for your own life and supply your own parenting.
This is a spiritual program based on action coming from love. We are sure that as the love grows inside you, you will see beautiful changes in all your relationships, especially with God, yourself, and your family.


THE PROMISES
1. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
2. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
3. We will comprehend the word serenity.
4. And we will know peace.
5. No matter how far down the scale we have gone we will see how our experience can benefit others.
6. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
7. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain insight into our sisters.
8. Self-seeking will slip away.
9. Our whole attitude and outlook will change.
10. Fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us.
11. We will intuitively know how to handle situations, which used to baffle us.
12. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.

The leader announces the subject for the evening by reading a quote, which is called a sermonette. Then she gives a personal example of how that worked in her life. The next participant is then handed the velvet loving heart with these words. “I pass you my loving heart.” There is power both in saying and hearing these words. After speaking to the subject, the heart is again passed, until everyone has had a turn.
At the end of the meeting each person is asked if she would like to receive feedback from the group. Feedback is always given in a loving, non-judgmental manner, never in the form of advice. We do not give advice, we give feedback, and only if it is requested.


As you listen to participants receive feedback perhaps some of their suggestions can be applied to your own personal situation. We serve as mirrors for one another in these exercises. Each weekly seminar lasts approximately two hours.

You are encouraged to give feedback to any of the participants. We learn many things by involving ourselves in another person's issues. So if you are doing this solo, go ahead and participate.
Just take in a deep breath and exhale letting go of the tensions of the day.



This page is read after the meeting is finished and feedback has been received.

In closing I would like to say that the opinions expressed here were strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you like and leave the rest. The things you heard were spoken in confidence and should be treated as confidential. Keep them within the walls of this room and the confines of your mind.
We are not perfect. Talk to each other, reason things out with someone else, but let there be no gossip or criticism of one another. Instead, let the understanding, love and peace of the program, grow within you one day at a time.

SHARE THE THOUGHT: It's not who you are that holds you back: It's who you think you're not.

CLOSING PRAYER: After a moment's silent meditation, join hands in a closing prayer of your choice.

[Romantic Poetess]

Miriam,
Thank You For Posting This Information. You have some very interesting influential words for empowerments & divine self acceptance & inner growth towards strength!
I would like to also say I LOVE LOVE LOVE....

"SHARE THE THOUGHT: It's not who you are that holds you back: It's who you think you're not."

It is amazing that we can short change our "own self" from our..... "Own Self".....

Embraced~Embrasse'
Vickie