Composing Your Own Narrative aids one in uncovering the early influences in one's life that may continue to serve as controlling, unacknowledged forces in one's life. The sequence of activities allows the reader to select the building blocks that are most consistent with one's emerging self, left un-tethered by others' values and beliefs. Gradually, the work leads to identifying signs of the emerging self and turning points in our lives in which we gradually began the work of unearthing our authentic selves. As we gain more insight into our own childhoods, we gain greater clarity about both the gifts that our childhoods yielded as well as the areas in which we were likely to discover needed more work. Once we have a way of reviewing our lives through a lens that is more compassionate, we're more able to accept where, with greater insight and understanding, we might well have chosen different responses.

Many of us have never thought about or are unsure how to review our lives without falling into the sink holes of remorse and regret. Dr. Cathy L. Livingston's guide to Composing Our Own Narrative leads us through a process of discovering the influences - including adults - in our early lives that contributed to either expanding or limiting our concept of our potential.

The process of discovery is embedded in a self-compassionate understanding of our own and well as others' humanness. Often as we deepen our understanding of the adults in our young lives as people with their own unique gifts and challenges as influenced by their childhoods, our maturing perspective allows us to move toward accepting that they did the best could.

With greater clarity about the more controlling influences in our early lives, we move on to noticing signs of our emerging selves. These signals may occur before we can give voice to what is calling us forward. We then explore turning points in our lives, analyzing how they have impacted our future choices.

Finally with the structure in place, we begin to identify the major themes in our lives. These themes help us convert our filmy understanding of our lives into a recognizable image, which we call our narrative arc.

Completing the work of telling our story presents us with a more compassionate understanding of our life's trajectory. The added dimension of compassion allows us to form and claim an integrated understanding of our life experience more easily.

This work isn't about erasing what we perceive as mistakes in our lives; it is instead about accepting our humanness. The invitation to accept ourselves as less than perfect without condemning ourselves provides a more inviting and successful invitation to befriend our hidden wholeness. This work enables us to reach an integrated understanding of our lives. As we achieve an elevated state of appreciation for the lives we've lived, the peace of this experience frees us to focus on our legacy and the gifts we hope to leave for those who will follow us.