Why I Created “Starting Today”

I created Starting Today: Healing After Trauma, A 21-Day Guided Journal for anyone who has struggled to heal, visualize or manifest the life they truly desire.

This was me for most of my life. In the late 90’s, I was introduced to visualization. I read the books. I listened to the books on tape. I watched, read, and listened to the late Dr. Wayne Dyer, who led me along my spiritual path.

The books I read led me to work at a health store. Then, I earned my bachelor’s degree in alternative medicine. I got Reiki attunements and did free Reiki healings to the public at a metaphysical church. I became an ordained minister. I became an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. I became a Certified Spiritual Life Coach and a Certified Intuitive Energy Healer.

I attended multiple seminars and listened to countless webinars. I continued to study for many years. But no matter how much information I poured into myself, I continued walking around feeling like “something was missing.” And for the ones who say, “You need God in your life,” I did, and still do. I was actively involved in many churches through my journeys.

Through my journeys, I learned that we cannot satisfy our hunger from the outside world. It comes from within. Even with God on our side, if we don’t love ourselves, we cannot heal. We will continue attracting the wrong partners, the wrong jobs, and all the things we initially don’t want.

That’s why affirmations, manifestation, and visualization can feel ineffective when they aren’t rooted in self-love and self-worth.

Let me explain what I mean. While I was studying to become an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, we were taught to gradually add nourishing foods to our diet. This pushes the “bad foods out.” Over time, those healthier choices naturally begin replacing the foods that no longer serve us. Before long, those small changes become new habits.

Healing works much the same way. We begin with believable, attainable affirmations that meet us where we are today. As those small beliefs grow, they gradually replace the old stories we’ve carried about ourselves.

If you’ve experienced trauma, it can be difficult to believe “I am” affirmations wholeheartedly. When someone or something has taken away your trust, your faith, or your sense of self-worth, even the simplest positive affirmation can feel impossible to believe.

That’s why, in the journal I created, I share a little about my own story, simple self-care exercises to help connect with the self-love that may have been lost, affirmations beginning with “Starting Today” to help you focus on one day at a time, and a space for personal reflection.

I believe telling ourselves, “Starting Today, I am choosing to release any guilt I have been holding onto,” is much more relatable than trying to convince ourselves, “I am a millionaire.”

We have to introduce believable and attainable affirmations that connect with us in our current state. This allows us to push out the “garbage” we’re still holding onto from our past.

If you’ve spent years searching for healing but still feel like something is missing, as I once did, then I hope this journal reminds you that healing doesn’t have to happen all at once.

Sometimes it begins with one simple decision, one small step to focus on…

to start a new beginning, today.

Starting Today: My Story

I’ve been wanting to be a writer for 30 years.

I started at a young age, beginning with a single notebook. I would write down what I felt, what was happening around me, my emotions, my thoughts, and everything in between.

When I went to college for Journalism and Mass Communications, my family did not support me. I was told that writing was a dying field or that I didn’t need a college degree to be successful.

I listened to that advice, and I’ve regretted it ever since.

I’ve spent the last 30 years working at any job I could find to keep a roof over my head. I searched for my “niche” in every occupation I worked in, but I never quite found where I belonged.

Today, 30 years later, people are still saying that writing is a dying field. Maybe it is, or maybe it isn’t. But no writer can fully explain why they write. They just do.

For all these years, I have kept my writing creations to myself. That is, until now.

I finally got the negative voices out of my head and stepped outside of my comfort zone. I have now written and published my first two books for the world to read.

Am I scared? Yes, I’m terrified.

Because I, unlike many writers, haven’t spent decades building a visible writing career. I kept my voice hidden. My thoughts to myself. I didn’t allow anyone else to read what I had to say until now.

For years, I followed the path I was told to take. To work traditional jobs to survive.

So, I did.

 From temporary roles, to retail, to the nursing field-I’ve done a little bit of everything.

At the time, it felt like I was searching for something I couldn’t find. Like I was falling behind. But now I understand and appreciate that I was gaining the life experience that would one day shape my voice.

Aside from the many occupations I’ve worked in, I have also studied healing along my journey. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Alternative Medicine, became a Health Coach, a Certified Spiritual Life Coach, and a Certified Intuitive Energy Healer.

Now, I have chosen to use everything I have learned with the knowledge I have gained, and my life experience, to teach others through my writing.

I took the time to build a website and write two books. But I am just beginning.

My goal is to help other women find themselves again. To reconnect with their inner voice. To find balance in their busy lives. To heal from trauma, abuse, and neglect. And to reach the women who have spent their lives putting everyone else first.

The sacrifices we make as women are often unseen.

I know mine were. And I suffered in silence because of it. I am just now stepping outside of my comfort zone and doing the one thing I’ve wanted to do for 30 years.

But it took a moment of looking at myself in the mirror and thinking:

“I have something to say, and I don’t want to die with the music still in me.”

And so, my first book, Starting Today was created.

I am stepping outside of my comfort zone.

I published a book, finally.

I am finally taking the steps to build the website I always wanted.

And now I am finally writing my first blog and introducing myself to all of you.

 And to tell the quiet ones that keep themselves in silence, like I did, that it is never too late to do the thing you love.

 I am almost 50 years old, but I am Starting Today.

Sometimes, all it takes is a single step outside of your comfort zone.

And if you’ve been carrying your inner voice in silence, I hope this reminds you that it’s not too late to be heard.

If my story resonated with you, I want you to know something…

You don’t have to stay where you are.

I created Starting Today for the moments when you feel lost, overwhelmed, or like you’re trying to find your way back to yourself.

When you’re ready to take that first step forward, you can begin your journey below.

Balance With Eve

~Crystal Eve