My Gift Journey that inspired Your Gift Journey
Hi, here is a video of an interview where I was asked to describe what is like to be in your gift journey for my point of view. Lots of love.
February 2021
My Story of Unwrapping the Inner Gifts
“Doing good holds the power to transform us on the inside, and then ripple out in ever-expanding circles that positively impact the world at large.” Shari Arison. I would like to share my story—unwrapped, not from the end, but from the beginning. There are a lot of people living wonderful lives with unlimited possibilities; they have unwrapped experiences. Yet, not all of them share them with the world. I believe that sharing our stories is of incredible importance to others because we all can grow from one another. That’s why I consider myself a teacher, yet a student every day. I always wanted to live an unconventional life with freedom, beyond the conventions of social standards and what other people think. In other words, I strived for authentic living and expression. I always wanted to become an ambassador of freedom, being myself wherever I went. As a kid, one of the things that I hated the most were uniforms. I wore uniforms in the schools I went to until University. And I disliked the societal need for uniformity that discourages people to be themselves and having clothing as a means of self-expression. I thought that, when I was older, I was going to do whatever I wanted to, dress however I wanted to. Only to realize that the corporate world was a form of a school where a uniform was part of the etiquette. I started by wearing golden earrings and gold jackets with pants or feminine dresses, to wearing black jackets, black pants, and white shirts to go along, to the point where I had 20 different types of black pants in my closet. What happened to my dislike of uniforms? What happened to the ultimate self-expression? I will say it: Distraction happened. What kind of distraction? In some cases, I was working 60- to 80-hour weeks, traveling worldwide on various weekends out of a month or bi-monthly. I was distracted by work, launching products worldwide with meetings at night. Too distracted to pay attention to my deepest heart desires. I climbed the ladder of achievement and every day I was getting prepared for the next growth or leadership opportunity. In the beginning, the idea of achievement was like a gold mine. It was exciting to travel to places I have always loved and always will; traveling ignites in me the sense of curiosity and exploration I have always longed for. Yet one day, travel started to feel longer—and a 24-hour flight soon felt like 48 hours, like being jet lagged and working continuously. I felt senseless, and this inner drive, this inner courage kept nagging at me, asking questions like: Do you want to live your life out of a suitcase? What do you want to travel with? If you were 90 years old and saw yourself from a rocking chair, would your life look like this? Would you like to be pregnant and on a 24-hour plane ride? As they became a closer reality, seeing the next positions on the ladder stopped holding the meaning they used to. And seeing the personal compromises and personal sacrifices a lot of my co-workers had to make, started raising big questions for me. You know, my dad always worked such long hours and I realized early on the sacrifices that could happen along the way. He also was there for every birthday and kept his promises, which I admired then and I admire even more now. My inner desire I have an inner desire to live a life of meaning, of freedom, of purpose—yet I felt guilty for wanting more. I thought, wow you have a lot of things, you have: A great career ahead of you great experiences abroad Really great people you’re working with, and So many learning experiences along the way—and you love doing marketing And then I asked myself: So why are you wanting more? For many years, I silenced my inner desire to have a wider expression of my gift and my dreams, until mid-life. There is something about mid-life. And this was my opportunity to revisit my life, be grateful, and design the future of it. The nagging of meaning became more like a scream and I could no longer ignore it. It was time…this was my time to unwrap the inner gifts. So how did unwrapping come to me? Well… I can tell you that I don’t believe in coincidences. I think the universe is magical and the magic is there available to us. One day I was walking in the street to have lunch as I was feeling this internal “scream, be free, make a difference, make meaning.” I prayed for a meaningful career. I entered a store near my office; you know, this store had been there for five years and until then I hadn’t noticed it. As I walked through it, I met Vicki, the owner. She told me the story of her store and how she helps women with human trafficking. She also told me how they make everything in India and what she does to rehabilitate them. And the crucial moment of unwrapping the inner gifts happened… Going on with her story, she explained to me how, when she started, a TV documentary about the women in India influenced her. At that time, she felt she was called to service and help them. Her determination was so powerful and she touched my heart. I cried when I drove back to work. I even cried when I told my husband the story. And, to this day, I feel like crying again when I talk about it. You know, this story may seem so simple to you, but it is so profound to me. That’s because that day I committed I was going to use my gifts for service and for a higher purpose. Since that day, my life has forever changed. Vicki showed me that, once you know or are called to do something, you have to make
You are brave listen to the calling of your heart
By Virginia Nava Hieger You are a brave soul. You have overcome so much Through your willing spirit you are where you are. You are willing to open your heart and serve others even though it has been difficult You learned lessons, acquire wisdom and transformed the pain in your heart into compassion. Now will your willing heart you continue trusting, loving and opening your heart to your calling and purpose. A calling deep in the bottom of your heart.
You are brave listen to the calling of your heart Read More »
Responsibility and Freedom
By Virginia Nava Hieger I have always had a hard time with the word responsibility. Somehow, this word felt so heavy for me, but now I have another perspective: With freedom comes responsibility, our responsibility to choose who we want to be in our lives, the impact that our interactions have on others, our choices. We are all connected, and one choice affects the other in a domino effect; while we live independently, we are part of a cosmos, of a society which it is part of us, we have an effect on each other. The greater effect is our love for ourselves and others, our joy, our harmony, our inner peace. May we remember that with freedom there comes responsibility and may we find the wisdom to seek Divine support to choose. May we become responsible for our freedom not from a place of guilt or judgment, but from a place of love, kindness and compassion for one another. May this responsibility impact our life in unimaginable ways as well as others’ lives, since we no longer blame others for our choices or ups and downs. Let us come to one of the most free points in our lives one, in which we own our lives choices, and then we become free to be who we were born to be, free to surrender to God’s divine will in full free will, owning our choice to live in Divine alignment with God in our lives. May we experience a new kind of freedom—the freedom to choose and own our choices.
Freedom and Alignment
By Virginia Nava Hieger We all have different themes for our life stories. A strong theme for me has been freedom: I am attracted to freedom stories, to activists and people who express themselves authentically. And I’m also deeply attracted to real love stories! But what, really, is freedom? In my own life, I’ve found that it is alignment. The times in my life when I wasn’t free was because I was out of alignment with the truth of who I am. When I was five years old, I learned about freedom in a moment of truth. My best friend, Adriana, had gotten a really short haircut. Now, at that time my hair was long and I loved it; I played with it, wore a ponytail, two ponytails or braids. One day, I came home and told my mom I wanted a short haircut. My mom looked into my eyes and asked, “Why? How did you come up with this idea?” She finally figured out that I was influenced by my friend’s haircut. So, she asked, “Are you sure?” “Yes,” I said. Then she said, “I think you’re just doing this because your friend cut her hair. Are you sure you want to do this? You know it takes time to grow back, right?” I put my hands on my waist, looked her straight in the eyes and said, defiantly, “Yes!” So, my grandma came home and cut my hair. When I looked at myself in the mirror, I cried and cried. I was so upset. It was one of my first experiences of giving away my freedom of choice. What I really wanted was to be liked, to fit in. I convinced myself I wanted something I really didn’t want it and I faced the consequences. My mom’s wisdom made it perfectly clear that I was not a victim of anything but my own choice. Twenty-five years later, I was in a similar situation at a corporate firm, where I was just as affected by others to change myself. I started wearing khakis to work when I had never liked them before, shopped at new stores, and went to a salon for highlights. I have always worn my hair naturally, and there I was with a woman with over-bleached hair who was about to do my highlights. My body tensed, but just like when I was a child, I had already made my decision so I went ahead and did it, of course, the same thing happened: I came home and cried. I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror. I was starting to lose myself, first with clothes, then with highlights. Everyone at the office was thrilled with my new look, but I felt out of alignment with myself. I realized that this company wasn’t in alignment with me and I was trying so hard to fit in that I had even changed my hair. It’s still painful to remember, yet I learned something really valuable both times: freedom comes from a choice, and I needed to create some tools to ask myself what I really wanted. First, I had to decide how much I was willing to compromise in order to fit in. My inner compass (or constellations, as I like to call them) said hair was now something I could choose for myself. And then, along with what I call my “guiding lights,” I created my first mantra: “Meaningful freedom is having the courage to be authentic about where I am being inauthentic.” This has helped me to understand the difference of what is in alignment with who I am and what is not, and gives me the courage to do uphold it, because the moment you begin to compromise on small things, you’ll start losing yourself in many. What at first may seem like a small, superficial change can actually lead you on a path away from your true self. Learn to pay attention to your inner truth and to what is inside and outside of your inner alignment. Freedom is being in alignment, living in truth. Pay attention to your alignment with small choices, as these choices will create your pathway. There is a GIFT behind these experiences of fitting in. It’s a GIFT of freedom, of values, of guiding lights. It is in the discomfort that often comes when we feel how much it matters to live in alignment with who we are, with our own self-expression. We are different, and each of us has unique areas of self-expression. Each of us has our own language; learn yours and send love and gratitude to the lessons along the way. My hair has given me deep lessons about freedom. I’ve learned to ask myself why am I doing what I am doing and how much of my life is being lived in the freedom of being who I am, in my own truth. I’ve learned to honor and follow my own inner wisdom, to have the courage to travel my own path, and listen to the whispers, grateful for their lessons of love. Virginia Nava Hieger is the author of Your Unique Gift: Finding Life’s Unique Gift Proposition and Meaningful Freedom: Finding Freedom Through Wholeness, two books aimed at empowering women on a journey of self-discovery, authenticity, wholeness and personal freedom. As a Transformative Power® guide, she believes each one of us has our own source of inner strength and that we simply need the tools to reconnect with it to let our light shine back out into the world.
Freedom and Unconditional Love
By Virginia Nava Hieger What would we do differently if we were driven by unconditional love? How differently might we serve? What if how people perceived us didn’t matter? What if criticism or praise could be seen as simply feedback? I recently listed my inner critic concerns and after I did the list I noticed a trend: lack of love, fear of what others will think, their reactions or rejections, and it was a really liberating moment for me. I was liberated in less than 10 minutes, because I realized that what I do isn’t driven by the outside, it is driven by my inner truth. All of these concerns weren’t in alignment with my truth. I realized that I am already loved just as I am, and that if I shifted my perspective about every one of my concerns, my life could change in an instant. In this moment, I realized something else – that freedom and unconditional love are best friends, co-partners in life, and that unconditional love comes when we are able to see our circumstances, lessons, and growth processes from the eyes of compassion instead of judgment. When we can see our lives from compassion, we are truly liberated – and in that moment, the lessons we were supposed to learn become available to us and even more available to others. Being a CEO of my own company has been one of the major GIFTs I have ever had. Being in charge of my company has made available to me my major strengths and resilience, on top of all the inner work that is available for me to create. I can no longer look around and find someone else responsible for my mistakes or shortcomings; the only one to look at is myself in the mirror, and there I always see who has ownership for everything. At the beginning of my journey, there were areas I didn’t like to see there, so I tried to hide from myself. As I matured, I realized that I needed to see my whole self, not just a snapshot of myself. I needed to embrace myself fully without judgment. When I do this, I am open to renewing myself. Loving myself is the most important life objective for me and my life, business and clients, because when I love myself I am free to learn and innovate. When I am willing to fail, I am free to see others with compassion, to connect to the Divine Love available to support me and sustain me along the way. I am free to fly, to share fully versus partially; and most of all, to be human. I am liberated from my own inner critic to keep moving forward and to continue accepting life. I am free to be a GIFT to the world and be of service to others because I have shifted from my cloudy view to a more authentic inner view. Love and compassion give me the courage to expand beyond my own self-imposed limitations. I invite you to recognize how many things you aren’t doing because you are seeking external feedback or praise. If you’re avoiding something, ask yourself how this is serving you. And how is it serving others? Writing books taught me that life lessons are meant to be shared with others, and I am amazed and humbled when someone shares the impact the books I have written have made in their lives. This feedback helps me realize that there is a direct IMPACT on me when I don’t share with others, because just as something can be really liberating for me, it may be for others as well. I have come to realize that loving oneself isn’t selfish at all. To the contrary, it is valuable and even necessary for the communities we live in. It brings a new energy to the work we do and the reasons why we do what we do. The quality of my work changes by the energy it’s been created with, when I create with love vs. apprehension or fear I can feel the difference. Your story matters, your lessons matter; share them from a space of inner love, and quiet your inner critic with a prayer (you may choose words that are meaningful to you such as God, Universe, Divine): I accept my Divine GIFT, for the service of the world. God, I surrender myself to your divine aid, for you are my protector, my council and my courage and strength. Please show me the way, send me your divine angels and archangels to sustain me so that I may share this GIFT with the world. God, you are my wings. In you I put my trust. I open my heart to your guidance; surround me with your strength and unconditional love. Because I am infinitely loved by you, always and forever, I will remember that rejection is only an illusion. And so it is. Living free is loving ourselves. And living free is on our daily decisions. It is a lifestyle to love ourselves. The part that we most need to love from ourselves is who we are inside, our essence, our natural gifts, our own ideas and qualities. When we start accepting ourselves we start discovering our whole selves and we start bringing all of who we are into the world. All these processes start inside of us, they are the foundation to live from the inside-out, to live free and authentically. Think of this this way you take away the barriers within yourself to loving yourself, you create environment of full love, acceptance and self-compassion and within this environment you allow yourself to overcome perfectionism into acceptance and growth and learning, inner criticism and judgment into compassion. All that we have internalized becomes that something we learned and we can then make a decision of a new way of being. Virginia Nava Hieger is the Founder of Your Gift Journey a university for personal development,