By Carl Ivory
As humans, we all face challenges that can feel insurmountable. But, according to author Teal Swan, it’s the process of going through those challenges that inevitably leads to enlightenment.
In her lectures and writings, Teal Swan speaks about many subjects, including the power of love, personal transformation, and spirituality. Teal Swan is an author and spiritual guru who was born with a variety of extrasensory talents. She uses those abilities and her own terrible life experience to encourage people toward integrity, freedom, and love.
Transformation is the process of bringing something into a different state or form. For example, Teal Swan says personal transformation is when you go from being hurt to feeling healed; it’s when you go from fear to courage; it’s when you go from being less free to being freer.
When you go through the transformation process, you come out on the other side closer to who you really are. You become empowered and learn to take responsibility for your life instead of blaming others or feeling victimized.
Transformation is a journey that Teal Swan says doesn’t have an endpoint where you get to check-in and say, “I’m done. I’ve arrived.” It’s a continuous journey of going from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge, from hate to love—and from neediness and insecurity to personal power and autonomy.
During her interview, Teal discussed the importance of personal transformation and offered strategies for self-healing.
Teal Swan: Personal transformation is more than just some buzzword. It’s the process of going from being a particular type of person to being another type of person.
In terms of what you call your “identity,” it’s the difference between who you thought yourself to be—and who you actually are.
It’s like when people come up to me, and they’re like, “Teal, I’ve been watching you for a year. You’re amazing, and I love your work, but I feel like I’m stuck.”
And it’s not because they don’t know what to do. It’s not because they don’t have the right tools. It’s because their identity isn’t lined up with who they actually are, [which is] someone who can take responsibility for their life.
As a species, we’re conditioned toward victimhood and pain. To be whole as a human being, you have to go through the process of transformation where you let go of that identity and step into your real one—the essence of being an empowered individual who understands how to take responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
So instead of seeing yourself as a victim or a bad person who’s been hurt or traumatized, you see yourself as an empowered individual who has the tools to take responsibility for themselves—where they can make decisions from a place where they’re not at the effect of anything that happens to them. They’re not at the effect of their own mind.
The other piece is, you also have to let go of your attachments because if there are people around you who are still attached to the idea of you being a victim, or this person who can’t take responsibility for themselves—instead of someone who has all the tools to take responsibility—then they won’t think you’re as cool or as amazing or as light.
However, if you know it deep within your bones that this is true—that you’ve been empowered and have all the tools to take responsibility for yourself—then suddenly nothing can affect you because it’s no longer a decision that’s being made from a place of lack.
