Soul Sustenance: Gates of Power

Disclosure: I received complimentary products to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.

Good parents all want what is best for their kids, and often sacrifice time, energy, and money for them. In spite of this, many good parents still have children who are emotionally imbalanced, using drugs, or otherwise making bad choices. Why does this happen?

One reason is that as parents and role models, we often don't take care of our own well-being to the extent that we should. Emotional balance has not been highly valued or emphasized as a society, so it's hard for us as parents to pass that on to our children.

Nomi Bachar is a holistic spiritual counselor and self-healing, self-actualization expert and coach. She is the director of White Cedar Institute for Expanded Living LLC and the creator of the Gates of Power® Method. She is also the author of a new book,  Gates of Power: Actualize Your TrueSelf.

In this book, she explores why we get frustrated and saddened by the fact that we cannot change things we want to change, unaware of the limit that our inner programs place on us. The Gates of Power refer to seven facets of our being that all need to be attended to in order to achieve emotional balance: body, emotions, dialogue, creative expression, life path, silence, and knowledge.

Self-healing and self-actualization, or the term "holistic spiritual counselor" can have negative connotations for people who don't buy into it - but the book and method are worth a shot. Even if you don't agree with the whole spiritual aspect, the idea that we can't focus on one part of our life at the expense of another is sound. And I like that the ideas of creative expression, life path, and silence are included. Lots of people know they need to take care of themselves physically, and probably even know they need to emotionally recharge, keep learning, and have good communication with each other. But a lot of people forget the importance of silence on a deeper level, don't make time for creative expression, or have no overarching life path to guide decisions.

If you're struggling with your life's circumstances, you can check out the book or her website for more explanations of the Gates.