Your Hidden Truth: Identifying Life Obstacles and Overcoming Them

By Elizabeth Fotinopoulos and George de la Peña

We all have a hidden truth. Be it a talent or wish, a fear or a trauma, it can prevent us from living a completely fulfilling life. Learn to dig deep into your psyche, embrace your true nature, and achieve your ultimate success by revealing your truth!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Dec 31, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543996616

Book preview

Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN 978-1-54399-660-9 (softcover)

ISBN 978-1-54399-661-6 (ebook)

Thoughts, Observations,

&

Practice Regarding:

Parents

Relationships

Love

Work

Children

Health

Your Potential

A Note from the Author

Readers are advised to proceed with attentiveness. You will be invited to seriously examine your life. A willingness to be honest with yourself and to make necessary changes will be key to your success. Happy reading.

To my wonderful and loving son Jimmy, who is my guiding light.

To my grandmother,

who always believed in my gift and encouraged me to accept it.

And to all the beautiful spirits

that continue to give me strength and insight.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the Mysterious—the knowledge of the existence of something unfathomable to us, the manifestation of the most profound reason coupled with the most brilliant beauty.

—Albert Einstein

Contents

Preface

Me (Elizabeth)

My First Vision

My Hidden Truth

My True Nature

My Mission

You (The Reader)

Believe in Your Dreams, Make Them Your Reality

Fear, Apathy, and Cooperation

Removing Bad Habits

Negativity, Addiction, and Pessimism

Understand the Forces that Shaped You

Assessment and Judgment

Identifying Significant People and Moments in Your Life

Identifying the Early Successes

Honoring Your True Nature and Choosing Your Mission

Relationships

Practicing Optimism

Appreciation and Gratitude

Us (Case Studies)

Becky and George

Patrick

Helen

Victor

Timmy

John

Michael

Jimmy

Elizabeth

Reality

My Wish

The Power of Your Mind

In Closing

Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

Acknowledgements

Elizabeth Fotinopoulos

Preface

Your Hidden Truth

We have at least one. What is it? Very simply, it’s something you can’t see. It could be a talent, a wish, a dream, a fear, a trauma. It could be an event you’d rather forget, or a reality you can’t accept. At times, it’s an intuition that you simply ignore because it doesn’t fit your plans. It can also be something you can’t see about someone else. In turn, you act on blind faith. But that blindness inevitably leads to a collision with the unavoidable wall of truth.

Being true to oneself is the most important task in life. It’s not a new concept, but remarkably difficult to embrace. Open your heart and mind to what I’m about to share with you. Embrace the possibility that you have a hidden truth, a truth that could be the difference between complacency and a life of total fulfillment.

Part I

Me (Elizabeth)

My First Vision

I’m five years old, sitting at the foot of the stairs. I hear people coming in and out of our home. They’re here visiting my family. As they enter, I feel myself becoming them.

Ely, my mother calls out to me. Where are you? Let’s eat!

I sit down and she explains. People are coming to visit. I’ll be busy. I want to take care of you and your grandmother.

We sit at the table, say our prayers and enjoy our meal. My grandmother sits with me. She and I spend lots of time together. But now, I say to myself, I need to go to the living room. This is where our family and friends have gathered. They talk and enjoy their time together. I walk between people, feeling as though I’ve entered them. It’s a cold but powerful feeling; the things I see are more important than the wonder and fear of the unknown.

Then, without knowing why, I feel the urge to pick someone. My grandmother, who is also gifted, expects this. She feels my anxiousness. Eventually, I choose a woman. She’s happy, completely unaware of the trauma that’s about to overpower her. She notices me as I approach. I see fear in her eyes, tears and pain. The closer I get, the clearer her pain becomes. I sit next to her.

I’m so happy you’re here, I say. I’m very sorry about the death of your husband. But you still have time. Talk to him. Tell him you love him. That will make him happy and it will make you feel better.

What? she asks. Why are you telling me this?

She looks at my grandmother. She wants to understand, but also doesn’t. My grandmother reassures her.

She needs to tell you this. Please remember what she’s said. I hope it helps you. My granddaughter is very special.

I don’t understand, the woman says. She becomes upset. My husband seems fine—no complaints, no pain, nothing. Thank you, but I must leave.

She stands up and looks at me, utterly confused. As she leaves, my grandmother takes my hand and walks me to our room.

There are things people prefer not to know, my grandmother says. I know you feel you must, but it’s important to wait until you have been asked. You are special—very special. But you must learn to wait.

A few weeks pass and my prediction comes true: the woman’s husband dies. I remember hearing about it and the realization afterward. I did not choose or prepare for this; it’s simply how I was born.

My Hidden Truth

I often ask myself: Are you satisfied? Are you living the way you should? What’s your purpose? I struggle with these questions, as I know many people do. Most people who know me don’t believe I struggle with anything. But the truth is that we all struggle. I will share my struggle with you.

Perhaps the biggest influence in my life was my grandmother, Elisa. She was powerful, the anchor of our family. She raised us with her great cooking, beautiful singing, and her devout faith. I was named for her. She was my guide throughout life. Among the many lessons she taught me, one of the most important was persevering through misfortune. She became a widow at thirty-nine; her husband—my grandfather—was killed in a trucking accident. In that moment, she became everyone’s grandmother. She never remarried. I’m still married, she liked to say, as though my grandfather stood beside her. She always maintained her optimism despite painful circumstances.

Rather than dwell on her pain, Elisa helped people who needed it. She was compassionate and faithful when others were not. She listened when people chose not to. She understood the complexity of humanity, and helped everyone, no matter the circumstances. As a result, all of us—children, grandchildren, cousins, aunts, uncles—looked to her for counsel. I later discovered that one reason was because she was uncannily successful at reading Tarot cards. A constant stream of neighbors and friends made appointments to hear her readings. But she never accepted payment, refusing it for what she considered a God-given gift. When I was a teenager, I began earning money and every penny went to my grandmother. She immediately gave it to others who were less fortunate. It will make sense to you later, she told me.

My grandmother taught me the importance of helping others. Her friends described her as the richest poor woman they knew. She also inspired confidence.

You must believe in yourself, she said. If you don’t, no one will.

It took me a while to appreciate that lesson.

My True Nature

From the time I was young I’ve had the ability to read people and practically everything in their lives. I see milestones and consequences. I see events that have happened and events that might happen .

I didn’t understand it at first. I struggled to grasp how any of it was possible, yet I embraced it. People laughed and shrugged it off as the fantasies of a young child. Then my predictions started coming to fruition. The laughter stopped. Soon people began asking to visit the child who could see. Some resented it, but I still spoke. I knew intuitively that I could help them. Sometimes the news wasn’t good, but it was always something that needed to be said.

I remember people reacting viscously, sometimes with confusion, fear, and even anger. It made me cautious. But my mother and grandmother encouraged me. They knew it wouldn’t be easy, but also that it was something that I shouldn’t ignore. They considered it a talent; the way Mozart composed music, or the way Einstein conceived theories. Like them, I could see well beyond the typical ability.

Still, it was my hidden truth for many years. As I became older, I lived like a normal person. I went to school, graduated, and joined the workforce. I became the first female Service Manager for General Motors in the United States and Europe. I was quickly promoted to Director of both programs. When that was no longer satisfying, I went to work behind-the-scenes in government and politics. I enjoyed lots of success, and it was exciting. But in my heart, I felt incomplete. Working with people was important to me. There was so much more I could do. I worried about overstepping boundaries and offending my superiors. It kept me silent for many years until, finally, I embraced what I’d been denying for so long.

Accepting my hidden truth—my true nature—set me free and put me on a path of true fulfillment. It wasn’t easy. I took a big chance. People tend to look at people who do what I do with lots of suspicion. They judge what they don’t understand. In that sense, people often look at me with cautious optimism, excited by the positives and turned off by the negatives. Some go as far as to reject the legitimacy of what I do. I decided long ago that I couldn’t worry about negativity. I needed to honor my gift and how I was born. I needed to honor my true nature. You too must honor your nature.

My Mission

My purpose today is to help people who have lost their purpose. Today, I facilitate positive outcomes for the people I work with. I connect them to their deepest wishes and guide them toward fulfillment.

To achieve fulfillment, people need to feel a sense of purpose. They need to feel as though their gifts work toward the greater good. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to share my gift. Over many years, and with hundreds of positive experiences with my clients, I decided that it was time. For years I helped people on an individual basis. I gave advice to friends and family, or gentle warnings to unsuspecting co-workers. From that point on, they’d seek advice. I obliged because it came easily to me. I looked at the source of their problems and advised accordingly. Some would follow my advice and others wouldn’t. The success stories were shared with other friends, and those friends would ask for advice. There was no shortage of people who needed guidance. The larger question I struggled to answer: How could I help everyone? I needed to reach more people. That’s when I began this book. I began looking at fundamental problems that everyone deals with each day and realized that a book could serve as a guide.

I believe that every problem has a solution. Ask yourself: Are you fulfilled? Are you maximizing your potential? Do you make a difference in other people’s lives? I work hard to realize my full potential each day, with a goal to make an enormous difference. It’s time you do too. You’re reading this book because you want answers. You’re looking for a better life, and, by extension, a better life for those around you. The first and most important lesson is to take ownership of it. Let’s work together to achieve the life you were meant to live, the life you will create by honoring yourself and the people around you. Let’s work together to find