Spiritual Growth: How to Strengthen Your Faith and Spirituality

By Elsabe Smit

What is solace and where do I find solace? How can I improve my karma? What is the dark night of the soul? Can numerology really predict your future? Does faith require trust and belief? Why do we take risks and how do the risks strengthen our faith? How do you celebrate your beliefs? Why is it important to live every day, not just Sundays and so-called celebration days, as part of your faith? Elsabe Smit answers these and many other questions in this enlightening book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716311017

Elsabe Smit

Elsabe Smit is a well-known international coach, facilitator, author, and public speaker that uses her clairvoyant and intuitive skills in her daily life to assist all of those that she comes into contact with, in her professional life.She has an MBA (Master Business Administration), a MA in Industrial Psychology, and extensive experience as a Business Analyst. Using all her knowledge, skills and competencies, Elsabe helps people to understand the mysteries of life and Love, so that they can regain control of their lives.Elsabe Smit was born and raised in South Africa and has lived in Ireland, South Africa and the UK since 2000.After years of facing numerous personal challenges, involving her relationship with her drug- and alcohol-addicted mother, living with and getting divorced from an abusive husband, being a single mother, being a mistress for a period of time, and then facing unemployment, she one day realized that she had been given the amazing gift of intuition and clairvoyance.Using her newly discovered gifts, she then rediscovered herself. She learned that all her past experiences, "good" and "bad", were only steppingstones on her life's blueprint towards loving and accepting herself.Having always having had a keen interest in human behavior, this discovery took her on a different path, adding the study of life, death and spirituality to her interests. During that journey she explored NLP and embraced Quantum Physics. Elsabe studied some of the world's best acknowledged researchers and gurus in the fields of relationships, health and business.During her professional life Elsabe's career included lecturing at a South African University, being a Human Resources Manager various companies and being a freelance business analyst.In between the various permanent positions and contracts, she developed her reputation as a sought-after author, speaker, facilitator, coach and mentor.As an author, some of her books are today still in use as prescribed textbooks for university and college students in South Africa. Other books have been published and are available on your favorite e-book site, and some books have been published as e-books which she shares as free gifts.As a speaker, facilitator and trainer she has presented numerous programmes to groups ranging from a dozen to hundreds of people. The subject matter has been as varied and interesting as her life.As a mentor, she coached and mentored small business owners, blue-chip executives and employees covering a myriad of professions, employment levels and industries.Don't forget her contribution to the world of psychics. She's been on various radio and TV shows with international audiences. In addition, Elsabe has done thousands of personal psychic readings for people from all walks of life located in various countries - including one for a death row inmate in a US prison.Throughout her life Elsabe has been passionately focused on identifying the nuances that make a difference in people lives, the why's of birth, life and death - and now it's your turn to tap into the vast wealth of knowledge and experiences that she has gained during her lifetime, so that like Elsabe ...YOU can also Discover yourself and Love YOUR Life.

Book preview

Me

1 In Search of Solace

Life is a rollercoaster at the best of times.  When times are good, we feel the elation and fun of being here, and we want to share our joy with the world.  When times are bad, either we do not want to face anyone, or nobody wants to face our misery.

Where do we find our solace and peace during the bad times?  And why do we only seek solace during the bad times?

I grew up in a culture where I was taught that during the worst of times, I can find solace in the church.  When I hit my first adult crisis, I went to the church and found an empty, cold building.  I went to the people of the church, but they chose to avoid me.  I became an outcast because I was getting a divorce.  I then went to the church minister for the solace that I so desperately needed, but the reception – and the judgment - was cold and hostile.

That was not solace.  I kept searching.

How would you define solace for yourself?

I became a psychologist and memorized every theory about changing behaviour and thoughts.  I applied these theories and they worked as long as people really wanted to buy into the constraints of the theories and shared a particular reality.

But then a company that I worked for experienced a low in the economic cycle and could no longer afford my expertise.  I had to find another job.  This is not a big deal in itself, but it took me seven months to find another job.  In my culture being unemployed was a definite sign of failure, and as a result I could not share the path with anyone else.  None of the psychological theories worked for me. I needed solace.

What false source of solace have you experienced?

At the same time a friend looked at me for help in dealing with a very personal crisis.  None of the theories worked for his situation either and I had to pretend to be strong while I desperately needed solace.  I could not get anything from the church, from knowledge of psychological theories, from family, from friends – none of them could provide any solace for me.

That is when my search for solace started in earnest.  In desperation I did a thing that was regarded as a grave sin – I went to see a psychic.  She gave me the hope and courage that I was looking for.  She told me about the job that I would get, and everything turned out as she had predicted.  I was impressed.  I wanted to know more.

I had a moment of solace, but the new job and the friend who challenged every paradigm that I grew up with took that away again.  I discovered that it is much easier to lose inner peace than to find it.

When did you experience a moment of solace, only to be hit by life again?

It also did not feel quite right for me that I had to pay another person to look into my future and provide solace to me.  What if that person was not available the next time I was in need?  What if I went to another psychic and that person gave me a different version of my future?  What peace would that leave me with?  And where did they get the information from anyway?  I wanted to bypass the ‘middlemen’ and go straight to the source.

But where and who and what was the source?  My quest led me to reading about spiritual issues.  I discovered the difference between faith and religion.  I understood why, for me, the whole concept of religion and the external control that went with it was quite disturbing.

As part of my journey I discovered my own psychic abilities.  For many years I helped other people find solace in that I could read their past, present and future, and give them moments of peace.  The solace they got from listening to the psychic messages I conveyed probably was also not lasting, and they probably are also still searching.

However, that journey taught me so much about our inner world.  I discovered that we all share the same inner world, no matter what our challenges in life are.  That inner world is governed by a particular structure and a number of laws that are always the same.

The laws include things like

•You cannot pour from an empty jug, and it is your duty to keep your inner jug full

•There is no bad or good, there are only challenges, and we only get the challenges that we are ready for.

I learned from the psychic readings for my clients about the spiral.  We begin life at the bottom of a spiral, and through various life experiences, we manage the slow, arduous climb up the spiral.  Eventually we reach the top of the spiral, and life is rosy –we have solace.  We have an inner peace and a tranquillity that is so lovely to experience.

And then life happens again and we think ‘oh no, not again – just when everything is going so well’.  We look up and all we see is the long arduous climb up the spiral, and that we have to do it again.  However, we forget to look down and see where we came from and how