From My Heart to Yours—Enhance Your Life with G.R.A.C.E

By Roslyn Basserabie

Do you (the most important person in your life) want to benefit from a tried-and-tested user-friendly guide to enhance each day with awareness and, when you apply the principles, make an ordinary day extraordinary?

If you want to enhance your life by giving it sparkle and maximizing the value you give to and get from it, then this is the book for you!

Via the acronym GRACE, the author has constructed and developed life principles pertaining to each of the five letters. Many of these principles are universal truths that you will resonate with. However, they have been put into a perspective that is easy to relate to and put into practice.

Its a hands-on guide with many novel and workable ideas.

It has not been designed to change you.

Simply put, its a recipe book that will enhance your life!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Jun 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543485660

Roslyn Basserabie

For over thirty five years, the author has been involved in matters of the human condition. From teaching children in her classrooms, training salespeople, giving inspirational talks and marketing a variety of products in the business world. When, she was asked "where can I buy your book?" she decided to consolidate her ideas for upliftment into written form. Together with her love for mankind and her G-D given enthusiasm for life - she has succeeded in adding value to the lives of many people. Her compilation of life lessons has been gleaned from her vocational, business and personal experience. She believes that life is a gift, even though it comes with many trials and tribulations of which no one is exempt. In times of 'darkness', she is able to create and spread light, by finding candles and matches with which to ignite a flame.

Book preview

From My Heart

To Yours -

Enhance Your Life

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G.R.A.C.E.

ROSLYN BASSERABIE

Copyright © 2017 by Roslyn Basserabie.

ISBN:                        Softcover                        978-1-5434-8567-7

                                   eBook                             978-1-5434-8566-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 06/15/2017

Xlibris

800-056-3182

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

748054

INDEX AND SYNOPSIS

OF EACH CHAPTER

A BRIEF SYNOPSIS OF EACH CHAPTER IN THE BOOK

This is to assist you in choosing, which aspect of the book you would most like to concentrate on. Somewhat like an index.

You can peruse the chapter most relevant to you at a given time. Obviously, it helps to follow a sequence, but I know that there are those times, when it’s more relevant to select chapters out of their sequential order.

Foreword

Chapter 1:   Prologue And Mini Autobiography

This is the background to my reasons for having written a book on life skills. Although I have covered most of it in my foreword, it supports the reasons that I became a proponent of a positive approach to living life and for becoming involved in human motivation and upliftment. It also reveals the synergy in the selection of G.R.A.C.E. as the acronym I have chosen to teach my principles.

The episode of the fire that gutted my home in July 2006 is included in its own chapter. It affirmed my ability to view things with a positive eye and thus walk the talk that I had always advocated in the many talks I had given in the preceding years.

Chapter 2:   The Main Constituents That Make Up Our Lives

The six salient aspects that govern our lives are mentioned in this chapter, because they will help you to appraise your own life and decide which of them render the most positive, or the most negative charge.

Chapter 3:   A Self Evaluation Questionaire

A very simple one, designed to help you think deeply about yourself and to see where you are in your life and where you would like to be in the near future. It will help you Look deeper into -‘you!

It is merely an optional exercise in assisting you with recognising your aptitudes. This in itself is a principle, in the acronym of G.R.A.C.E.

The questionnaire will assist you in understanding your strengths and your weaknesses.

Chapter 4:   Why G.R.A.C.E.?

This chapter reveals how I arrived at the word GRACE for my acronym and the extraordinary synergy that brought me to the realization that GRACE in all its implications, was the only choice.

CHAPTER 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

UNPACKING EACH LETTER OF THE ACRONYM -’G.R.A.C.E. [THE PRINCIPLE PERTAINING TO EACH OF THE FIVE LETTERS], AS WELL AS IDEAS, [OR SUGGESTIONS] FOR PUTTING THEM INTO PRACTICE.

This is the essence of the book. It is these concepts [some of them, universal] that have been formulated [over 18 years], as the building blocks of a satisfying, fulfilling life.

From this chapter onwards, I shall expound on the concepts chosen for each letter. They have grown over the years and you can easily build upon them.

The intention of encompassing them as an acronym is to make it simpler to remember and to apply.

They are:

Chapter 5:   ‘G’

G-D

Give

Gratitude

Grow Or [In Its Verb]…Growing

Go: For It

Go: With It

Chapter 6:   ‘R’

Respect For Self And Others

Respect For Others

Resilience

Revel

Relationships

Marital Relationships

Relationships With Friends

Chapter 7:   ‘A’

Acting

Action

Alacrity

Assertiveness

Assuredness

Acceptance

Aroma

Art

Aptitude

Attitude

Accountability

Chapter 8:   ‘C’

Clarity

Commitment

Courage

Concentration

Change

Choice

Comedy

Colour

Chapter 9:   ‘E’

Eating

Exercise

Energy

Effort

Expectation

Entertainment

Elegance

Enhancement

Chapter 10:   A Defining Moment In My Life

The Fire

An account of the dramatic event, that is one of the’ out of the ordinary’, defining moments in my life.

This is where I give a short description of the episode in which a fire from an electrical fault in the ceiling of the main bedroom in our house- caused a major fire that gutted a very large portion of it.

My Gratitude

Herein I express my gratitude to those who played big and small parts in bringing this book into fruition.

FOREWORD

Self help books are ten a penny and universal truths are just what they purport to be. I don’t want this work to fall into the ‘bag’ of: another author professing to know the answers to living life. I certainly don’t have all the answers, but my life experience and deep desire to share the principles I have gleaned, learnt, am still learning and those I have inculcated into my own life, are-I believe - worth sharing.

My eleven year old grandson criticised me for being ‘too positive’. I was floored by this perception from someone so young. When I asked him what brought him to this conclusion, he gave some examples and they revealed to me, that he resented my playing ‘Devil’s Advocate’, by judging the behaviour of others favourably and qualifying why I see both sides in a situation. He intimated that I never admit to the ugly side of things.

What an eye opener this was to me! I knew that the people in my life were totally aware of my positivity, [in fact I remember being called ‘the advocate’ by one of my teachers at school, because I stood up for my peers if they were reprimanded undeservedly and I always attempted to point out that every problem was just a solution waiting to happen.] However, I was unaware that my attitude had also filtered through to the much younger ones as well.

I do recall a time when my youngest daughter also accused me of the same. It was in a very dramatic situation when our house burnt down in front of us. In a stricken state, she cried out defiantly, that she wasn’t positive like me and that she never would be. My husband and I did not indicate anguish at the time, as our adrenalin was obviously doing the job of keeping us buoyant and we realised, with relief that no one had been hurt. We had enough time to hastily salvage vital documents, our vehicles in the garage, a box of family photos and our computers. These factors helped him and I remain calm and level headed in the face of the disaster. We had recognised that it was ‘spilt milk’ that couldn’t be undone and we needed our wits about us, in order to cope with what was to come. Incredibly, we were the calming force amidst the spectators who had arrived to see the carnage taking place. [Family and friends were distraught and ironically we were-consoling them.]

My daughter reacted very differently, as she had only returned home six months previously from a gap year overseas. Her sense of loss and fear of the unknown had obviously shaken her badly. At the time, I was insensitive to this and thought that she was coping as well as we were. Her reaction took me aback and not long afterwards, we arranged for her to see a psychologist specialising in post traumatic stress disorder.

I totally understand where she was coming from and have recognised that those who do not have this mindset of seeing the ‘glass half full’ can experience vexation because of my approach.

Consequently, I soul searched to find out whether I was ‘for real’. Did it appear to some, that I was a fraud?

This is what I have come up with:

I am not a fraud!

My prologue will reveal to you the way in which I chose positivity over negativity. By my habituating the ways in which to see and concentrate