Smile and Shine

By Helena Raci

In this book Helena Raci shares her journey through a very personal issue that for many years it has dominated her thoughts and created a set of limiting beliefs that challenged her life, her self-confidence and set her into a road of self-destruction. The author shares how being a single mum, taking full responsibility for her children drove her to become a workaholic, refuse to hear all the signs she was getting to slow down. Through personal development and inner questioning the author developed a number of strategies to gain a higher consciousness, connect with her emotions and start looking for answers from within that transformed her relationship with herself. The book gifts the reader with deep conversations, self reflective questions and learning process that can lead to inner healing. In this long and sometimes painful journey the author learns from different teachers, her grand children to icons of transformational change. By accepting her situation and learning to tell a new story about herself. She walks the path of happiness and inner peace. Through her memories and life experience, the author shares beautiful stories of determination, appreciation, love and letting go of what no longer serves her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Mar 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9798765239537

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 Helena Raci.

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ISBN: 979-8-7652-3952-0 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-7652-3954-4 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-7652-3953-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023903199

Balboa Press rev. date:    03/03/2023

Preface

Smile and shine

During my life time experience I have had the great pleasure and honor of encountering such beautiful soul, Helena Raci, well known as grandma butterfly Vovo Borboleta a person whom has made her priority to be a better version of herself, whom trough her actions inspires, and without the meaning to teach, teaches by example. Being a being of light, she generously shares knowledge she gathers and uses on her own journey to free and expand her soul.

On this amazing book, Helena simple opens her heart and pours out her soul showcasing her long and strenuous, but yet blissful journey to the encounter of her Devine self, that is beautiful, abundant and unique. We will clearly see that as her inner self needed to grow and expand, and wisely used her beautiful hair to help her push past the limitations of her physical self-image and become more like the light, love and joy that she is to all who are also in their own quests.

By openly sharing her life experience, she is being true to the quote she used in chapter 7, Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment. —Stephen Covey

Just as a beautiful butterfly goes through her process of metamorphosis, in this book Helena shows herself vulnerable, open and pure. Allowing her to evolve emotionally, physically and spiritually, never giving up on her journey to have her scalp restored with beautiful hair. Literally living from the end.

You will be a witness of a process whereby a beautiful soul is having a normal human experience from a place of positivity she decides to trust the process, and continue to grow and expand, in order to reach the utmost feeling of self-love and acceptance.

With this book you will witness that one never gets it done, there is no end. However, even though there are some tears along the journey, there is also great satisfaction and lots of shining smiles.

Claudia Matsombe,

A friend, a teacher and a partner in learning

Maputo, Mozambique

Forward

It is no surprise to me that in Smile and Shine Helena Z. Lowe speaks candidly about herself and her passion for learning for individual and social change. Writing from her heart and mind about the challenges, progress, and setbacks she has endured and the strategies and learning she has gained, Helena invites readers to join her in a conversation. In this conversation, Helena starts with herself, becoming vulnerable, sharing her personal struggles with self-image, self-perception, and moments of disorientation, as well as her desire to make meaning of what is happening. Like most learning from life, the learning journey is long and crooked, with wrong turns, right turns, wrong mountains, right valleys, all which Helena considers part of the learning, which is never always easy.

In 2021, I first met Helena when she was a student in my Adult Education for Community Development online course with Coady Institute. A year later, we met in person when she came to Canada to attend a women’s leadership program in which I facilitated women’s peace building and conflict resolution workshops. Curious, critical, and open to dialogue, Helena was eager to dive into the complex topics to build her knowledge and practice for women, their families, and communities, as well as herself. Learning is central for change. She asks questions, hard reflective and critical questions. Questions that take time to answer. What stands out about Helena, is that while she, the learner, is determining her own learning, it is not a solo act. She seeks out teachers and guides, not to tell her what to know, yet rather to give her information she can critique, ponder, and create new meanings and relevant knowledge for herself, her practice, and people in communities in Mozambique and beyond. Her teachers are all ages, including her grandchildren, and most do not have a string of letters behind their names.

In this book, Helena uses her own experience as an example for others, to inspire and inform critical reflection of self, dreams, possibilities, and opportunities. She is an educator after-all. Pulling together the wisdom from others who impacted her, she makes it easy for us by presenting it all in this one book. Here, we also find advice, from someone with lived experience, and reflection prompts that support and encourage us to think and learn holistically, with our mind, body, and heart.

Helena’s big dreams of gender equality, mental health, and livelihoods push her to do the important work she has been doing for decades in southern Africa. Yet, as this book demonstrates, addressing these complex, historical and current issues starts with the individual –us. And as someone who is doing this work, Helena invites us to join her in learning to ask critical hard questions, unpack what we know, unlearn, make new meaning, learn, dream, and then dream bigger.

Robin Neustaeter, PhD

Assistant Professor, Adult Education.

St. Francis Xavier University,

Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada

Acknowledgements

This book would have not been possible without the stream of personal development icons that have shared their knowledge through books, personal development courses, youtube videos, online classes and the abundance of resources that are out there that I used to find my true self and become a happier person. To all the persons of service I say thank you for inspiring me, with your serenity and clarity of mind expressedin such a way that I started believing that others will want to listen to my own voice. I am grateful to my children, Khanysa, Bruno and Kotase! You have been the stars of my life. You have taught me so much about unconditional love, about being oneself, about caring and about team playing. Thank you for walking with me on this journey. For encouraging me to always have hope. As we say in Mozambique, hope is the last to die. Being your mum has been one of the most beautiful experiences in my life. I love you all and dearly. To my dear friend Dhaliso Tembo, my tremendous appreciation and gratitude for editing these lines and helping me in the beautiful art of using a language that is foreign to me. Thank you for being there for me. I am grateful to my daughter Kotasse, for always being ready to assist me with the artistic part of the book. Your organizational skills are invaluable. Thank you.

To the readers! If you took the effort to read just one page of this book, I am grateful for your thoughts. If you can read the entire book I am grateful for your time and my desire is that you find something useful or amazing enough to make you want to excel and become a better version of yourself. Your interest in reading this book is a significant support to my belief that I shine because I smile, thank you.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my little mentors, my grandchildren,

Nelson, Yara, Siyanda, Dhambo and Ayuni. Your happiness and

eagerness to live your life intensely teaches me about being in

the now every single moment. Seeing the world through your

eyes has not only evoked my inner child but has also given

me the courage to be more creative and daring in the writing

of this book. I deeply love and embrace your teachings.

Picture%20%23%202%20%20DEDICATION.jpg

Contents

Preface

Forward

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Introduction

1   A Story of Caring

2   Learning from the past

3   Digging Deeper

4   A Spark of Light

5   Awakening

6