Amy Waterman’s dating and relationship advice has been featured in over a dozen books and online courses. She’s been writing for women since 2005, focusing on the way in which the latest scientific research has transformed our understanding of love and relationships.
Amy brings a wealth of personal experience from two decades of international living. She currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her daughter and enjoys indulging her inner health nut with running, yoga, nature, and green smoothies.
She blogs at YourBrilliance.com.
I’m passionate about creating a world where we can all own our stories without fear of shame.
Growing up, shame was my middle name. I was ashamed of who I was, I believed no one would ever like me if they really knew me, and the only hope for me was to work hard and keep my head down.
On the outside, I appeared to have it made. I graduated at the top of a prestigious private university with a BA in literature and philosophy. I was an award-winning speaker and writer, and the road was paved to graduate school.
Then I took a U-turn.
I decided to travel around the world, working on sheep farms and writing about my experiences.
Everyone who knew me was shocked, to say the least. I was accused of throwing away my academic career. And yet something inside told me I had no choice. If I did what everyone expected of me, I’d remain the same person I’d always been. I didn’t like being that person. Who could I become, if I unmoored myself from everything familiar?
So I did it. I went first to Scotland, then to Wales, then to France, then to Australia… No money, no common sense, just a laptop computer and big ideas.
By the end of my 20s, I’d written two sprawling, messy manuscripts but knew they were unpublishable. So I went back to Wales for an MA in Writing. There, I realized that it was time to make another shift. I couldn’t keep traveling and writing. I needed a home base. I needed to settle down.
So I moved for what I thought was the last time, to New Zealand, where I began working for an innovative internet marketing company that produced infoproducts in the fields of music, languages, and personal development. I wrote book after book, and I loved it. The office bookshelf was crammed with the latest titles on dating, relationships, wealth, and success.
It was there I became a self-help nerd. I became accredited in Reiki, met some extraordinary counselors, and dove deep into what made me tick. At last I saw the light. I was not, as I’d always believed, irredeemable. I was just a shame-filled kid who grew up in a shame-bound environment. It was time to step away from that old identity. It was time to own my strength, my lovableness, and my gifts.
Today, I work with people who want to know that their dreams are not out of reach. We start by looking at our stories, who we believe we are and why we believe that to be true. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. There’s nothing to hide. We’re all just doing the best we can with the beliefs programmed into us long ago. We didn’t get to choose those beliefs then, but we can choose our beliefs now.
It’s going to be okay. You’re in charge of your life now. Nothing anyone ever said about you defines who you are. Your identity is your greatest creative achievement. Is it finished, or is the best yet to come?
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