You’re the Boat: Charting a course toward a life worth looking forward to.
Attitude is like the rudder of our ship. By keeping it adjusted appropriately, we can get where we need to go.
Inspired by a total freak-out in 2008, when I was homeschooling my son in preparation for moving to Brazil, I drew this Boat analogy to see myself more clearly so I could balance school and daily life. You can read the whole story in the book’s introduction.
In a nutshell, this book is a tool for expanding our consciousness. Everything on the Boat represents a part of our life. Attitude is our rudder. Our heart is the ship’s wheel. The mast describes our strength. The sail is our soul. That beautiful lady on the front of the vessel represents our face. We see what we need to fortify ourselves within the portholes in the “belly” of the ship. The Captain of the ship refers to our connection to the Universe.
To paraphrase Carl Sagan, “We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself, as a ship of the imagination.”
This idea helped me learn to see myself more clearly, which is essential to healing, learning, and growing. One of the first lessons I discovered was that one tiny change can drastically affect our future. There’s a lot of hope in that! One thing can change everything, and everything starts with awareness.
With help from some friends, I wrote this analogy into a book in 2011. I packed it with insights, including inspirational quotes and the original boat drawing from 2008. There are four chapters that describe the ship’s four systems: guidance, logistics, propulsion, and navigation. Click this link to download the PDF and read the book.
Learning takes time.
Self-reflection can be incredibly difficult and even painful. I’m sure you’ve experienced this yourself. Like burning our hand on a hot stove or sharing a secret with someone who later betrays us, life’s lessons can be brutal sometimes. It’s no wonder many (or most) people avoid doing the hard work of self-reflection. Not only is it difficult, distressing, and time-consuming, but it doesn’t pay the bills. Most of us are so distracted by the hustle culture of capitalism that, without an instigating event, we don’t make time for soul work.
I woke up to the truth that I needed to change when I was making a mess of things and feeling at the end of my rope. You may have had times like that, too. When everything you do just seems to make things worse? Ugh!! It’s so frustrating!
I heard myself ask no one in particular, “How am I supposed to get through this?!” The answer that came to mind is the quote at the top of the page. Coming up with the Boat analogy enabled me to look at myself beyond where I’ve come from and what I was conditioned to believe. It gave me a template for building my awareness and showed me that I’m not the storm I’m sailing through, I’m the boat.
How has it been going?
With assistance from friends and my husband, I self-published this book in 2012. Within the first week after publishing, after talking with people about the new book, I discovered I had missed parts: the bell, the navigation lights, and the wake.
Like most parts of this analogy, I thought about it for a few moments before realizing the bell represents our voice. I had to think about what I was saying, especially the tone I was using when communicating with my family and myself. (It took me a long time to heal my inner voice.) Talking about this analogy meant I had to do book events, putting myself out in public. That’s how I realized the navigation lights remind us to show up and shine brightly so others see us! This led me to recognize that the wake behind us is the legacy we’re leaving, whether we realize it or not!
I had to overcome my fear of public speaking to share the analogy with others. For a while, I joined the National Speakers Association and Toastmasters to practice telling my story.
As I have continued learning about myself, I’ve uncovered many more parts of the ship. That’s the magic of this analogy. The more we look at the Boat, the better we know ourselves.
So much more to learn
One of the many valuable things I realized when sharing my newly published book was that I needed a better understanding of boundaries. I believe we can find our boundaries by looking at the waves of our challenges. Like the lines in a coloring book, we can find the edges of our being through our eight boundaries. After doing some research, I came up with the following: physical, material, mental, emotional, sexual, spiritual, temporal, and virtual.
I read somewhere that the way to get rid of anxiety is by taking action. So, I created worksheets to make sense of what I was learning. Over the years, as I’ve continued discovering more parts of the ship and pieces of the analogy, I’ve built quite a catalogue of elements and strategies.
With so many new ideas to share and a desire to empower future generations, I have gathered them into new books for people of all ages.
New book
For the past 18 years, I’ve used this analogy to build a happy home and a healthy life, and surprisingly, discover hidden trauma and grief that needed healing. I’m still not done learning about myself. To be fair, I don’t think I’ll ever be completely done.
I’m writing a new, updated version of the original book. Along with the parts of the Boat, this new book includes my story of how I came up with the analogy and why I needed it in the first place, as well as the worksheets I’ve created over the years.
I’m happy to say that I recently finished the first draft of my new book, and thanks to my book editor/coach, Maggie, we’re working on the second draft, hoping to publish it soon.
Not only do I have Maggie in my corner, but I’m also incredibly grateful to have my friend, mural artist, Mary Kalocsay (pictured here), as my illustrator. She’s been busy bringing my ideas to life with her paintings. The new book is going to be beautiful, thanks to the tremendous talents of these two ladies.
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Check out these new book ideas!
After I publish my new book, I have these other books waiting to be brought to life.
- The 8 Boundaries coloring books for little kids, older kids, and adults. Like the lines in a coloring book, boundaries help us see who we are and who we are not. Each book has 32 pages describing the eight boundaries: physical, material, mental, emotional, sexual, spiritual, temporal, and virtual.
- The Body, Mind, and Soul Book for Kids. This teaches children ages 4 to 8 awareness of themselves through their body, mind, and soul, using the Boat analogy.
- 365 Days Charting a Course to a Life Worth Living. This journal/daily calendar offers short writing prompts for young adults.
- So glad you’re here! This beautiful lap-sit book lets us dream about all of the things we get to look forward to doing with our babies.
- The New Chef-Friendly Cookbook. This is spiral–bound and contains cooking tips and easy, inexpensive recipes to inspire young chefs to “run the galley” by building a menu and cooking for themselves and their crew.
- The Deck of Awareness Oracle Deck and Guidebook uses the four systems of the Boat (guidance, logistics, propulsion, and navigation) and all the ship’s parts, pieces, and processes to chart a course to a life worth living.
Onwards!
I’m using the funds from my card readings and art classes to publish these books. Please email me at pam belding at gmail dot com if you’re interested to learn more. I’d love it if you would tell me which book you’re most interested in seeing come to life.
I’m very excited to see these ideas in the world, helping people to build a happy home and a healthy life. I look forward to hearing from you!
xoxo Pam