See Me Beautiful, an excerpt 

Author’s Note
It is an interesting task to re-enter a book I wrote over
twenty years ago with the idea of adding a bit of spit and polish
to it. Feeling Good About Feeling Bad was a labor of love for me
back in the early days of my recovery and discovery programs.
Although I had a computer back then, the task of printing a
book in 1987 was still tough. When my meager supply of books
ran out recently, I had to ask myself whether this was a book
that was ready to retire or a book that still wanted to be in the
world. Since you are reading this foreword to the new revision,
you know my decision.

So much has transpired since I first scribbled these words
into a notebook. My life has repeatedly taken unpredictable
twists and turns. I found my true mate, I left behind NLP
training as a career, spent ten years writing radio documentary
on native issues with Milt (my mate), wrote several novels and
had a spiritual experience that rocked my world. I’m now a
grandmother, a novelist, was a college instructor and
eventually bought ten acres of land in northern MN and built a
straw bale house, yet, I am still the me you see represented in
the pages to follow. Probably the most important thing I’ve
learned in two decades is that life is not circular but a spiral.
Like the swirling seashell, we continue to add whorls and colors
into our original, authentic self.

Probably the biggest change in my view of the world since
first writing this book is that my thinking has become
simplified. Instead of all the relationship-building between the
conscious and unconscious mind, I think instead in terms of
just growing ourselves up. So many of us are living our lives
trapped in childlike thinking and being, and all of the
techniques presented here will help you to grow up.
For the most part, I’ve decided to leave the original text of
Feeling Good alone, although I like to think I’m also a better
writer these days. I only smoothed a few sentences, cut some
clutter, dropped a lot of punctuation marks, and expanded the
section on levels of development. I also knocked out a couple
of rambling chapters at the end. Other than these few changes,
the only other thing I did was add a few personal notes and
exercises at the end of the each chapter when I felt the urge.
The one other thing I considered changing are the references to
popular (at the time) books but even that serves as a reminder
of how fleeting is our time here, and so I leave them be.
However, I still like the book and have been continually
amazed at where the original 2,000 copies have been. I’ve had
letters from Germany, South America, and other parts of the
world. I’ve had orders from bookstores in places I’ve never
been.

Just this morning I was sitting and chanting an ancient yogic
text when I had the sharp realization that some day I will die
and all of my ideas with me. I probably will not be a voice any
will remember, not famous or wealthy as I had hoped in my
youth. There is little that belongs to me except my own state of
mind. For me, however, this is wealth beyond measure. I want
only to serve the world in which I find myself. Let me know
how you are doing. Contact and website information are in the
back of the book.

Sincerely,

Jamie Lee