Best Self Magazine

Interview: Nancy Levin | #Worthy

Nancy Levin, Worthy, photograph by Bill Miles for Best Self Magazine

Nancy Levin

#Worthy

Interview by Kristen Noel, July 7, 2016, Woodstock, NY

Photographed by Bill Miles in Woodstock and Manhattan, NY

Our present moment choices are our crystal ball.

~Nancy Levin

_____________________

Watch the full interview video:

Kristen:
Nancy Levin — my beautiful friend, bestselling author of three books (one literally hot off the publishing presses — Worthy: Boost Your Self-Worth to Grow Your Net Worth — we’ll get to that in a moment), host of your own radio show, Master Integrative coach, speaker, poet (with a master’s degree in poetry and creative writing, I might add), and all around amazing creative re-inventor. Your story is really a testament to what is possible when we have the courage to leap and a willingness to own our worthiness. I’m honored to have you here today. I thank you for sitting down with us — and welcome you to my living room.

Nancy:
Thank you, Kristen. It’s a deep honor for me to be here with you as well.

Kristen:
We have known each other for three years, and a poignant three years it has been — a magnificent arc to witness. I do want to go back for our audience and tell the story of your life to this present moment. Let’s have some fun today and insert a little hindsight is 20/20 perspective, and maybe share this story in a different way. So, if you would be willing…

Nancy:
I’m game.

Kristen:
Okay, so I’m going to give you a sentence to complete.

Nancy:
The ‘Mad Libs’ game of my life.

Kristen:
Once upon a time, there was a girl who had a dream job, 12 years as the Event Director at Hay House, to be exact, and one day…

Nancy:
She wanted to come out from behind the curtain and stand center stage.

Kristen:
Previously, she had been…

Nancy:
Managing the perceptions of others, giving other people the lens to see her through, and operating from the motto of, “Never let them see you sweat,” chasing the gold stars, seeking external validation, and really being run by her perfectionism.

Kristen:
That was a lot to manage — more than a full-time job.

Nancy:
Very much so.

Nancy Levin, photograph by Bill Miles

Kristen:
One day…

Nancy:
She jumped.

Kristen:
What made her jump?

Nancy:
The deep knowing that her worth and value was no longer being determined by others, that her worth and value was no longer being given to her — it actually isn’t anything that can be given or taken away.

Kristen:
Everything looked perfect on the outside, in the professional realm. She was the one that kept it all together for others. She managed the behind the scenes. She was the one who fixed things; but one day her personal life fell apart.

Nancy:
Yes. I hit the moment of my own dark night of the soul, hit my own crisis, hit my own point where I knew that I had a choice of either going back to sleep and falling back into the life I’d been living — or I could get about the business of making major change. For me, the experience came out of such a catastrophic shock that I knew I needed to take responsibility for my own life. I had the choice to propel myself into something different, or not.

Kristen:
Let’s just roll it back for a second — that catastrophic event was…

Nancy:
My now ex-husband reading my journals.

Kristen:
And you had been married for how long?

Nancy:
Nearly 18 years.

Kristen:
You had really been hiding behind the shadows for a long time.

Nancy:
Hiding and really fearing any sort of exposure. I didn’t want anyone to see me in any other way than as Superwoman. A completely manufactured persona.

Kristen:
Right, but think about how we all do this on some level.

Nancy:
We all do this.

Kristen:
Where does that come from?

Nancy:
On the most basic level, I believe that we all think we need to hide some aspect of ourselves in order to be loved and accepted.

This begins very early on because

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