Follow Your Heart: Live, Eat, Be

By Arzu Dogan

Stop for a moment!

Are you finding it hard to understand your purpose in life?

The good news is there’s nothing wrong with you! Even better news is Arzu Dogan’s book can give you a mindfulness makeover!

Follow Your Heart: Live, Eat, Be, by Arzu Dogan helps find your true self and live a best and peaceful life.

Whether you’re simply browsing the internet, talking to your friends, or trying to stay focused in a meeting, you often feel distracted, like something is missing. However hard you try, you can’t seem to find the motivation you need. In her book, Arzu Dogan, discusses the art of healing yourself and living with ultimate joy. She helps you embark on a journey to rediscover and fulfill your deepest life purpose. 

In this self-help book for personal development, Dogan provides advice and tips to help you live a happy and joyful life. So, if you’re having trouble understanding your life purpose for inner peace, let this book be your guide. It has all the secrets to help you live in true harmony with your inner self, with health and abundance. Arzu Dogan uses her personal experience and expertise to help you become more in tune with yourself. She only teaches one thing, “Follow your heart for mental health, inner peace, and happiness.”

So, it’s time to learn what your life’s purpose is and how to start living yours in the best possible way. Only you can function at your peak for all that truly matters in your life. So, take Arzu’s hand and experience the world in a different light.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press AU
• Release date: Oct 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781982292171

Arzu Dogan

Arzu Dogan left her legal and business careers behind and has been following a more spiritual path, connecting to her heart and living with love and truth as her guide. She is passionate about her journey, and she continues to share this through her recipes, healthy tips, inspirational messages on self-love, mindfulness, mantras and affirmations on her social media pages @vitalityandmore.

Book preview

FOLLOW YOUR

HEART

LIVE, EAT, BE

ARZU DOGAN

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Copyright © 2021 Arzu Dogan.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Balboa Press

A Division of Hay House

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.balboapress.com.au

AU TFN: 1 800 844 925 (Toll Free inside Australia)

AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9822-9216-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9822-9217-1 (e)

Balboa Press rev. date: 10/05/2021

From my heart to yours, my purpose is to inspire you to live, eat, and be towards a mindful, meaningful, and abundant life with love and truth.

Thank you for being part of this journey. And to my beautiful family, thank you. I am ever so grateful to have been blessed with you in my life, Ozan, Deren, Adem, and Belin. So much gratitude to my husband, Ozan, my soulmate, love of my life, and mentor.

CONTENTS

PART 1: LIVE

Chapter 1 Live Your Truth

Chapter 2 Life Purpose

Chapter 3 The Ego: Clear Your Mind

Chapter 4 Love of Self and Others

Chapter 5 You and Your Well-Being

PART 2: EAT

Chapter 6 Eat Natural, Eat Clean

Chapter 7 The Organic & Natural Way

Chapter 8 Mindful Eating and Gratitude

Chapter 9 Heal Yourself with Food and the Mind

Chapter 10 Unleash Your Creativity

PART 3: BE

Chapter 11 Mindfulness and Meditations: A Healing Practice

Chapter 12 Raise Your Vibration

Chapter 13 Manifest and Trust the Process

Chapter 14 Letting Go and Forgiveness

Chapter 15 Follow Your Heart

PART 4: 30 DAYS OF AFFIRMATIONS

PART 1

LIVE

CHAPTER 1

LIVE YOUR TRUTH

You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.

—Carl Jung

L ive your truth. Ask yourself, Who am I? Where did I come from? What is my purpose? You see, we all have a purpose, and we can only tap into our true purposes and divinity if we live truthfully. To me, living truthfully means following your heart every step of the way. It means just going with the flow, listening more to your inner self—your intuition, your heart, and your soul—and being one with the universe.

All too often we are led to believe that we must live the best lives we can, that we must live our lives to their fullest and be successful. But what does that mean? How can we be living our true purposes if we are not in connection with ourselves? We all have a light that lives inside us. This light is the light of truth. The more aware and awakened we become, the more we raise our consciousnesses and live that truth.

From a very young age we are conditioned to believe that we are all entitled to a happy, healthy, and successful life. Happy, yes; and healthy is also a big yes from me. This is one’s birthright. Success, on the other hand, well, in my current way of being, I view this indifferently, as some of you enlightened souls surely do. So happy, healthy, and successful. Is this the truth? Is this really what we are supposed to be? We are told that the mind is everything and that to succeed we need to set goals, think big, and strive for more. When we accomplish one goal, we tick it off, and keep moving down the list until we’ve reached all our goals. Yet completing these goals does not mean we are happy or living our truths. Illness may strike, or we may be faced with adversities. These events are signs from the universe that we are not living our truths.

So what happens when there are no more goals to tick off the list? What more do we need to do? What if I told you that more is just an illusion? Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not suggesting for one minute that you stop living and working or travelling and setting goals. But I am saying that you ought to do these things in a way that will serve your highest good—your true self—not your ego. Do it from a place of your truth and from a place of self-belief and self-love. The more you speak and live your truth, the more you learn to trust your intuition and follow your heart. The universe will always mirror back to you what your truth is. When you show up as your true self, life shows up for you.

I love my life, and I am always grateful for the knowledge I receive and the growth I experience on my healing journey, my journey to truth, to awakening and being fully present in today’s busy world. How are you living truthfully? What energy are you sending out to the universe about your truth? Is it serving you? Does being more and having more make you truly happy, bring you more joy and bliss? Does it make you a better person? I can guarantee one thing: It probably does not. When we begin to speak and live our truths, our energies and auras awaken from within. Our truths quite simply restore harmony to our minds, bodies, spirits, and emotions; it’s how we heal.

So let me take you on my journey now, the journey that has led me to this spiritual awakening and fostered my desire to live and follow my truth, to walk and talk from the heart and soul with love. I hope that after reading each chapter you will find subtle messages that will help you to see your own truth and shift to a more meaningful and loving relationship with yourself and your life. My journey has not been easy, and I am still evolving and growing each day. Apart from not living my truth, I had very little self-belief, self-worth and self-love. But I am forever grateful that I have been able to go deep into myself in my darkest moments and find the light. I have learned, and continue to learn, who I am and how my previous habits, belief systems, attitudes, and behaviours were not serving me. You see it’s all in the mind, your mind, it doesn’t matter what others say or do, listen to your voice, your truth, your heart. I have realized that I was not living my truth. I now take full responsibility for living the true path, and I also pass these lessons of wisdom and knowledge to my children and those close to me. My biggest teacher has been my soulmate and husband of twenty-seven years, who’s guided and supported me throughout this journey. I love him more each day and am forever grateful that we found each other.

I was once a lover of all things success, a high achiever, always pursuing more, and thinking I could achieve more and have more. But the success I sought was an illusion—a lie, a total non-truth. I was not living in line with my truth. I kept pursuing everything I could. From a very young age—in fact, about ten years of age—I worked in my parents’ milk bar. My father would boast to everyone (family, friends, and even customers) that I was the best worker ever. At the time I felt really worthy because I was helping my parents, and it was character building. Yes, at the age of ten I was very mature indeed. I sold milk, bread, newspapers, and even cigarettes. I’m not sure that this is legal now, but it was the early eighties. My parents moved on from this business and took a short break. I started senior school, and again they invested in another family business, this time a fruit-and-vegetable grocery store. I worked endless hours on the weekends and during my school holidays to help in the family business. This went on until I graduated from school.

Living my truth? I don’t think so. My genuine love and respect for my parents meant that I was happy to serve them in any way I could. I studied law at university and graduated. At the time, I (well my ego, really) had a burning desire to be a lawyer. I wanted to help and serve people. I believed that this was my path, my truth. Before I graduated, I fell in love and married my husband. I worked for a few years, and then we started a family. Before I’d turned thirty years of age, I had given birth to three beautiful, healthy souls who chose us to be their parents.

Family was a priority. Raising three children under the age of four was a lot of fun. It was chaotic at times, but I had a lot of energy and love for them, and I still do. They are all now adults. I was constantly giving more and doing more, so I quit law and devoted my time to my family and our family business that my husband was operating. It was like history repeated itself. One would think it was my destiny to be of service given that I was always in one way or another being of service, which started at a very young age in my parents’ businesses and then later to that of my husband’s, our own family business.

Back then I was a self-confessed perfectionist and a yes person. You know what I’m talking about, right? I was busy focusing my energy on everyone else around me and had no concept of self-love or self-care. I was a selfless, busy, young mum looking after everyone around me except for me! This carried on for most of my thirties. I lived from a place of ego, a place of fear, and I was profoundly disconnected from myself and the universe. I had no understanding about what my real purpose or truth was until just before my thirty-eighth birthday, when I was struck by illness. Yes, we’ve all heard the saying, Hit by a Mack truck. I was diagnosed with a serious case of pericarditis (fluid around the heart) with a secondary fluid around my lungs. This was somehow caused by a virus and an underlying autoimmune disease. I was confined to a hospital bed for quite some time; let me tell you, this was the most frightening experience. On the same night I was taken to the hospital via ambulance, I had an emergency procedure to drain the fluid from my heart as it was close to bursting. I recall sitting in the hospital bed just before I was taken under. I had so much fear in my heart and soul, and tears were just pouring out. I was wondering what my life would become and whether it was all worth it. I was so out of alignment with myself, my power to my truth, but I knew one thing deep down in my soul: I was not ready to leave this life yet. I knew I had to show up differently and make a shift, a shift to start being ‘me’, living my truth.

This, my dear reader, was the turning point for me. It was the start of my real life, my true life, my new chapter. Please don’t wait for illness or adversity to make you follow your truth. Do it now. Make the change; your true self will love you for it. The secret and true art of living your truth is being one with it and present. You see, our bodies show us where we need to do the work, and when we move into our bodies, we become free and heal from within. I was so consumed by fear, negativity, and limiting beliefs, I didn’t trust myself, and I looked at external forces or others to define who I was or what I could or couldn’t do or achieve. But then I had a realisation; I had to make a change and speak and live my truth. My focus had to shift from negative self-talk to positive self-talk and self-love.

Prior to receiving the biggest message from the universe, I actually believed that I was kind of like Wonder Woman in the sense that I could achieve anything I set my mind to. I believed I could be the best mother to my children, wife, lover, business partner, daughter, sister, aunty, friend, and any other title you could give me. I was so focused on being everything else but me. My world was based on doing, not being. My light, if you like, was dimming. In fact, I don’t even feel that I was shining at all in my thirties. I obviously had a lot of lessons to