The permanent, more authentic, part of you did not come to Earth to live from fears and mental limitations, but rather came to become aware of and overcome whatever blocks hold you back. The soul part of you has no fears. Thus, fears tend to melt away the more we begin to identify with the eternal part of us that we can never separate ourselves from.
Take a moment to imagine what life would be like if you had no fears or self-doubts. Who or what would you do and be if you had no limiting beliefs holding you back? What would it feel like if you purely lived life from your passions, gifts, strengths and interests — all while knowing that you are a being of pure creative potential that comes from the same Source of love that everyone else does? For one, you may begin to have compassion for every human being on the planet who is blindly living life from their own subconscious limiting beliefs. You also might notice a feeling of harmony and exuberance. This is what it feels to live from your authentic Self.
No longer believing our self-imposed, limiting thought programs may be considered one of our life purposes. Behind every area that you feel stuck in your life, you’ll find an unconscious false belief that you’re living from. As you dissect these mind programs, you discover that they are not inherent to your core being, but rather you picked them up in your life experiences. Becoming aware of them is the first step in letting them go.
One beautiful example of this is my friend who began college as he turned 40. Although he is one of the wisest, most intelligent people I know, the reason he didn’t start college earlier was due to a subconscious belief that he was too stupid for academia. He picked up that false assumption in his early school years when he struggled with a learning disability, and it wasn’t until his late 30s that he began to see through that false belief with self-reflection. He recently finished his masters in therapy with all A’s and is now an outstanding therapist.
Years ago, when I found myself very anxious before giving a talk, I later went home and mentally dove into that fear to meet it and question it. My subconscious fear was trying to protect me from the audience because of the belief that I might be ridiculed, judged and hurt. I had to reassure that part of my subconscious mind that it no longer needed to protect me from audiences. Even if there were judgments against me, I could accept a differing viewpoint without being harmed. I thanked my protective impulse, but told it that it was hindering me rather than helping, and it no longer needed to “overwork.” The subconscious fear then began to loosen its grip and dissolve.
It was a lesson for me that we can all reprogram our subconscious minds. It feels a bit like awakening from a sleep. Living life with negative beliefs feels like trying to run a marathon with heavy armor on. If you have trouble letting them go, there are very effective healing modalities that can help, including hypnotherapy, EFT, EMDR and QNRT.
Noticing our mind programs has a subtle, but powerful, subconscious effect on us. A small distance gets created between us and our mind programs. As that identity gulf widens, it reveals the difference between bondage and liberation. We are not our thoughts. We are that which can observe thoughts, change them and use them. If you don’t consciously use thought, you will unconsciously be used by thought.
Eckhart Tolle writes in his book Stillness Speaks, “The next step in human evolution is to transcend thought. This is now our urgent task. It doesn’t mean not to think anymore, but simply not to be completely identified with thought, possessed by thought.”
As we see through and no longer identify with our limiting mind programs, our “truer” Self shines through — the “more permanent” part of us that can’t be hurt, that never leaves, even at physical death. Simply rest in this expansive aspect of yourself. It is here now. It is who you are, animating your body. The more you bask in this perception shift, the more you will feel whole and complete, and then those beliefs that don’t resonate with the truth of who you are may rise to the surface to be examined and released. The resulting freedom of this has an enormously beneficial effect on your entire being.
Paramahansa Yogananda, founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, once said, “As you heal yourself, you do your part in healing the world. More than you could ever know.”
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