Cleansing Your Life (Part II) - Removing Beliefs That No Longer Serve You
The Vernal Equinox at the end of March each year heralds the arrival of Spring and the promise of new life. Many of us start reviewing what we have in our drawers and closets, and what we have stored in the garage. We also survey what has happened in our yards over the winter. “Spring cleaning” is almost a rite for many of us. We are ready to face what has become a dead weight and remove it from our lives.
We are ready to do this with our material possessions – but are we ready to do it with ourselves? That is – are we ready to rid ourselves of the things and people we no longer need or which no longer serve us well? Are we ready to empty our emotional, spiritual and mental hidden closets and drawers?
Earlier I shared with you about dealing with the relationships in your life. This week I will share with you about cleansing ourselves of the “things” in life that no longer serve us well. It is now June and the Summer Solstice is this weekend so it is time to enjoy the remainder of the year without the baggage of things that prevent us from living to the full!
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Those who become famous often have their private lives and histories investigated, dissected, displayed (and judged). Often this means we learn that a particular person may have been born into a background of economic impoverishment, domestic or street violence, and/or racially oppression – and did criminal, unethical or questionable things to survive and/or escape it. Those of us who have not been in such circumstances cannot truly speak to such things because we have no idea how we would handle it.
Nevertheless there is no one without a past and we can all be grateful for what we have learned from our life experiences. We all have one with situations that have shaped and defined us in the present. We all have “stuff”. Some of us carry a lot of painful “stuff”– spiritually, mentally and emotionally, that is sitting in huge bags in the bottom of the closet of our self. It is filling us the like an explosion of sticky pad notes inside a desk drawer
The dates you never had in high school – it’s a red sticky note covering your heart. Your parent’s divorce – it’s on a yellow stick note covering your solar plexus. Your 9th grade teacher who laughed at you when you didn’t know an answer in class – it’s on a blue sticky note, stuck to your throat.
Over time you have learned to have low expectations for intimate relationships, overdone freedom and independence because commitment to a relationship may result in divorce, and you decided to not speak your mind. These defense mechanisms have served you well in the past – indeed they have protected you and prevented you from being hurt in many situations.
They have also prevented you from deeply and richly experiencing life.
Now it is time to spring clean and give your life some air – to take in life in deep breaths and find out what it has to offer and what you can contribute.
Your dreams of being successful and living a purposeful life can only be realized if you make room for new things. In fact, this is something we see many times with the famous people I spoke of earlier – they release their past beliefs and change their lives for the positive.
Here is how you can do this:
Take inventory. Get out your journal and a pen and start at the top of your self. Look at yourself. Envision all the sticky notes covering you. Start writing the beliefs on those notes that you have about yourself in each area of your life from top to bottom. They can be things such as “I am stupid” “No one wants to hear me talk.” “I am unattractive” or “I am not loveable.”
After you have written all the beliefs you hold about yourself, examine each one of them. Ask yourself:
After you have this information, it is time to release each belief. You do this by saying aloud:
“You got me to where I am today, but I no longer need you in my life. I release you.”
Imagine removing the sticky notes and throwing them into a wastebasket. Write a list about yourself that is the opposite of each item on the list you wrote. Imagine yourself placing sticky notes with those statements on yourself from top to bottom: “I am loveable”, “I am intelligent”, “I can learn anything.”, “My opinions are respected.” etc.
When you have removed all the negative sticky notes and replaced them with positive ones, take the wastebasket outside and dump it in the garbage. Of course you may think this is silly, but the physical act of doing this is remembered by your mind and makes it more effective.
Check out "Cleansing Your Life (Part I)"
To your success!
Barrett
Copyright © LBPI/Healing Universe
L. Barrett Powell is an international coach and cultural trainer/consultant with an academic background and experience in psychology, theology and journalism. Barrett's focus is on Success Coaching incorporating the Law of Attraction. She lives and works with individuals and inter-cultural organizations in the USA and Europe as a coach, coordinator and trainer. Contact her by email.