By Jenny Peterson
Did you know that no matter what your age is now, you are operating from the core beliefs that you were programmed with prior to the age of 12?
There are only 2 exceptions to this, either you are under 12 or you have already shifted your old beliefs. Most likely, neither of these apply.
Why is this important for you to know? Because underneath all the problems in your life, including your chronic health conditions, these beliefs are running the show.
When you know how to let them go and replace them with something that is better serving you, your whole world will change. In today’s blog, I’m going to tell you how to do this.
In last the last blog, "5 Core Beliefs Fueling Chronic Conditions," I discussed 5 core beliefs that I commonly see with those that have chronic health conditions. I also provided instructions for how to identify your core beliefs. So if you haven’t read that blog, I would start there as you will need that information for what I am teaching today.
Once you have identified your core beliefs, then it really is your responsibility to shift them if you want your life to change. Remember that the past experiences that created these core beliefs are not your fault, but it is your responsibility to change them if they are not working for you.
What I mean by “If they are not working for you” is that there are some core beliefs that are helpful that you want to keep. For example, if the environment that you were raised in made you believe that you are important, you want to keep that because that is a healthy belief to have. We are essentially looking for negative core beliefs that are not working for you that we want to shift. For example: I’m not important, I’m not good enough, I’m not safe and so on.
You should have your list of beliefs and memories that you found for these next steps. I recommend clumping the same core beliefs together on one sheet to make things easier.
Then it's time to get to work.
I’m going to use the core belief of “I’m not good enough” for an example of this process.
Let's say I have 5 memories that support the belief that “I’m not good enough” on my list. I’m going to start with the oldest memory, meaning the one where I was the youngest.
For example, let's say the memory is about me doing chores around the house and my mom saying that I never did them right. For a lot of people, this is a common experience and it doesn’t need to be a one time event that happened. Like I mention in the previous blog, most core beliefs are formed by small things that add up over time.
So, I am going to act as if all these small experiences are a one time experience to make things easier.
I would look at this core belief of “I’m not good enough” within this memory and ask myself, what exactly made me feel this particular way about myself? Was it the look on mom's face? The words she said? Her throwing a fit and her having to do it all over again? What was it that indicated to me that I’m not good enough? This is the subconscious proof that your subconscious has stored away for reference to keep you safe.
From there, it's about looking at this from a neutral position. One where your own patterns and thoughts don’t shape your perception.
Look at what possibilities and limitations your mom had that would have made her respond this way.
Do you think she intentionally woke up everyday wanting you to think that you were not good enough? Probably not the case. In fact, if she knew you felt that way, she would probably have done something different.
What kind of expectations did she have that most likely were too high? Did she expect a 10 year old to do things exactly like her? Probably. That is too high of expectations for a parent to have on a 10 year old.
Where did she learn these patterns of needing things to be perfect? Most likely she grew up with this belief as well.
Was she stressed and maybe overreacted because she had too much on her plate?
Then, it's important to look at the role you played in the situation. If you were young, most likely your limitations and possibilities are going to be simply that you were too young to know any different.
But there are some times when it can go deeper than that.
Sometimes, it's that you did what you did to stay safe. That wouldn’t be the case with this example though. Maybe you did a certain thing out of fear of what your parents would do or it simply was your conditioning and you didn’t know any better.
Looking at yourself in the memory is very important because it helps you to see how this belief was formed and take some responsibility. It's not 100% the other person's fault. This is where personal responsibility in how you formed that belief is key to change. Seeing that you were young and didn’t know all of what your mom was going through or that her own beliefs caused her to react that way is an important step to letting go of the belief.
With this process you will see that essentially this belief isn’t true. It was formulated based on incorrect information and an immature mind. After looking at this, the belief that you are not good enough will not feel as true anymore. This new perception of what happened will shift the proof in your subconscious and it will be more open to letting it go.
For some people working on this one memory can shift it 100%. For others, it takes some time and working on other memories may be needed. It really depends on how much “story” is connected to it. Essentially, how much power you are giving it? If you want to hold onto these stories so you have a reason as to why you feel this way about yourself or as a reason to cause blame or be a victim, then your brain will bring resistance to letting this belief go.
Once you reach a place where the belief doesn’t feel true anymore, then it's time to replace it with a new belief that is opposite of it. So in this example it would be, “I am good enough.”
From here, it's about creating strong connections to this new belief to help it stick. When you say it to yourself it will most likely not feel 100% true at this time. That is normal. You have to build proof to your subconscious that it is true over time, just like you did with the negative core beliefs.
When situations come up that you would normally feel not good enough, you will instead tell yourself that you are good enough. You will want to look for opportunities and actions you can take to support this belief as well. Maybe you sign yourself up for a class that you have always wanted to do but didn’t because you feared not being good enough. Or you stay silent when your mother in law says that your house should be cleaner knowing that it's her issue, not yours.
You can also make a list of memories that support your new belief to build proof. Ultimately, you don’t need any proof that you are good enough to be good enough. It is something you are naturally born to be.
At this point you may be asking, “Do I have to find memories to shift these old beliefs, why can’t I just change them to something different?” This is where many people make mistakes. Yes, you could just change the belief to something that is the opposite. The problem with this is that your subconscious will still reference the old proof, your memories, as to why that new belief doesn’t feel true. Without shifting your perception around how that belief manifested, the subconscious memories will win. But the good news is that you really don’t need to do lots of memory work. Just working on 1-2 memories for each belief from childhood is often enough to shift the subconscious’ “need to be right.”
This process is fairly simple when I explain it. But know that your subconscious will try to get in the way of this process and keep you comfortable. You may do the work on paper but not take action, which is what I see happening a lot. There are many modalities out there to shift beliefs. The magic isn’t in these modalities, even though they like to sell you that it is. The magic is in your conscious actions to shift them and do something different when the opportunity presents itself. It's the action of doing something different than what you have done in the past. You have to consciously choose to do something different to build the proof in your subconscious and it will be uncomfortable the first few times you do it. But with persistence and repetition it will get easier. In MBR we ensure that our students take action to support their new beliefs. Accountability and action really are the essential pieces to creating this change because it's so easy to just go back on autopilot and let the old patterns take control.
When you let go of these negative core beliefs, you will essentially respond to life differently. You have a new perception of everything. Because of this, your body will no longer have to adapt to messages of threat. Like I mentioned in the last blog, not feeling good enough is a message that your body perceives as a risk to your survival. Its going to adapt to stay alive. But if your body never gets that message of risk because you no longer think that way about yourself, there is no need for it to adapt- which means no more symptoms.
This, my friends, is true root healing and it will make a profound impact on your entire life. Remember, these beliefs are bleeding into everything you do and you will continue to attract situations that support those old beliefs if you don’t change them. This is the power that negative core beliefs can have on your life. But, the same power can happen with positive core beliefs. When you shift your focus to beliefs that serve you, those will also bleed into your life and attract situations that support them. It all comes down to which beliefs you decide to focus on.
You are unique, your symptoms are connected to very specific patterns within your subconscious.
Without a plan unique to you, you will continue struggling and miss out on the life you deserve to be living! To help you get started on your long-lasting healing journey, we would love to provide you with a healing plan that is unique to you. Get your custom healing plan today!
You can also Download my free healing guide, “Why Can’t I Heal” where you will learn the 5 reasons that you haven't healed despite everything you've tried. These are the missing pieces to your healing and the key to resolving your symptoms for good.
Jenny Peterson is the founder and CEO of Mind Body Rewire (MBR). She teaches those that are overwhelmed with trying to heal chronic symptoms how to simplify their healing by focusing on just one place, the subconscious mind. Learn more about MBR here.
Comments