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5 SELF-LIMITING BELIEFS TO ELIMINATE THIS YEAR

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ful” and what isn’t. We learn how to think I recently went through a death in my family. Death, as you
and feel about that god named money, know, has a pretty bad reputation. It was obvious to me that
damn him. We notice that the minute we the little kids, the ones under 12, didn’t view this passing the
get sick, we are trotted off to the doctor, same as the adults. But after watching their parents, they
learning quickly that we need something quickly learned the appropriate script.
outside ourselves to heal.
We are trained to worry about letting people down, being
When we are born, we are giant love generators. We radiate disliked, getting sick, being poor. We’re trained to worry
out a clear energy of light and incomparable joy. In a way, about pathogens, carcinogens, microwaves, plastic contain-
we’re like dolphins, sending out our own special sonar of ers, preservatives, using mobile phones, and on and on.
unconditional love. When this unconditional-love sonar runs
up against the unhealed places in our culture, those places Without this training, joy is my natural state. As Esther
where distrust has developed or joy has been rejected, the Hicks, author and inspirational speaker, once asked, “How
sonar bounces back, giving us an unfamiliar reading, a “not come we only erect statues to war heroes? Where’re the
love” reading. As our boundless joy hits these rigid beliefs and statues of surfer dudes?”
“thickened” emotions, we quickly learn to match our culture’s
energies, beliefs, and thoughts. 4. GOD IS AN ENTITY OUTSIDE OF ME.
“Lowly ‘little ole me’ must appeal to His Majesty’s benevo-
We regard these beliefs as gods, fearing them, trusting them, lence, with fingers crossed that He’ll somehow find time for
and completely acquiescing to them, without a single word of me, a doubtful proposition, being as He’s tied up fighting
protest. world hunger.”
Here are 5 of the most popular: God is a state of being, a loving energy that flows through
me, sustains me, and surrounds me with light. Although it’s
1. THE WORLD IS A MENACING PLACE. impossible to define or put into words, this “Radiant X,” as
Our job is to put on our armor and work like hell to stay one poet Stephen Mitchell calls it, is the un-nameable reality that
step ahead of the terrorists, the supergerms, the dysfunctional causes everything to exist.
stepmoms, and, of course, the zombies.
5. NO PAIN, NO GAIN.
There is nothing to fear. As A Course in Miracles repeatedly The necessity of pain and suffering is such a living mythol-
tells us, “We lay a heavy load upon ourselves with our insane ogy and so entwined in our culture that we blank it out like
beliefs that pain and sin [are] real. Pain is purposeless, with- a refrigerator motor. We’ve become so accustomed to living
out a cause and with no power to accomplish anything.” in the “life sucks” paradigm that it never occurs to us that
another reality, a happy reality, is possible. Pain, loneliness,
2. LIFE HAPPENS TO ME. and fear are the context within which we live our lives.
“I’m an innocent bystander, a pitiful victim of circumstance,
of weather, of disease, and, worse, of my own dysfunction. Ex- We’re so conditioned to wallow in misery that the concept
ternal events (those things from #1) constantly get in my face. of life as a joyous adventure seems impossible or even un-
The best I can do is learn to cope with these external events.” natural. Sure, we can buy that there will be happy events. In
fact, we look forward to holidays and birthdays and time off
"Life emanates from me. I create the world with my thoughts, work. But to believe that happiness is possible 24-7 is a big
my beliefs, and my energetic frequency.” stretch.
3. EVENTS HAPPEN; THEREFORE, I FEEL BAD. The “life sucks” paradigm is really nothing but a bad habit,
Most of our thoughts and feelings are programmed by the cul- a rut we’ve been in since the first time our parents insisted
ture in which we are raised. We are trained at a very early age we act our age. Looking for pain is nothing but a grossly ir-
what makes us happy, which feelings go with which events, responsible way of looking at the world. There is no reason
and how our moods should play out. We are trained to experi- to struggle. In fact, we don’t actually have to “work” at
ence unhappy emotions, to blame these feeling on outside anything. Once we let go—surrender to the universal flow
events, and to cry and moan about the unfairness of it all. We of life—higher forces will take over and handle the details.
are trained not to expect good things. In fact, all responsible Once we take sorrow off the throne, as A Course in Miracles
people know that “shit happens.” describes our outlook in Worldview 1.0, enlightenment is our
naturally occurring, organic state of being.

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