Recently I was asked “Is it really necessary to heal the stuff from your past to move forward in your business or career?” The answer is yes, just as it is if we wish to move forward in any aspect of our life. The ‘stuff’ from our past forms our core beliefs and in turn leads to our habits. Often these core beliefs can become extremely limiting, holding us in a locked-down state that is not alignment with our true beliefs. In order to move forward it is essential to shift core beliefs, otherwise we get locked down in fear and stagnation.
This ‘stuff’ may have to do with relationships, money, health, career, self-care, family of origin, weight, freedom, or any other area of our life. Stuff arises from beliefs that formed during our childhood. These beliefs, or stories, result from our experiences or from what we were told by parents, teachers, peers, society, the church.
For instance, if our parents frequently fought about money we may grow up with a subconscious belief that money is bad. As a small child we have no real concept of money, but we come to associate money with unhappiness because whenever our parents fought about it we felt fearful and unhappy. As an adult we adopt behaviours that reinforce the our skewed relationship with money based on the belief we formed as a small child.
If we subconsciously believe that money is a bad thing we are unlikely to attempt anything that may generate lots of money. We may subconsciously believe that if we have lots of that bad thing, money, it would also make us a bad person by association
This underlying emotion and the subconscious belief that money is a bad thing can result in a whole range of different behaviours about how you interact with money and wealth. You may develop a ‘poverty mentality’ where no matter how much you have you always feel poor. Or you might subconsciously sabotage your own success because of the belief that ‘nobody trusts wealthy people’. Perhaps you only value money earned with lots of ‘blood, sweat and tears’, and devalue money inherited or won because it was not ‘earned’. There are many, many more attitudes and habits that can arise surrounding money.
In a similar way you also form beliefs about all the areas of your life. If you’re always told “don’t be greedy” when you ask for anything as a child you may find it difficult to attend to your self-care as an adult, believing that to ask for anything for yourself means you are a selfish and greedy person.
Relationships may be difficult to form or maintain if you constantly heard someone significant to you ridiculing either men or women. Or, as a child you constantly witnessed parents fighting. Children lack the filters to separate themselves from the influence of those in authority.
A Tangled Web
We form beliefs about every aspect of our life. But they are usually stronger in one or two specific areas of our life. A very successful person with huge earning capacity may have big issues with weight or relationships. The blocks they have around money, career and being seen as successful in the world are low. But the ones they have around their self-image may be very powerful and be extremely difficult for them to overcome.
When we have blocks in a number of different areas they intermingle and serve to support each other. The block you have surrounding career success may reinforce the one about wealth. The wealth block may keep your health in check. In turn health blocks may then influence your career habits. Although there are separate beliefs that underpin each they all serve to strengthen the others.
This interweaving means it can be very difficult to shift just one belief or block. In fact, in order to change one, all of them need to shift.
Change Your Stories
When you really examine underlying beliefs they seem questionable at best, and sometimes completely crazy. However, because they’re rooted so deeply within our psyche, and they reinforce each other, they can be very difficult to shift. Trying to simply think them away doesn’t work.
Deep beliefs can be shifted. But because they’re located within the subconscious it must be done at that level. As all beliefs are interconnected it’s likely you’ll fall back into your old patterns if they are not addressed at this deep level, and you are open to all of them changing somewhat.
Shifting beliefs is an ongoing process. However the good news is that even just becoming aware of the stories and beliefs and being able to observe how you respond to them without getting sucked into the associated emotions, begins the process. Once the process starts it continues to unfold over time and as long as you stay aware and observant the process continues.
Our blocks are all connected. Therefore any beliefs and habits we carry that have come from outside the self keep us stuck in a cycle dictated by fear. When we shift any of the stuff from our past (that creates beliefs and habits) everything else shifts as well. So shifting relationship stuff from the past supports us to move forward in our health, our career, and in all other parts of our life.
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
~ Albert Einstein
Shift Your Core Beliefs
I find ritual is an excellent way to release these blocks and patterns because it
engages with all levels of mind – the superconscious, subconscious and conscious.
These limiting blocks and patterns aren’t conscious, but are instead a subconscious program. Therefore they can’t be effectively shifted from the conscious mind through practices like repeating affirmations or by ‘vibrating high’. They need to be shifted at the deep subconscious level.
Through ritual we are able to simultaneously access and utilise all three levels of mind. We can use the power of intention which resides in the conscious mind to break apart beliefs held in the subconscious. Creating and enacting ritual is powerful because it doesn’t rely on what someone else does for you. It allows you to step up, own your power and take control of your life. It opens the door for you to become a Sovereign Being.
Create Your Own Ritual
This ritual is one I use it to shift any underlying core beliefs that are restricting my thoughts and thus my actions. It is one of the most powerful rituals I ever do. Every time I revisit it and re-do the process I open myself to expanded engagement with my Higher Self to create greater manifestation within my life. Simply because I think differently I’m no longer held back by frankly, ridiculous notions.
Download this Shift Your Limiting Beliefs Ritual that I use and use it to
break apart the restricting thoughts and beliefs that are keeping you stuck.
By accessing all levels of mind through ritual we strengthen our engagement with the Divine (Source, Higher Self, God or Goddess, the Universe or any other) which provides new opportunities for change and growth.
But don’t wait until you’ve reached a point where you’re desperate for change before you begin the process. Step outside the emotion now and observe what’s really going on. You’ll be amazed at what you begin to notice both within and around you. And your blocks will begin to shift immediately.
When you continue to practice this process, revisiting it whenever you feel stuck, you continue to reveal and release the core beliefs that restrict you.