4 Lies You Need to Stop Telling Yourself Now
The spiritual leader and co-founder of the Seat of the Soul Institute shows us how to undo the false statements that limit—and sometimes define—us.
Photo: Getty Images
If you break your leg, you cannot play football. If you are blind, your eyes cannot see. These circumstances are self-evident. However, what you say to yourself about the circumstances of your life are the lies that keep you limited. Here are a few we tell ourselves.
This is a whopper. You are not "just the way you are" in a moment of fear, for example, any more than you are "just the way you are" in a moment of joy. "You" is not a single thing, like a rock. "You" are a powerful, complex, dynamic collection of parts. Every personality, including yours, has many different parts. Some of them are painful and destructive—such as anger, resentment and jealousy—and some of them are blissful and constructive—such as gratitude, appreciation and caring. You experience different emotions as different parts of your personality come and go. Sometimes, the part of your personality that is activated is anger. At other times, the part that is jealousy is activated, and at still other times, the part that is contentment is activated. When you are not aware of these parts, they control you, and you think, "This is just the way I am." When you are aware of these different parts, you can choose not to act on those that are painful and destructive, and instead to act on those that are healthy and constructive. For example, when you are angry, you can choose to act with patience. This is not easy to do, but how easy is it to live a life of isolation and loneliness caused by your anger?
This is a way of saying to yourself, "Things happen in my life that do not serve me." If you were able to tell yourself the truth, you would say to yourself, each time something happens that you do not want, "Everything that happens in my life happens for a reason, and that reason has to do with my spiritual development." Nothing in my life is random or by chance. All my experiences give me the opportunity to choose differently than I did before, to choose anew instead of recreating what I have created in the past with my choices. There is no "luck" involved in your life. There is only, and always, the compassion and wisdom of the Universe.
Next: The experiences you're meant to have
1. "I'm just the way I am."
This is a whopper. You are not "just the way you are" in a moment of fear, for example, any more than you are "just the way you are" in a moment of joy. "You" is not a single thing, like a rock. "You" are a powerful, complex, dynamic collection of parts. Every personality, including yours, has many different parts. Some of them are painful and destructive—such as anger, resentment and jealousy—and some of them are blissful and constructive—such as gratitude, appreciation and caring. You experience different emotions as different parts of your personality come and go. Sometimes, the part of your personality that is activated is anger. At other times, the part that is jealousy is activated, and at still other times, the part that is contentment is activated. When you are not aware of these parts, they control you, and you think, "This is just the way I am." When you are aware of these different parts, you can choose not to act on those that are painful and destructive, and instead to act on those that are healthy and constructive. For example, when you are angry, you can choose to act with patience. This is not easy to do, but how easy is it to live a life of isolation and loneliness caused by your anger?
2. "I am unlucky."
This is a way of saying to yourself, "Things happen in my life that do not serve me." If you were able to tell yourself the truth, you would say to yourself, each time something happens that you do not want, "Everything that happens in my life happens for a reason, and that reason has to do with my spiritual development." Nothing in my life is random or by chance. All my experiences give me the opportunity to choose differently than I did before, to choose anew instead of recreating what I have created in the past with my choices. There is no "luck" involved in your life. There is only, and always, the compassion and wisdom of the Universe.
Next: The experiences you're meant to have
NEXT STORY
