What do you believe? Do you believe in yourself or something outside of you?
This is a struggle for most of humanity. Wars have been fought over belief systems. Tolerance for another’s beliefs are rare in the big world picture.
Why?
Well… from what I can understand, and this is just my perception from years of ‘beliefs’ is this… The more people you have on your side, the stronger your beliefs. Kind of why different religions knock on your door to try to recruit you into their sect. If you are alone in your beliefs then you feel that maybe your beliefs really aren’t what they are cracked up to be. That is, if you don’t do your inner work.
What is inner work?
Inner work is meditation, alone time, time in nature and away from the computer. It is very important for you to stop the chatter going on in your head. Many think that meditation is sitting in the lotus position and chanting ‘om’ for 30 years. How debilitating is that? Very! Meditation is this…. taking deep breaths and letting go of your thoughts. It’s really easy, but everyone thinks that it’s impossible. Believe me, my head is going 24/7 most of the time. I can stay as busy as the best of them out there. But there are times that I’m driving, singing along to the radio and just concentrating on that, nothing else. If you can get yourself to just focus on one thing it will open up the flood gates and allow Spirit, God, Energy, whatever you wish to label it as, in.
Believing in yourself is the key to happiness. It’s not a new car, or a new guitar or microphone. It’s believing in yourself. I know you’re next question…. “But Dave, I hate myself. I think I’m an awful person. If you only knew the real me…”. Yeah, I get it. Boring! We ALL have that same conversation in our head. That is your ego. Something I always say is this… Leggo my Ego. Let it go! Make it take the back seat. Reassure it that you know what you are doing. This is how you start… all of those limiting beliefs of yourself you need to focus on. Look at them and ask yourself where they came from. You might have to dig deep and it might be scary but the results will be miraculous! Believe me, I’ve done it. I remember while in Summit Education back in 2003/04 I had to sit with myself and recognize why I was the way I was. Owning every mistake that I’ve ever made and letting go of mistakes that I thought that were something I did only to find out they were planted there by somebody else.
When someone says you are fat and you go into a deep depression is it because you’re fat or is it because somebody a long time ago told you that you were fat? That’s just an example, but belief systems have a way of manifesting themselves into reality. You might be fat now just because somebody said that you are. Pretty fucked up, huh? That’s the way we operate when we don’t believe in ourselves. Many years ago I fell into this belief system as well. It happened to me with singing! Yeah, right, singing. Something I love to do and something I’m really good at. How the hell did that happen?
When I was young I used to sing in church. I was actually the youngest member of the church Choir in South Hadley, Massachusetts. I took voice lessons, played piano and I was an actor as well. I loved the arts. When I was in school this is where I would hide. In the music room. Everywhere else I felt like an outcast. I remember singing the song ‘Babe’ from Styx in front of all of my friends in High School. How embarrassing. They laughed and I receded more into my fragile shell. Now if I had believed in myself then their laughter would have mean’t nothing but I was walking around with this belief….. My father was a musician and he cheated on my Mom and was a pretty heavy drinker and they eventually got divorced and she has hated him ever since. I equated cheating and drinking and divorce to music, so what did I do? I joined the Marines. I guess I thought I could shake it off. Let me tell you something…
Whatever your calling in life is, no matter what, it will eat at you until you either die, or until you submit to it. So you might as well start now. Focus on what makes you happy and go for it! You’ll be scared, but so what? Do you think that money will make you happy? No. Doing what you love will make you happy and everyone around you happy. Don’t buy into the bullshit of the ‘have/do/be’ energy. That’s backwards old paradigm thinking. Start thinking ‘Be/Do/Have’.
Be who you are authentically
Do what feels good to you and then you will
Have happiness.
Namaste,
David
P.S.
About my Dad. I love him and people do change. He is a testament to that. Our parents do the best that they can in the moment that they are where they are so don’t blame them for all of your pain and misery. Once you own your own pain then you have the power to make it go away. Peace!
