Season 3 – epiBLOG 14:
I was reading a chapter in The Sedona Method over the weekend, and was enlightened by what I felt were profound words. At this point in the book, Hale Dwoskin states that “in The Sedona Method, we’ve been focusing more on what we feel than on what we think. We do this because it is nearly impossible to make changes in your life solely by thinking positive thoughts.”
That was a huge epiphany for me. I’ve been wondering why affirmations and positive quotes aren’t consistently effective. I finally received the explanation that I needed.
Today’s topic is on cleaning out your “internal debris” in order to tap into your unlimited potential as an artist.
What do I mean when I say “internal debris?” I mean all of your limiting beliefs about what is and isn’t possible, resistance to change and to people, and all of your past negative experiences that are causing you to make decisions about your current life.
As you all know, I’m a writer, so I tend to live inside of my own head quite often, thinking about what I wish I would have said during an argument, dreaming of my own success, and then sometimes sabotaging those dreams with self-imposed doubts about their materialization based on my experiences from last year or 20 years ago. Whenever.
Sabotaging can be a subconscious problem that you aren’t even aware of, but all hope isn’t lost if you can simply figure this out. We just have to consciously work on removing the internal debris in our lives in order to tap into the full expression of our talents.
All of us have these gifts on the inside of us that seem to be lurking in the corners of our inner most core. And for some reason, we can’t access them because we are holding on to a way of thinking that is familiar to us, but yet so destructive. For example, what if you consciously know that you were put on this earth to be a musician? You play five instruments, you sing in church every chance you get, and you also play in the crummiest of dive bars just to get your name out there. However, for some strange reason – after doing this for 15 years – you find that you are currently in life exactly where you were 15 years ago – as if you’ve done nothing to expand and grow as a musician.
Annoying, right? Outright frustrating, actually!
You begin to have all of the expected self-doubts, the phony smiles when people ask about how your music career is going. After all, you have to feign a positive attitude if you want people to believe that you’re going to make it since you so obviously haven’t made it already.
You practice seven days a week. You take both paid and unpaid gigs just because you don’t want to miss out on an opportunity for exposure. The money that you make goes back into your music career. Blood, sweat, tears, and heart have been poured into your dream and into what you KNOW you’re supposed to spend the rest of your life doing.
You begin to think, “So, what is the problem?”
You can feel the knot of frustration growing tighter in your stomach. You could scream, but you fear getting evicted out of your apartment, as you’re already on thin ice with the apartment manager for playing your music too loud.
You’re seeking an answer and you want one fast before you decide to quit or do something worse. You go to the self-help section at Barnes & Noble, hoping that one of those successful and smiling guys or ladies on the cover can somehow impart just enough wisdom into you to unlock your success.
While sitting down in the built-in Starbucks that is directly in the big chain bookstore, you discover that there is such a thing as “limiting beliefs.”
“Great. How do I get rid of them?” That’s what you’re thinking, right? Almost like they are termites or bedbugs.
After weeks of returning to the Starbucks’ Barnes & Noble because you couldn’t afford to buy the book to be able to read it in the comfort of your own home, you realize that your second grade music teacher told you that if “you make it big as a musician that you won’t be able to have genuine people around you who truly love you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Johnson, with all of your infinite wisdom.”
Your subconscious bought into that lie. You love your parents, your wife, and child. You have a good relationship with all of them and couldn’t dream of giving them up – not even for your music. The lying seed that your second grade music teacher — “Mrs. Johnson” — put into your head is what ensures that you hold onto this family that you now have as an adult by subconsciously sabotaging your musical aspirations.
You’re now 35 years old, and when you look back on the past 15 years of pursuing this dream as a musician, knowing that your second grade music teacher did a number on your mind without you even being aware of it until now, you realize all of the huge opportunities that you missed out on. Opportunities to play at huge events… openings for huge stars. And you turned those opportunities down because you consciously thought, “I’m just not ready.” Only you were actually ready. You were just scared to actually be successful because you thought that success meant losing those that love you.
I created this entire story line because this is what I do as a writer in order to illustrate my very real and credible points. The internal debris, or “limiting thoughts,” or whatever it is that you call the stuff that is inside of you that is stopping you from achieving your goals has to be released. You have to let go of those things that are holding you back. Once you do, you will realize that you can genuinely have anything that you want out of life.
Today’s LESSON is to let go of whatever is holding you back so that you can experience the fullness of your talents.
FUN ASSIGNMENT: Read Chapter 11, pages 243-245 of The Sedona Method. Apply the exercise to your life and see what happens.
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