Principle One - Theory

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”
—Marianne Williamson

I guess this is an obvious place to start isn’t it? Because let’s face it – if you don’t believe in you why should I? You can whine and moan about your lot in life and search madly about from book to book, course to course, guru to guru desperately seeking THE answer. The one that will make you feel better about yourself. The one that will finally solve your deep need to belong.

But the bottom line is – you need to find this within yourself. Any belief that you obtain from outside of yourself will be short lived. A short period of exaltation will be followed by a fall because the energy exchange will always be a parasitic one. Yes – you’re the parasite! That makes the other person the host – the one with the power. And YES – that makes you the dependent POWERLESS one… Ho hum – and destined to feel bad about yourself because after the glow has gone you will soon realise the reality of the situation. You will soon realise that you are weak without the other person – and you will come to loathe this weakness within you and in turn loathe the other person.

So – take responsibility! No one is better than anyone else. We are all in this together, all unique beings with unique gifts to offer the world.

Remember – you are the story AND you are the storyteller. We all come into this world with the pure fire of spirit burning in our hearts. For reasons that we don’t need to know we go through various experiences that influence the story that we tell about ourselves and what we deserve from life – our deepest beliefs and expectations.

Now as you begin on the journey of Self Mastery the first task is to uncover these stories and, if they are negative ones, change them around so that they are positive ones.

No matter what happens outside of us. No matter how bad, traumatic or vile it is – it will not influence us as much as what happens within us. We can be our own worst enemy or we can be our own best friend. Which do you want to be?

In this time of great change, we must learn to trust our intuition and inner guidance. If we do not believe in ourselves then we will constantly doubt this inner guidance and second guess ourselves all the time. We will be open to influence from others and become mere pawns in a game.

The story you tell about yourself becomes who you perceive yourself to be. If you perceive yourself to be a certain person then deep within your brain as it seeks to filter out the myriad of inputs it receives, it will sort the information so that it supports this story. Remember how the brain makes decisions BEFORE you begin thinking about making a decision?

Well, if you perceive yourself to be a certain person then what do you think the default decisions your brain makes will be? If you guessed, decisions that match the perpetuation of this story you’d be right.

Remember too that the neural pathways in the brain also take some time to change so you need to present a consistent message over time. If you have been telling yourself a negative story for years then don’t expect your brain to suddenly take off down a different path overnight. Just try brushing your teeth with your other hand if you don’t understand what I mean…

Now go back to the ontological philosophy stuff. The self belief, or lack of self belief story lives in the past/present loop. That means that over a long period of time you have been gathering lots and lots of EVIDENCE to support this story. You may even have friends and family that will support this view of yourself and may even assist in the perpetuation of the story by recounting to you events that have happened in the past. Gee thanks…

Anyway, the point is that for a long time you’ve been gleefully and mindlessly spinning around and around in the past/present loop. Now suddenly you wish to tell a different story and change direction.

Be patient, be consistent, be mindful.

Understand the theory. Understand the story and work on it remembering that:

Intention + Belief = Creation

So you can have crystal clear intention – for example you’ve just gone away and done a week long retreat where you’ve put together an amazing new vision for your life. If you don’t believe it then you won’t create it. If your new vision doesn’t match your deep held story of who you are and what you deserve from life then you won’t create it.

Imagine that the past/present loop is a flywheel and so is the future/present one. The past/present flywheel has been spinning for a long time – it has lots of momentum. The future/present one is only just barely turning – it has very little momentum.

Your job is to get the future/present wheel turning as fast as the past/present one.

The goal is to reshape your brain at the belief level.

Quantum physics says there is an observer effect in the brain. What you focus on strengthens.

Your intention is equivalent to whatever you pay most ATTENTION to.

By paying ATTENTION to the story that you want, you strengthen the neural networks around that story and its underlying beliefs. 

By resonating with that story you radiate out into the quantum field and according to quantum physics – like attracts like. So you attract to you circumstances that will match your story.

Hence you create EVIDENCE for the new story thus creating MOMENTUM which in turn strengthens your BELIEF allowing the CREATION of what you INTEND.

Neat eh?

So, number one – Believe in Yourself. Nothing much else will work if you don’t have healthy, self generated belief. You will always be looking for evidence BEFORE you act if you haven’t got self belief. Whenever anything goes wrong a little voice inside your head will scream ‘SEE! Told you so!’

And remember – IT’S UP TO YOU !!!! No one else can give it to you.

Principle One - Toolbox

 

Now that we have covered the eight principles of Self Mastery and the pathway to Self Mastery, this section moves on to the tools.

What can we do to help ourselves along the path?

For each of the eight principles I have put together a series of questions, affirmations, exercises, visualisations and meditations that may assist you to gain mastery.

The questions and exercises are important because they challenge your current thinking and encourage you to ‘get out of the proverbial box’. Affirmations provide a positive story to tell.

Visualisations are crucial because the brain does not know the difference between what we experience in reality and what we visualise with strong emotion. Therefore it is a way of practicing a new way of being. You may like to record the visualisations so you can play them back to yourself whilst you sit quietly alone somewhere.

Meditations are also a way of training the brain to a particular way of being – and are especially useful for calming and centering the thought processes to allow better focus.

Some of these tools may suit you, some may not. Just like a car mechanic has favourite tools, it is up to you to decide for yourself which ones you like and how to use them.

It is important also to start journaling these exercises. Go and buy a new journal and call it your ‘Self Mastery Journal’. As you go through these exercises write down your thoughts and answers in the journal. As you go through life write down any other practices that help you along the way.

As you learn the tools and practice them you will slowly find that as you come up against certain challenges in life, you will begin to know which tool to reach for and will do it without thinking. When you find yourself doing this, you will know that you are getting beyond concept. At this point I hope you take a moment, stop and give yourself a pat on the back, a secret ‘high five’, or buy yourself a present – whatever rocks your boat – because this truly is acknowledge yourself for making a quantum leap.

The reason this is so important is that getting beyond concept is getting out of your head – getting out of your thinking – and getting into ‘being’. And ‘being’ from an ontological perspective is pure genius!

So – here are the tools.

For each principle begin by ranking yourself out of ten. So a ten out of ten ranking for self belief would mean that you have nothing to work on. You probably already have some good tools in this area.

A two out of ten ranking however would mean that you need to take some time and working on it.

Periodically, review your ranking and then reflect back in your journal and see if you are making any progress. If you are congratulate yourself – if not don’t beat yourself up. Take some time instead to focus on possible solutions – then get back into it.

Patience and persistence is the key here.

Ant medicine – as the American Indians would say.

An ant will slowly and deliberately work away at something knowing and trusting that what is yours will eventually come to you.

1. Believe in Yourself

Believing in your self is really so much about learning the discipline of redirection and focus.

So – the first question is – redirect to what?

Affirmation

I am ok, I am loveable, I am valuable, I honour myself

 

Telling A Better Story

 

Let’s see first what story you tell about yourself now. Take yourself away somewhere quiet and answer the following questions:-

 

• What story do you tell about yourself?
• What’s your background?
• What’s your place in life?
• Are you average or better than average?
• What do you deserve from life?

 

Think of all the things that you’ve been told about yourself through your life that have stuck inside your head. All of the stories about you that tell you who you are and what you deserve from life. What does the little voice inside your head tell you when you try to do something new or different?

When you have done that have a go and turning it all around think back on all the things in your life that you have done that have been good or right – write them down.

Now imagine that a good friend (you) comes to see you. They are very upset with their lot in life – something bad has just happened to them. They tell you your story picking out only the negative points.

You try to console your friend (you) but they keep repeating the story and eventually they go away to drown their sorrows.

Now take a piece of paper and write yourself a letter pointing out to yourself all of the good things that you have done in your life. All of the times when you have been proud of yourself and all of the achievements that you have had. Tell yourself what you have to offer the world and why you deserve to receive so much from the world. Tell yourself how you FEEL about you and how much you WANT for you.

Keep writing and re-writing the letter until you think it is perfect. Then write ‘A letter from your best friend’ on top of the page, take it and post it to yourself.

Stick it up on your wall and keep reading it to yourself until the new story begins to gain momentum.

Pay as little attention to the old story as possible. Whenever you hear it come up, whenever you hear that little negative voice inside your head, don’t pay it any attention at all. Don’t tell it to shut up, don’t get angry with it, don’t even talk to it. Redirect instead – read your letter from your best friend and make a vow to yourself that you will be your own best friend.

After all – if you don’t believe in yourself why should I?

A Visualisation

Take yourself off somewhere quiet, sit comfortably and take a few moments to calm your breathing.

Now imagine you are walking across a field along a dirt path which winds its way through some long grass. As you follow the path you come closer and closer to a forest and then slowly the track winds its way deep into the forest.

Past huge trees and under a green canopy. You can hear birds singing in the distance and insects buzzing about their business.

Eventually you come to a clearing and in the middle of the clearing is a large rock pool. On the other side of the rock pool you see children playing and laughing.

As you come closer to the water they all stop playing and come to meet you.

You realise that you have come to the place where the inner children live.

What would you like to say to them about what they deserve from life?

They listen to your words and thank you for them. Then one by one they run off to play again until only one child remains. As you look at the child you realise that it is you – your inner child.

“Do you have a special message for me?” he or she asks you.

Tell him or her what you feel in your heart then ask them if they have a message for you.

When you are complete, thank all of the children for the opportunity to meet with them.

Wish them well then turn and walk back along the track through the forest and out into the field. As you walk through the long grass feel the soft grass brush against your open palms. Slowly bring yourself back to where you are now thanking your guides for the experience you have just had.

When you feel ready – take some time and write down the message that you gave to the children and what your inner child may have said to you.

Use this message as an affirmation or as a reminder of what you need to tell yourself on a daily basis.

Once you have done this exercise and the visualisation your task is now one of mindfulness. When we get to the BE PRESENT part of the toolbox I will share some tools for this with you.

The key is to be so aware of what you are telling yourself at any time so that if you find yourself telling a negative story you can very quickly stop it and redirect to a positive one.

What you focus on expands.

Intention + Belief = Creation

Intention = whatever you put most of your attention or focus on.

Manage your attention and focus and you can manage your brain neural pathways, your being and your resonant vibration in the quantum field.