Emancipate Yourself From Mental Slavery

Many of us were called names throughout childhood. Names that most people don’t even consider to be names. Words such as too sensitive, too slow, weird, ridiculous, naïve, or the more glaringly obvious words like stupid, useless, hopeless, a waste of space or weak. We think that these words didn’t affect us at all, yet the fact of how we live our lives can reflect our innate belief in the words that we were called. While listening to Jim Kwik, I took time to write down my limiting beliefs. That’s when I found them, words from my childhood showing me how much they have affected my inner world.

In a world where we are endlessly instructed to let it roll off our shoulders, don’t pay any attention to it, ignore it, etc., it’s important for us to take the time to look these things square in the eye. Yes, it is important to let it roll off our shoulders, but that doesn’t mean that we should pretend it’s not there. It’s important to face it and see it for what it is, to identify it, to name it. The power of naming can create a villain or a hero. We must come to understand and remember that the shape of our life is in our own hands. We have the choice at all times to let others name things in our internal and external world, or, to look deeply and name them ourselves. Because, once we do this, we can choose those names that are the conquerors of all those frustrating and infuriating patterns in our life. We can choose new and healthier names instead, ones that create joy and positivity in our lives, ones that create the life that we truly dream of.

~Janice M. Burke

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