I want to share a story with you about a young man who grew up to be sad almost all the time. He decided to reach out to a therapist to figure out why he was unhappy most of his life. As the therapist worked with him, he began to figure out that this young man was taught some “self beliefs” as a child that were absolute lies.
It turned out that an older brother had been convincing this young man during his formative years that he was CRAZY and STUPID. The older brother was telling him this obsessively, out of some kind of jealousy.
The young man grew up convinced that this was true probably because he heard it so many times. He believed that there was no point in really trying anything in life because he was “INSANE” AND “DUMB” anyway. So, why try??? He would never succeed at anything. This makes sense when you think about it. If you believe what you have been taught by an abusive person you are doomed. No one could blame him for believing this either. He was young and easily influenced by a brother he adored.
After many years of therapy this young man finally began to question and think that there was never anything wrong with him at all. He then asked the therapist to help him change his thinking about himself and if he could actually fix the damage that was done? The therapist encouraged him and explained that with a little hard work he could indeed change his beliefs about himself and began to teach him all about AFFIRMATIONS. They worked together to come up with an affirmation designed just for him. It went something like this.
“I am a wonderful man, who is talented, smart, sane and level headed. What I learned about myself as a child were lies.” (You should never use anything negative in an affirmation, but in this case the young man really needed part of his affirmations to be that what he learned at a child were things that were NOT TRUE.)
He would write out this new belief for 10 to 20 minutes a day, in the morning and at night before going to sleep. He would also post this new belief on mirrors, doors, all over the house, and all over his office. As he worked with affirmations they would change as he wrote and wrote. Needless to say, they almost took on a life of their own. He stuck to this commitment of working with affirmations for about a year and a half and stayed working closely with his therapist. He worked very hard to change his beliefs about himself and they began to work magic on his thinking!!!!!
I am happy to report that, that man went on to become a well loved Family Doctor. He got married (something he did not believe would ever happen to him). He had 3 children and lived a very happy life. He ran workshops about how 'HE CHANGED HIS OWN MIND'. He loved to challenge people with incorrect self beliefs. He would ask people to question “What were you taught as a child?” and to empower others to “DECIDE WHO YOU ARE”, AND TO NOT BELIEVE WHO OTHERS TAUGHT YOU, YOU ARE. He has now retired and is living a quiet life with his family in Tennessee.
I believe we all have the power to “CHANGE OUR OWN MINDS”. If he can do it, so can any one of us. If you would like to learn more about affirmations please let me do a reading for you and we can take some time to talk about THE POWER OF AFFIRMATIONS. Hope you enjoyed this story! God Bless you all.....
