INDEX
• YOUR reality = YOUR options.
• Examples of Limiting Beliefs.
• More and Greater REALITIES.
  • A Real Eye Opener!

1. YOUR reality = YOUR options

How deep is the ocean?
Some people are enthusiastic about jumping into Life.
They become involved in so many activities, events, and enterprises that they appear to be experts at managing, delegating, defining, organizing, assisting, and initiating. When that is the reality, it is often backed by a long experience of skill-building through graduated exposure. They know their limits. They know how to continually expand those limits and when to do so. They test the waters, learn to read the waters, learn about the climate and tides. They gain an awareness of map reading and interpretation. They store memories of how deep they can plunge depending upon the angle of entry. They also learn how to rise to the surface, avoid obstacles, and swim or paddle-float to the shore. Above all, they project a confidence in their ability to be dynamic rather than inflexible.

1. Learning does not equal Wisdom.
   Elephants are very intelligent yet easy to train.
   Their owners begin when they are small. They are tied with a strong cable to a tree. They learn quickly that no amount of tugging and twisting will break this cable. They stop trying to go further than allowed. Their owner gradually exchanges the cable from a strong rope to one less strong, until only a thin weak rope sets the boundaries for the elephant. The elephant learned quickly when young. It has a superb memory. It remembers that it could not go beyond the length of its tie. It has learned so fast to accept a physical limit that for most of its life it will never challenge that limit.

2. Never changing is no guarantee of Stability.
   A rock sits on a flat plateau. Every Spring, rains fall and a river of water flows past the rock on both sides. During the reminder of the year, the weather remains sunny and the sun warms the rock on most days. Year after year, the water flows. Each year the water carries away smaller bits of sand. A usually dry river course cuts ever deeper as the years advance. The stone is large enough that gusts and storms do not influence its position. The river cuts slowly deeper and deeper troughs around the rock. Gradually, they approach closer, and closer.

   One day, the pedestal that the rock now rests upon becomes so very small. The rock has weathered many gusts before. Now, a slight breeze blows against it. Ever so slightly, its mass bears down on the foundation which has been disappearing. The sand at its base, shifts only by a few grains, yet enough. The rock moves a speck. More sand moves. Rock and sand begin to move faster and faster. The rock is over the edge and soon racing ever faster towards the bottom of the dry riverbed. It reaches the bottom and strikes other rocks which rolled before its time. They smash together, fragmenting each other. Few things stay the same forever.
   
   

3. Expectations can Cripple.
   It was a sunny, clear day. A man was so happy to be at his cousin's cottage for the first time and near the lake that he ran down to the dock, along to the end, and jumped into the slightly rolling waters. The water level was down for the season. The boats near the shore were resting on the bottom rather than bobbing in the water. The water at the end of the dock was only half its regular depth. The man hit the bottom hard with his head. The shock shattered several of his neck vertebrae. He hopes someday to be able to walk again.

4. Ignorance can lead to Terror.
   A young girl of thirteen living on a Mediterranean island in the mid-1960s was becoming increasingly alarmed by the bleeding she was experiencing. She periodically began to bleed from where she passed urine. Was there something broken inside? It was so horrible, she could not bring herself to tell her mother. It must be something wrong she had done. This was her punishment and guilt. Mother would be so angry with her for the mess. The people of the village would rightly believe she was possessed of evil should they ever find out.

   The mother of the girl was ill and unable to keep up with the housecleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking for the father and daughter. A teenage nephew volunteered to come by weekly and clean the house and bring the groceries from the store for the poor family. While cleaning the bedroom of the girl and changing the sheets, he noticed many bloody rags stuffed under the mattress. What could be the explanation? Who should he speak to? When he went home, he mentioned what he had found to his mother. His mother explained what menstruation was and why to her son. Then, she went to the girl's mother and asked if the girl had been prepared for her menstrual experiences. No. In the concern for her own health and the daily urgencies, she had neglected to prepare her daughter. They called the daughter to them and explained to her the normal consequences of her periods of bleeding.

   The girl now had an understanding of what her messy and periodic experience meant. It brought with it the potential for childbearing, the danger of sexual experience out of wedlock, the expectation of physiological and emotional changes ... new responsibilities that signaled the end of childhood and the beginning of adulthood. The foregoing days and weeks of fear and concealment had grown into terror and guilt for the girl. Now, even knowledge would not withdrawn such strongly imprinted memories and assumptions from her memory. How much would those limits determine her future choices?
   
   

5. Beliefs can destroy a nation.
   In the Central American country now known as Mexico, there was the Aztec nation. They believed that one day, a person/god with a white skin would come to visit them and bring strength. Spanish explorers arrived at the shore with cannon and horses and European contagious illness ... all new to the continent. Escaping from poverty and with a hope of material and social salvation, the sailor-soldiers sought to find the ruler of such an expansive and powerful kingdom. Welcomed as gods, they made their way past workers, administrators, and soldiers many times their number with little incident. Their presence and their choices to conquer, subjugate, plunder, and convert the Aztecs resulted in the end of this powerful, highly organized, largely peaceful and prosperous state. It was defeated, not by superior military training or technology. Neither by wiser strategies or great tactics. They ALLOWED themselves to be imprisoned by their BELIEFS.

NOTE from the Star of Bethlehem Spiritual Principle,
Awakening and Reorientation,
Bach Flower Remedy support and energy block release.

HOW we respond is often an extension of what we BELIEVE.

WHAT we believe is often an outcome of our experiences.
We influence our experiences by our CHOICES.
We make our choices by our selection of AUTHORITY.
Where is the greatest source of KNOWLEDGE?
We find our OPTIONS from that authority.
What/Who is the most POWERFUL authority?

The beliefs we have and the limits we accept often decide how Relevant the knowledge is that we retain from the experiences we have. Learning from others who have longer of different histories than ourselves can help us avoid dangers and find opportunities. Fear, our own, or that of others, can turn safety into solitude. Terror, our own, or that of others, can turn challenge into hatred. In solitude, we often learn narrowness of vision. In hatred, we often learn to turn away from that which can save us. Whether we see the forest or the trees individually which make it, may decide on whether we become lost, confused, overwhelmed, hopeful, or, Recovered!

2. Examples of Limiting Beliefs
Are we keeping and making ourselves adverse to health?

1. Protection against expected pain.
2. Inclusion vs Exclusion.
3. Guilt, failure, doubt, and penalty.
4. Been there, done that.
5. Criss-Cross Imprinting.
6. Educated to die.
7. Fate.

• Protection against expected pain.
  We adopt limiting beliefs as defenses against both emotional and physical pains. If we have done an activity after which we have experienced a severe pain or loss, we often shy away from further involvement. Reflex learning. How many times do you have to burn yourself on the stove before you learn to NOT touch it? Sometimes, the learned belief is singular and immediate. Other times, it is not so devastating and only after experiencing degrees and a consistency of pain, we learn to expect a negative result and make a new personal LAW by which we rule our lives. Laws impose Limits.

  Pain can be an impulsive, dramatic, coercive teacher.
  Without constructive mentoring, we have an unconscious Reptilian Structure which likes to build reaction patterns to keep us safe from repeated painfil experiences. Without constructive mentoring, we have a rational consciousness that likes to make answers, relevant and helpful, or, excuses that sabotage us. Confusion is a difficulty for many of us. Without developing confusion calming skills, we often develop assumptions and expectations that Control our lack of Choice.
  
  

• Inclusion vs Exclusion.
  We HEAR the beliefs of those people who are around us.
  This includes our parents, brothers, sisters, friends, associates, employers, strangers, and enemies. The ones which become imprinted heavily within us are those we hear most often, and, those we hear which highly influence us. Humans are not biologically constructed to DO pain. Much of our physiology is fashioned to alert us to pain, as a danger. It doesn't just Hurt. We are to DO something about the pain. We clean wounds, bandage cuts, soothe sore throats, rest strained muscles, cry to release tension, apply medications to burns, and, change our environment to headaches.

  The reasons that we project and believe are often the reasons which encourage us to take the actions which bring us more complex forms of pain. When we are made, or choose to feel fear or terror, we tend to repeat those heard beliefs within us, over and over again. What we may have heard once or twice, in fear, we may repeat thousands of times to ourselves ... whenever we think of that person, or, the situation we had the experience in. When we hear a person who we are dependent upon or who we respect, perhaps a parent, priest, or personally selected mentor ... we tend to begin repeating that belief to ourselves as a wish to receive their acceptance and acknowledgment.

  Most examples of Racism, Terrorism, Mass Murder ... are the outcomes of very successful Limiting Beliefs, accepted by groups of people who have experienced a heavy sense of loss and have been offered salvation or benefit at the expense of the health, resources, freedoms, and lives of others.
  
  

• AVOIDANCE of guilt, failure, doubt, and penalty are the major considerations behind most limiting beliefs. As long as we choose, to associated with others who carry these beliefs and promote them, we force ourselves to accept the same limits they do. Rituals are a favorite mechanism for unifying large groups of persons in belief and behavior. Beliefs, whether limiting or expansive, provide a sense of Confidence and Assurance. We are best to consider if that sense of confidence encourages us to respect or abuse ourselves and others.
  
  

• "Been there, done that."
  Never avoid something because you did it and it had limits. "Been there, done that," simply means you have given up on real possibilities because YOU had the timing wrong! Grow up. An option is an option whenever it is RELEVANT. Just because it wasn't once, doesn't mean it never will be. Just because it WAS for a time, doesn't mean it can't be again, and again, just not continuously. If you have changed YOUR limits, it may again be a FURTHER benefit for another interim. In a few situations, a particular clinic may be your only economic option. You may have established that those practicing are of no benefit. Eventually, a new person may arrive who has the skills you can benefit from. Either the practice is expanding, someone has moved away, retired, or died. It happens.

  Anything can be an option.
  That is a more constructive, yet challenging approach. It means that you, or someone acting on your behalf, will be required to evaluate if such an options is of benefit to you, and of benefit, Now. It may be best after something else or at a later time. It may be helpful to others yet not to you, ever. It is easy for people who have been disappointed in the past to assume failure in the present in order to sidestep disappointment. The Recovering person will risk disappointment in favor of finding relevant answers for themselves, and, of learning what is significant about an option which enables it to be more useful at some times than at others.
  
  

• Criss-Cross Imprinting.
  Most deceptive of all is a form of imprinting which combines FEAR and a desire to be Accepted. When a parent or mentor threatens to exclude us by rejection or include us by physical harm (penalties) if we choose to NOT obey they concerns and fears, the Power of suggestion is almost traumatic. In hopes of avoiding the "penalty" we repeat continuously to ourselves the fear-based beliefs they have dumped on us. Often, they, the authorities, believe they are showing us love or doing us a favor ... by sharing their fears.

  Their secondary belief is that if they can impress strongly enough on you a Limiting Belief, you will escape the real, or almost real, catastrophe they experienced themselves. It may even be a catastrophic experience that someone else had. Just as often, it is an experience, or tale, told by others, in gossip or parental warning, to "inspire" what the parent considers is socially acceptable behavior. It is the love-that-cuts.

  Here are a few common examples of many.

  • I must ...
  • I should ...
  • I have to ...
  • I can't ...
  • Do .. or else ..
  • I never/always ...
  • If you ... (something terrible will happen).
  • God will get (hurt) you (for) ...
  • The devil is in you! (or someone else)
  • Doing ... is (always) dangerous.
  • Either (option 1), or (option 2)
  • They (a group) are (terrible)
  • [add your own findings]

  
  
  

• Educated to Die.
  Practical, living, education is what we can learn in order to find and select food, prepare it, and enjoy it. It can be how to find, acquire, maintain, and enjoy a bed, shelter, furniture. It can be how to effectively use tools and efficiently complete activities. It is often what we learn from our personal experiences. What we learn in these areas is constantly changing. It may be added to, modified, clarified, and emphasized. Much of the time, what is relevant for us is a personal preference. We may Choose to change these preferences over our lifetime. They may be considered right or wrong by others. That may expose us to conflict, acceptance, or individual appreciation. One can take personal responsibility and joy in what one does and present those outcomes as an extension of their identity.

  Institutional, often static, education is what we often learn from other people who have more power, authority, or control, than we do. They often intend to "save" us from the errors and pains they have experienced by setting out demands, laws, regulations, and themes. With larger groups of people and complex activities and social structures, coherency of performance often provides for greater harmony and enhanced productivity. Such "education" often focuses on "authorities" sanctioning what will be taught in terms of subject and detail. Details tend to be stated in inflexible terms with no discussion to be considered. Everything becomes formalized and membership largely is reduced to not choice beyond participation, or, exclusion. Creativity is deadened and joy becomes fleeting.

  To Recover from CFS-ME, one must adopt a living way to learn. If conventional and institutional ways of learning were constructive, hundreds of thousands would already have recovered and most of the remainders would have a choice presented to them of a formal way for Recovery. None of these steps has been found or started or accepted. The significant alternative is to take an open-hearted and open-minded perspective of seeking the knowledge you require to discern what you have, how it can best be remedied, and who can assist you, at what times.
  
  

• Fate.
  When we believe that the outcome of our participation is beyond our control, we believe that by some external power, we are living a life already defined and decided. That external power can be referred to as a mechanistic pre-determined scheme, conspiracy, or godlike authority. It reveals the same emotional growth as a person who selfishly WANTS to have their way, and when they cannot, they go and sulk in the corner. They quickly learn that few others are going to take sympathy on their Ego-all-me intent, or their SuperEgo-hero-for-others intent. Many other people are going to see beyond the simplistic rationalizations and hold you responsible, IF, you speak what you feel and believe. So, we adapt our language to be more acceptable, but not our beliefs.

  If our FATE reasoning is driven by our Ego, we LUST after something with no care about how such a resolution would affect others. We WANT any one or more of .. money, power, sex, fashion, food, vehicles, fame, recognition, health ... to the exclusion of all other values or retraints. We KNOW that those times of TAKING, without restraint, simply because we CAN, are NOT acceptable to many others ... even those we profess to be closest to us. We deceive, manipulate, negotiate, deny, steal, and slander ... to get what WE want ... even if what we want we must hold apart and relish in secret, or, in fake embarrasment. Eventually, our risks, manufactured excitement, and devotion, becomes an addiction.

  We may become so accustomed to getting what we WANT that we become Confident that we can continue to live freely in this self-created, self-indulgent world. With this Pride, we continue our involvement, often at the expense of others. For many of us, the hypocracy of selfishness enacted behind a banner of selflessness, cracks reality. To FIX the crack, we may victimize someone else. Or, the crack may engulf and destroy our soul, how others perceive us. It is THEN, when we most often Blame Fate for the harm WE have caused, by OUR Choices, or, the crushing Defeat we have fallen to. We make it sound, to ourselves and others, as if we were DRIVEN to self-exctasy. We take NO responsibility. We blame Fate.
  
  

  If our FATE reasoning is driven by our SuperEgo, we LUST after something which we BELIEVE others Want and which if THEY receive it, they will Reward us with what WE want. Many charismatic leaders have fallen under this self delusion. They are going to GIVE you freedom from political repression, racial intolerance, abusive poverty, employment slavery, or, spiritual guilt. All you have to do is, Worship them! You will Praise them, do whatever they ask of you, pay them whatever they indicate they want. Politicians, religious leaders, activists, terrorists, and other authoritarians frequently slip into this Role.

  Fate driven leaders, begin generalizing, cutting corners, ignoring failures and abuses, and justifying means for ends. They speak always of what YOU are to get. They manipulate and deceive so that many people DO get what is promised, always, at the expense and hardship of many others. This is the Ponzi scheme of wars. for the Power and Wealth of a few, millions sacrifice themselves out of Fear, Pride, and, ignorance. If the warmonger or the financial fraud fails or wins, they know to Blame it on Fate.
  
  

  Fate keeps us immature.
  Fate keeps us selfish, ignorant, abusive.
  Fate sabotages our efforts and rewards others.
  Fate keeps us acting out, rather than learning & responding.
  Fate makes others guilty for OUR Choices & failures.
  Fate justifies our weaknesses, intolerances, denial.
  Fate enables us to remain depressed & hopeless.
  Fate keeps us ill.

  An antidote to Fate; is Faith.
  Stop TAKING; start SHARING.
  Stop Grumbling; start Doing.
  Stop asking for ME; start asking for US.
  Stop trying to become worthy; accept your worth.