Beliefs-ADDENDUM

This is part 5 of a series of posts on Beliefs.  It would be helpful to read the first 4 before reading this one.  You can click on the links here...

Beliefs-1           Beliefs-2            Beliefs-3          Beliefs-4

This morning, I was talking with a dear friend and she said that reading my Beliefs posts was making her feel sad. She didn't see the joy in my posts that she often sees in me now.  Remembering the unhealthy beliefs that negatively influenced my thinking, feeling and actions made me feel a bit sad, too.  It almost looks as if my life was totally without joy when I know I had experienced great amounts of joy with my daughter, husband, siblings and close friends in the years before my first cancer diagnosis.  I only just started to look deeply inside during that time of my life.  

I could see that I had some serious healing to do and as I had learned from books and participation in various energy healing classes, I came to believe that JOY is ESSENTIAL to HEALING.  Joy is the energy that powers the immune system and the immune system is the best cancer eradicator there is.  Energetically, both the breast and the immune system are linked to the Heart Center (chakra).  

While reading Lawrence LeShan's book CANCER AS A TURNING POINT, I tried to make a list of all the things that brought me joy and it seemed to be a relatively short list.  It included things like being in nature, and spending time with my husband, daughter and other loved ones.  I wanted some items that were just me, by myself, where the joy came from within - like, what made me feel passionate and excited? What made me want to jump out of bed in the morning to quickly begin the day?  What inspired me to be creative?  What could I do that felt creative?  WHY DID I WANT TO LIVE?  It was disturbing to me that I could not readily answer these questions.  That WAS sad.  I asked myself, "How can I expect to HEAL if I can't muster up some joy and LOTS OF IT?" 


Anita Moorjani wrote on Facebook "Make your life choices out of joy and passion, rather than out of a fear of the consequences! We knew how to live in pure joy when we were born but we spend our lives forgetting. ...There are an alarming number of people living in fear [instead of living in joy]... Learn to get in touch with your heart and do what brings you joy ... and encourage everyone you love to do the same!"  

I totally agree with that.  The same is true about making decisions.  If I make a decision out of fear, chances are pretty good that it will NOT bring me joy, whereas decisions made out of love have great potential to reap joy - and peace of mind. 


So, in addition to working to replace negative beliefs with positive ones (started with first diagnosis in '97), I was on a mission to experience JOY (started with first Stage IV diagnosis in 2001) every day.  I like to have a MISSION, a sense of purpose, a goal to focus on.  It was time to start applying what I'd been learning in classes about energetic healing.  I believe that my dis-ease began in my energy field (mental, emotional and spiritual parts of me) and that my physical body is merely the outward manifestation of what is going on in the other bodies - like a barometer.  And, my body was speaking very loudly to me.  In DYING TO BE ME, Anita Moorjani states, "all disease first begins in the energy field, and then manifests in the body."  I know that this has been true for me.

What I already wrote about my beliefs reflects where I was 15 YEARS AGO.  I am a very different person today and grateful that I have learned so much about healing and have become who I am today - one who is always learning and growing from life experience.  Life experience is our very best teacher and I am a perennial student.


Any thoughts on this?  Anyone else have a similar (or different) experience?  Wishing you Peace & Joy,

Maggie McDee (AKA Magnolia)

Beliefs-1

This is the first post in a series about Beliefs.  I have been paying close attention to what I say when I talk to myself, observing how I treat myself.  I believe that, if I use loving words and convey loving feelings toward my "personality" being (body, mind and emotions), then I will feel better than if I speak to myself with criticism, judgment or contempt.  So, paying attention to my thoughts is my new 'hobby'.  Psychologists say that our feelings are a direct result of our thoughts.  And, beliefs are merely thoughts that we repeat over and over.  So, if I think that I am not worthy, that I am not lovable, that I do not deserve to have perfect health, that I am disappointing to myself or others, and I keep repeating those 'toxic' thoughts, they eventually become 'toxic' beliefs.  Beliefs can be really hard to change, especially when we are not aware that they exist and that we act on them constantly.  I think that this is the most important area in which changes need to occur in order to heal.  I have found beliefs that I didn't even know I had - and realized that I was unconsciously living my life by them.  Here are some of the erroneous beliefs I have found in myself:

• I am not worthy...
• I am not good enough...
• I do not deserve...
• If I am perfect, then I will be approved of and loved
• Approval from others is of utmost importance and must be achieved
• Others' opinions and needs are more important than my own
• It is selfish to love myself
• My feelings, opinions and passions are not important, so I must suppress them to the point that I don't even know what they are
• A stage IV breast cancer diagnosis is a death sentence.  (If they had a Stage V, they would call it 'death'.)
• Love means sacrificing who I am to make other people happy
• God is a mean, vengeful, egotistical, maniacal being who has unreasonable expectations and doles out extreme punishment because he is easily offended - he must be feared
• God and love are the same thing [a good belief, I think, but not in light of the beliefs above about love and God]
• My instincts are not reliable
• Emotions should never be expressed, especially anger or any other 'negative' emotion
• Forgiveness is a sign of weakness
• Obsessive thoughts about worry, guilt, anger and fear are normal 

These are some of the big ones I've discovered through years of journaling, meditating, reading, journaling, therapy, energetic healing and thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking and more thinking.  Here are some wonderful books that have been of tremendous help to me in this area.  

• YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE & related workbook by Louise Hay
• THE ARTIST'S WAY by Julia Cameron
• THE FOUR AGREEMENTS by Don Miguel Ruiz
• THE DANCE OF ANGER by Harriet Lerner
• CANCER AS A TURNING POINT by Lawrence LeShan

I will continue this topic later.  The morning is slipping away quickly.  Time for breakfast.  Enjoy this beautiful day - it is a gift.

To continue reading this topic, click Beliefs-2