Our belief systems are often played out in the stories we create in our lives. Has there ever been a certain theme that continues to play out over and over in your life? Sometimes we tell ourselves "stories" that come to be our reality. Maybe the story is "I can't trust anyone. They always leave." Or maybe the story is "Everyone will always disappoint me, so I have to do everything myself." Past experiences or trauma are the origin of these stories, but at some point, we may become the writer of these stories and watch them play out over and over again. How do we move past these old stories in our lives and begin to write new stories for ourselves?

It is our core belief systems that shape these stories. The key is to do the hard work of changing the belief system. First, we must identify what the belief system is that we are dealing with. Please feel free to reference my Core Belief Systems page for some ideas of what belief systems you may be living by. Then, comes the work of changing the core belief systems. With clients I work with, we will often use EMDR Therapy (Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) as a way to begin to change this old belief system and replace it with a more positive belief system to live by. There are many other therapeutic approaches that are designed to do this deep work as well. I will mention more in future blog posts. We need to heal from these past experiences or relationships in order to write a new story.

It might be astonishing when your eyes are open to how these belief systems has been played out time and time again in your relationships, work environments, and friendships. Journaling can help to see these themes when asking yourself the question, "When have I felt this way before?" With increased awareness and healing from those past experiences, we can begin to choose how we want to respond differently when circumstances, tests, and trials come our way.