TheLeaderInside.com

As I was working on my novel yesterday, I found myself thinking about the habits of my youth that I still carry with me today. One of them is the need to have plenty of food in the pantry, even though the local store is not that far away. Another is the habit of being fearful of ever having to live on the streets again and all the insecurities that go along with that fear. There are others that I won’t go into here — you’ll have to wait for the book to see what those are… [smile]

I’m mentioning this — and I’m basing my article today on this subject because it occurred to me that almost all of us have this same thing going on in our lives. We have these negative, or bad, or unhealthy habits that have been carried down from generation to generation. The same patterns that our parents had — and their parents before them, and so on. These are habits that we learned as children and we still have them today. Can we break free from them?

Can we break those habits? Is that possible, or are they too deeply ingrained in our personality.

I left my childhood home as a child so I don’t have the generational, or familial habits that many of you may have — I have the habits of the generations of people who have had to survive in severe conditions. In either case, however, it is still easy to believe that when we leave our childhood surroundings, whatever they may have been, and embark on our journey into adulthood, that we’ll leave behind those harmful and self-perpetuating family patterns or habits.

But, if we take a good close look at where we are today, we may discover that our behaviors and beliefs are still tied to the things that were impressed upon us by our parents, grandparents, and the generations that preceded them. For example, how many of you have fears of not having enough — always making decisions based on lack rather than abundance? How many of you operate under the “Money doesn’t grow on trees!” philosophy? Do any of you have difficulty showing true affection and emotion? What about sharing your innermost thoughts and feelings with others? Do any of you have that problem?

I mention those because they are among the most common habits for people who are adults today. We learned this behavior from the generations that came before us.

I thought about this a lot yesterday and this morning and I truly believe that you can break away from those old patterns. It is possible for you to be the one to turn those habits around from the negative into the positive. Breaking those habits is a matter of overcoming those negative values of the past and replacing them with the positive values of love, tolerance, and conscious awareness of where you truly are today.

Even if you’re struggling with the effects of family cycles that have been building over the years — the cycles that were an expression of the strife that your ancestors had to live with from day-to-day — you can still free yourself from all of that. You can do it if you have the true desire to do it. You need to be willing to shed all those dark, negative patterns from your life and replace them with light, loving energy. Some of you may find comfort in living with the beliefs and habits you learned as a youngster, but those of you who feel the need to break free, can do so!

You may one day simply realize that certain aspects of your early life have negatively affected your health, your happiness, and your ability to evolve as an individual. I know that’s true with me. Or you may find that in order to rise above those long-standing patterns of limiting beliefs, irrational behavior, and emotional tightness, you have to question your life values and seriously examine how your family, or childhood, has impacted your personality. Only when you understand how those old cycles have influenced you can you gain freedom from those cycles.

In order to truly change, you must give yourself permission to change. Breaking old family patterns is not an act of defiance or betrayal. It is important that you trust yourself implicitly when deciding which behaviors and beliefs are limiting your individual potential.

And, this is important!

When you decide to break loose from the old, negative family or childhood cycles, not only are you going to find a new freedom to express your feelings and needs — not only are you going to be on a new journey of greater well-being — you will also be the originator of new, positive, loving, self confident behavior cycles that will influence all the generations to come after you.

What a wonderful gift you will give!

And, as I always say in closing — remember these words …

You are special — and you are loved. You are the greatest gift you can be.

Shanti … (A sanscrit word meaning, “Let there be Peace. Peace, beautiful Peace. Peace within, Peace without. Peace in this world. Peace for all beings.”)

~~~ DBL-R

P.S. Remember, that if you have one of the “readers” — like My Yahoo, My MSN, or the Google Reader, or any of the others, you can get our blog sent to you automatically, whenever I post to it. Just click one of the buttons over on the left side to add it to your reader.
================================================================

====================================================================
[tags]peace, inner self, The Secret, Law of Attraction, dreams, spiritual energy, action, value, inner balance, enlightenment, destiny, manifestation, meditation, patience, gratitude, tolerance, acceptance, body balance, life cycle, beginnings, endings, positive thinking, ego, silence, consciousness, staying grounded, cycle of life[/tags]