LIFE MASTERY: Trust Yourself

LESSON EIGHT

 TRUST YOURSELF

INTRODUCTION

The lectures and exercises in this program have taken you deeper into your heart, a safe resting place where you can build trust in yourself. You have been building trust in yourself as you have

      . generated your list of accomplishments;

      . focused on the glass half full—what you have rather than what you don’t have; and

      . stopped looking outside yourself for others to define who you are and what you should be doing with your life.

I. HONOR AND VALUE YOU

Building trust in yourself requires that you honor and value you. So we ask you:

      . How do you feel about you?

      . What do you honor and value about you?

      . What is it about your gifts and talents that have meaning and value?

      . What do you do to love you, to give support to your highest good?

      . What are you giving to you so you can be you?

      . What keeps you looking outside of you for validation and gratification?

Many of you are still looking outside of yourselves for confirmation that who you are and what you are doing are acceptable and worthwhile.

EXERCISE ONE

MIRROR EXERCISE

PART ONE

The mirror exercise reveals deeper aspects of who you are. As you look at your reflection, thoughts and feelings may surface revealing how you have been conditioned.

Close your eyes. Imagine walking down a pathway into your heart and resting comfortably in you. 

When you get to this place, breathe deeply three times as follows: 

Hold the breath for five seconds.

Release the breath through the throat and mouth with the strong sound of ahhhhh.

After the third time, become fully present, open your eyes, and do the following mirror exercise:

PART TWO

The mirror exercise is best done in the nude. Do this exercise several times during the next week.

1. Stand naked in front of a mirror. Look directly into your eyes for five seconds. Then spend several seconds scanning your body from head to toe. Repeat the breathing exercise.

      Looking in your eyes, ask:

      . Who am I?

      . What am I feeling at this moment?

      . What is it about me that I love?

      . What is it about me that I am still shaming and judging?

      . Can I accept my feelings and have compassion for myself?

      . Am I ready to live my life for me?

2. At the end of this exercise, write down what you feel when you look at yourself in the mirror naked.

      Many of you may react to this exercise with fear.

      Many of you may respond with shame and judgment.

      Others of you may enjoy looking at yourselves.

      Be with the feelings that come up.

3. Each day after you do this exercise, write down what you shame and judge about yourself and how you feel about it. Make a separate list.

      Ask: 

      . Who is judging and shaming me?

      . Who is not seeing my divine essence?

      . Can I accept where I am and where I shame and judge myself?

4. Negative thoughts that shame and judge you are products of your conditioning, what you have been taught. Consider your answers to the above questions. Then ask:

      . Whose voices are these?

      . What did they teach me?

      . Do these teachings resonate for me now?

      . Can I accept with compassion where I am in this moment?

      . How has my conditioning influenced the relationship I am having with my self?

      . How has my relationship with my self influenced my relationships with others?

It is important to use the mirror exercise whenever you shame or judge yourself. It will help you move away from the influences of negative conditioning and will be the jumping-off point for moving toward the life you say you want.

PART THREE

The mirror exercise helps you move to new depths of intimacy within so that you can begin to receive love from yourself.

A good place to begin receiving love from yourself is to begin giving love to your inner wounded child.

      . Close your eyes, move into your heart, and imagine your inner wounded child.

      . When the child comes to you, look in the child’s eyes for a few moments and be with your

        feelings.

      . Ask your inner child, “What do you need in this moment?”

      . After the child answers, ask yourself, “Do I love this child enough to give the child what it

        needs in this moment?

      . This is your opportunity to begin healing your inner child by giving you the love your inner    

        child needs.

      . Begin to give and receive love from you.

At your next group sharing, share your experience with the mirror exercise, what you learned, and how the experience made you feel.We are leading you to trust that:

      . You, fully exposed, are good enough just the way you are.

    

      . The answers to what you need are inside you. Begin giving to yourself what you need.

  

II. RELEASE FEAR

Your fear may be so great that it feels “safer” for you to stay in a place that is comfortable rather than to feel the feelings that would be generated by moving toward abundance, prosperity, success, and fulfillment.

Fear occurs in the absence of love.

Remember: Your love for yourself powers your courage to be you.

 EXERCISE TWO

1. List your five greatest fears.

In order to write your fears, you have to be willing to acknowledge them. There is   a fear of actually acknowledging fear.

If this applies to you, feel your feelings and list them anyway.

2:  Ask yourself: How are my fears affecting my ability to move toward what I say I want?

3. Look at your fears and ask yourself:

      . Am I allowing what is outside of myself, including my fears, to direct my life?

         Or

      . Do I love myself enough to stand in a place of power and direct my life with what is     

        important to me?

4. How do you intend to address your fears?

EXERCISE THREE

You have reached the halfway point of this program. We now ask you to revisit the questions you answered at the end of the lesson one, so that you may compare your answers and monitor your progress in this program.

      Ask yourself:

      . Who am I?

      . What am I feeling?

      . Where am I in this moment?

      . How well do I know myself in this moment?

      . How am I feeling about my life now?

      . Where is my sense of self?

      . Where is my power?

      . Where am I looking outside of me for others to define who I am?

      . Where do I think of myself as powerless or not good enough?

      . Where am I still hiding?

We ask you to be completely truthful with that wonderful soul who is standing naked in the mirror in all of your glorious truth.

How have your answers changed since lesson one?

What do the changes tell you about how your consciousness has shifted during this program?

SUMMARY

This teaching is about letting go of what is outside of you and trusting what is inside.

You are beginning to release the patterns of isolation and separation within you.

You are moving into your heart, accepting and valuing who you are as you move on to the pathway of the unknown.

As you continue to do the mirror exercise, you will begin to enjoy who you see reflected there, as opposed to judging and shaming yourself.

You will look in the mirror one day and say:

“I like this person. There must be something to this process!”