Belief Deconstruction

So, today I am going to do an exercise for myself in belief deconstruction. This is an exercise I learned at a Seth workshop a number of years ago, and have felt the need to try it out.

The point of belief deconstruction is to work back from a feeling to the core beliefs that provide the issue you are working on so much energy. In that way, by isolating the belief, you can accept you have the belief and then change it because it no longer has hold over you.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, I am going to deal with the feeling I have of being fat. Now, to many I may not appear fat, but in my head I'm saying, "I feel fat, I feel full, etc.". So, regardless of how others see me, this is how I see me. Thus, the feeling: I feel fat.

From this feeling, I state linked emotions -- there may be several:

• Feeling fat makes me feel embarrassed.
• Feeling fat makes me feel lazy.
• Feeling fat makes me feel insufficient/incapable of doing what I want.

Now, the fun part -- finding belief statements that generate the emotion.

Feeling fat makes me feel embarrassed:
-- I believe other people will not like looking at me
-- I believe other people will not like being around me

Feeling fat makes me feel lazy.
-- I believe it's too hard to make the fat go away: requires exercise & diet
-- I believe I don't want to change my habits

Feeling fat makes me feel insufficient:
-- I believe I am too out of shape to do anything well
-- I believe I won't have enough energy or attention to do things

Obviously there's more beliefs, but this is a start. Next, I take those beliefs and ask why that belief is there:

I believe other people will not like looking at me:
-- I believe other people don't like looking at fat people

I believe other people will not like being around me:
-- I believe people are more interested in looks than brains

I believe it's too hard to make the fat go away: requires exercise & diet
-- I believe it requires too much effort to get into shape.

I believe I don't want to change my habits
-- I believe change is unknown and scary

I believe I am too out of shape to do anything well
-- I believe if I am out of shape, I will have an excuse not to do something well.

I believe I won't have enough energy or attention to do things:
-- I believe I don't have limitless energy and power, or adequate power to accomplish my goals.

Things are starting to become clearer: If I refine one more time, I might have some interesting core beliefs to work with.

1. I believe I don't like looking at out-of-shape people.
2. I believe people are more interested in looks than brains.
3. I believe it requires too much effort to get into shape.
4. I believe change is unknown and scary.
5. I believe if I am out of shape, I will have an excuse not to do something well.
6. I believe I don't have adequate power to accomplish my goals.

So -- given this set of core beliefs, when I decide I want to get into shape (like now, during the holidays) I start feeling intense laziness and tiredness and lack of motivation.

Notice how some of these beliefs conflict with each other: "I believe I don't like looking at out of shape people" and "I believe it requires too much effort to get into shape." These two beliefs conflict with each other. The first expresses a desire to get into shape, the second expresses that my desire to get into shape is too difficult. Working on those two beliefs, they manifest as an emotion of frustration.

So the next step? I guess it's to realize that I chose to align with those beliefs and emotions. From there, I can choose other beliefs and emotions to accomplish my goals. This helps me clarify my goal, also. Remember -- I started with "I feel fat". Now, I realize that my goal is not the opposite of "I feel fat", such as "I feel skinny", but rather, "I feel fit, I feel energized". The original "I feel fat" emotions arrived from the conflict of beliefs. If I align my beliefs, then my emotions will be different.

To conclude, here's six different core beliefs to help align in a different way:

1. I believe I don't like being an out-of-shape person.
2. I believe people are interested in looks and brains.
3. I believe geting into shape is effortless.
4. I believe change is safe and easy.
5. I believe if I am in shape, I will have an excuse not to do something well. :)
6. I believe I have more than adequate power to accomplish my goals.

I could abstract these just a little further to make them true core beliefs:

1. I believe I am fit.
2. I believe I accomplish my goals effortlessly.
3. I believe I change safely and easily.
4. I believe I do all things well.
5. I believe I have limitless energy.

If you think about it, when you were a kid -- aren't these the beliefs you held??? What happened?

This has been an interesting exercise! I'll tackle another issue tomorrow!!