Our Life: Whose Values?

I like to think that I am the designer of my life. However, I have learned that most of my thoughts are programmed by my unconscious mind. I simply replay the same beliefs and values that my unconscious mind downloaded from events that occurred before the age of seven.

Of course, as Morty Lefgoe says, it is not the criticism or judgment by our friends, parents, or people in authority, that causes us to be afraid to take risks or to feel that we are not good enough. It is the interpretation we gave to these events. The events, by themselves, can be interpreted by other people in numerous ways. I told myself what they meant within the context of my own limited life experience. For example, if my parents were angry about something I did or did not do, that was equal in my mind to an absence of love and eventually abandonment.

These interpretations or meanings may prevent us from asking for what we need. For example: if the only attentio
I received was when my parents were angry, I may develop a great deal of anxiety when someone else gives me his/her full attention. The feelings of fear or anxiety are triggered unconsciously due to the meaning that we gave to early life events.

The more traumatic our early life events were, the more we need to de-program and redesign our life, if it is our choice to live consciously. This article is not intended to describe how we identify our deepest held values and beliefs. We just need to accept that we made our own decisions, with our limited resources, at that time.

We may have little or no awareness of the beliefs that we formed at such an early age. It is likely that we had no help to interpret our life events in ways that would have been more positive and enhance our self-image. But, we can change that.

You are the observer of your thoughts and the awareness of your feelings: the creator of your life. In the sense that we interpret the events in our life, we have designed our life. And, we can recreate it with help. Look for people, programs, films and books that touch your heart and speak to your soul.