By: Tomar Levine
I’m sure you aware of some things you want to change in your life, that your heart longs for. It is likely that these longings have been with you for quite a while, but you have not been able to achieve them – yet.

Now is the time to find out what has been stopping you, so that you can finally dissolve those blocks. Although objective real-life obstacles may sometimes exist, what usually holds us back are our inner obstacles  – our fears and negative beliefs. Some of them we hear in our self-talk, the things we tell ourselves. This self-talk can be very harsh – we may even call ourselves names at times. We often treat ourselves worse than we would treat anyone else. We also have habits of thought that seem very rational to us: the “yes-buts,” the logical, lawyerly objections that are hard to identify as limiting beliefs because we just think they’re true. And then there are fears and beliefs that are truly unconscious and which we may need help in detecting.

Repeating Questions

One excellent technique for exposing these buried beliefs is called a Repeating Question. I learned this method from my many years of study of the Diamond Approach of A.H. Almaas, a psycho-spiritual path of self-development and self-realization.

In a Repeating Question the same question is asked repeatedly, eliciting new answers each time. You can do it alone, asking yourself the question over and over and writing the answers by hand or at a keyboard, or speaking and recording them. Or you can have a friend ask you the questions, jotting down your answers.

In this case the question (or request) is “Tell me a reason why you can’t have [or be or do] ___________.”  You fill in the blanks to fit your personal vision of what it is you want but are not achieving. Answer quickly and spontaneously with whatever springs to mind, in a short sentence. Then ask and answer again, each time letting a fresh answer arise. Repeat the process until you run out of answers, but continue even after you think you’re through, giving yourself at least ten minutes for this exercise. You may be surprised by what is there.

After completing the first question, you might try a second one: “What’s right about not having __________?” Where the first question may expose feelings of inadequacy or fear of failure, the second is more likely to reveal indirect benefits of staying where you are, such as safety, not threatening people in your life, not taking on too much. Both sets of answers may sound totally reasonable to you.

Here are some fears that keep us from going after what we want. See if any of them ring a bell for you:

•  Fear of failure

•  Fear of success (yes, success!)

•  Fear of being judged or criticized

• Fear of not being good enough (or young enough, smart enough, accomplished enough… etc. ad infinitum)

•  Fear of rejection or loss of love

•  Fear of being alone or abandoned

•  Fear of embarrassment or humiliation

•  Fear of intimacy

•  Fear of emotional pain and suffering

•  Fear of loss or becoming homeless

•  Fear of the unknown

•  Fear of death

Some people believe that money and success are dangerous or tainted, that their success would threaten others, or that going after what they want is selfish and therefore bad.

Needless to say, these fears are rarely, if ever, based on reality. You will discover which ones come up for you. When you read over your answers, see if you can hear the source of your beliefs. Do you hear the voice of a parent, a teacher, your early religious teachings, or well-meaning friends?

A third question that may shed more light on this area is “Tell me a way you keep yourself from having _________.” With these answers you may surprise yourself by discovering ways that your ordinary behavior and everyday habits keep you from moving beyond your comfort zone, protect you from taking risks, or perpetuate self-defeating patterns.

To access all 8 Powerful Steps to Creating The Change You Want, download Tomar Levine’s Free Report at http://creatingchangereport.com/

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ght (c) 2009 Valery Satterwhite

“A poem is a naked person… Some people say that I am a poet.” – Bob Dylan

When you show up naked, vulnerable, authentic and open, you allow others to genuinely see who you are. You’ve heard the old adage, “Actions Speak Louder than Words”. It’s true. When you fully realize that what you do is the fullest expression of who you are, you are enlightened. You honor the integrity of you. What you do honors your authenticity. You live consistently with the highest realization of what you know to be true.

Is your life experience is a reflection of your deepest authenticity?

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.” – Shakespeare

When you live from a place of deep authenticity and let others to see your true self you a free. The proverbial chains of self-doubt and fear that hold you back from your fullest expression as a person, an artist, a creative spirit, are dissolved. You are free to create with abandon abundantly. Your inner most thoughts inspire you to fulfill your unlimited potentiality. You are energetically and enthusiastically engaged in each moment of your life. You feel good!

“No one man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.” – Hawthorne

Living an inauthentic life doesn’t feel good. My people cover themselves up with trappings of who they are not, or who they think they ‘shoul

“To contact the deeper truth of who we are, we must engage in some activity or practice that questions what we assume to be true about ourselves.” – A. H. Almaas

So, who are you? Who is this true self? Your true nature is the unconditioned part of the self that lies buried beneath the acquired traits, characteristics, and habitual patterns of your personality. It speaks through you as your Intuition, your Higher Self, or what I lovingly call the Wizard Within. The conditioned part of you, the “supposed to be, should be, unexpressed” part of you is the ego, the Inner Critic. Unlike the inspired Wizard Within, the Inner Critic is full of self-doubt and fear. These to parts of you are integral a physical being, a human. Both play a role.

The question is, which part of you is showing up in your life expression? You may be asking, “If both parts are integral to me as a human being, am I not both the Higher Self and the Inner Critic? And the answer is no, who you are is the Higher Self, a full expression of your truth and potential. As a human in physical form, you’ve created this misguided Inner Critic to keep you safe, hold you back from fear and pain.

And now you might be thinking, “I need to feel fear, pain, self-doubt in order to create my art. I won’t be the artist I am if I don’t have fear, pain and self-doubt.”

True. You can travel to the deepest depths of pain, fear and self-doubt, totally immerse yourself in those emotions to create your art without showing up in your life from that place. When you show up in the costume of pain, fear and self-doubt you are presenting yourself to the world inauthentically. You can remain authentic to your Higher Self and use the expressions of the Inner Critic as a tool rather than a way of being.

I invite you to explore the Inner Critic beliefs, expectations and vows that do not represent your truth. Try showing up naked in your life. Realize that when you fully connect with the Higher Self, the Wizard within, the one you’ve always known was there, you can create a profound meaningful relevant impact in your art and in your life experience.

“Be who you are and say what you feel. Those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

Valery Satterwhite is an Artist Mentor who specializes in empowering creative people to succeed in their craft and business. She teaches people in the visual and performing arts how to tap into and trust their intuition, acknowledge their truth, and disarm their fear and self-doubt. Valery spent years developing and implementing a proven unique “Inner Wizard” methodology to empower other creative people to create more profoundly, more prolifically, and more profitably at http://www.InnerWizard.com . Get Free “Artist Resource Directory” too!

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