One of the most revealing things I have learned over the years is the fact that the beliefs I hold, both conscious and sub-conscious, keep playing out in my daily life. It took me a while to accept that I am the one who keeps re-creating the same things over and over again in my relationships.

Beliefs act like filters that create my view of the world - they filter in information to support my viewpoint, and equally, they also filter out any information that does not support my viewpoint. It renders me incapable of seeing the situation from a different point of view. So, if I have taken on beliefs in my past such as - 'I am not worthy of love', or 'love is painful',or 'I can't trust people', etc., then those beliefs are constantly working for me to ensure that they are fulfilled - that is, I get the proof that they are true. This happens in spite of the fact that at a rational level I tell myself I want a loving relationship. And, in that sense, I keep recreating the past in the present. We all work the same way.

Because we are not taught how to handle these old programs (beliefs) we end up working against ourselves. For example, I say to myself - "I want to have a fulfilling relationship", but what I get never lives up to that desire. An internal battle erupts about which we typically have no awareness because we are so disconnected from and unaware of these deeply held beliefs about ourselves. We think we have safely tucked them away never to be revealed to the world. The irony is that they show up everywhere - if only we trusted ourselves enough to take a look at them and in so doing, setting them free.