The moment the child emerges from the womb to take its first breath of fresh air, it begins to be bombarded with teachings and suggestions and commands from the people in its life. Not all of these teachings and suggestions and commands are hundred percent positive. Individuals – parents included – sharing the responsibility of rearing the child have their own skewed perspective of how the world is to be lived – and their beliefs and ideas and opinions and likes and dislikes get unconsciously projected onto the one personality that has the greatest capacity to assimilate them without any objection: the persona of the placid child lying peacefully in the cradle. Circumstances in the child’s life also reinforce these projections.

Unfortunately, while our conscious, wakeful alertness recognizes “good” thoughts versus *not* so good thoughts; the subconscious does not have this power of discrimination. It simply accepts and absorbs, sponge-like, anything and everything that comes its way. And, again unfortunately, it is the subconscious that drives our actions and therefore our destiny. It is the age-old principle in action: “What you think, so shall you become.”

The result? As you and I begin to grow up, along with height we also gain in beliefs that are self-limiting and emotions that are self-defeating. And as we lurch left and right towards our destinies, we keep wondering why things are not going on as well as we undoubtedly deserve them to be.

So, instead of beliefs such as:

- I am a genius
- I can create anything I want
- I can solve anything
- I know I am a genius
- I understand everything
- I can learn anything
- I am intelligent and improving!
- My intelligence is vast
- I can solve anything with ease
- My intellect is limitless

… we tend to harbor the following beliefs:

- I am a bumbling nincompoop
- Whatever I try to do, doesn’t work out
- I cannot solve anything; solutions are beyond me
- I know I am an average mediocrity
- I am unable to understand everything / anything
- I am incapable of learning anything
- I am not intelligent and going downhill every passing day!
- My intelligence is limited
- I cannot solve anything with ease
- My intellect has limitations

… and these beliefs become our reality.

Rising from the morass