When a situation arises sometimes a belief you never knew you had smacks you in the face. This often comes up in metaphysics. When someone is stalled in an area of their life, it’s usually due to some kind of energy block. Many methods of energy work can remove them, sometimes permanently, but if the block comes back, it’s often connected to an iron-clad belief that continues to assert itself. With a belief like that, your only choices are to get rid of it or learn to live with it. If it’s a block on your finances and you’ve got your own business, that might mean giving up your dream, but who is willing to do that?

How does one get rid of beliefs that are not in our best interest? The metaphysical world is full of ways to tackle that. One of my favorites is EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique). It’s tapping on certain parts of the body to trigger release. That is an oversimplification of the technique. I’m not trained in it and as much as I admire how fast it works for me, I have no desire to be trained in it as I have friends who are. If I need some insight on what might be my problem, I ask them.

The most important thing to know about beliefs is that we are capable of believing statements that contradict one another. Such as “I’m smart” and then believing at the same time, “I’m stupid.” That’s a simple example, but upon examining my beliefs the first few times, I kept coming across opposite statements. You would think that opposite statements would cancel one another out, but they don’t. Beliefs are triggered by circumstances. When one pops up, the other might not apply. They are both active at the same time, able to stop you from doing something you want to do at the least convenient time.

As we walk, shuffle, or stagger along the path to enlightenment, our greatest obstacle has been and will always be ourselves. The other thing about beliefs is that we could be carrying the beliefs of others as well. As our parents gave us their genetic code, often their beliefs came with it. I’m not talking about the belief that one should never wear white after Labor Day. I’m talking about the ones that hit core values such as money is evil, (fill-in-the-blank) kind of people are (insert-negative-adjective). These are beliefs that shape the way we think and how we act without us even being aware of it. Beliefs that can show themselves in unexpected moments to mess up something we’re trying to do. It can leave us shocked and bewildered at our own behavior, wondering why we did or said something.

Those beliefs can come from our family members, dead or alive. Yes, I said dead. When someone passes away, unless they are willing to let go of their grudges, hate, and fears, they can get stuck between this realm and their final destination. Usually, we wouldn’t think about that. We think that once someone is dead and gone that everything about them is gone as well. Not necessarily. From my perspective, as a shaman, they move through another area before arriving at their final destination. If, for whatever reason, they are not ready to step through the last doorway, they can get stuck.

When that happens, they are the same people in death that they were in life, keeping all their failings and foibles. Whatever beliefs they held in life, they continue to hold in death. While they are stuck, it anchors all of it in the world between worlds, and then it snakes its way through the family line to whoever is living. As long as the family line continues, those beliefs will be carried from generation to generation until that stuck ancestor steps through the doorway of light. Once the anchor is gone and the energy of the release of those beliefs is brought forward in time, the beliefs will be released from the living as well. It seems like a complicated process and it kind of is, but if done right, changes are swift and telling.

The point of all this is to get you thinking about what beliefs you hold about things that are important to you, such as money, love, family, relationships, success, etc. Think about something that matters to you and consider beliefs you might have about those things. You can use muscle testing to check what beliefs you have. Keep in mind that how you word things and what words you use sometimes matter so ask the same questions in different ways to make sure you have gotten to the heart of what the belief is.

The next step is to find out if it’s yours. You also have your own beliefs, and if it’s yours, you can use a little EFT or whatever technique works for you to replace it with something better. If it’s not yours, you’ll have some work to do, but it will be all worth it to get yourself free of the tangled web of beliefs.