The Power You Were Born With
It's All Within You! By Solomon • Issue #52 • View online
Have you ever experienced a challenge in your life, whether in business, health, or relationships, where you felt you just needed some thing or some person to help?
There have been pivotal moments in my life where I looked for something or someone outside myself, like a mentor or coach, when, in the words of Albert Einstein, “in the middle of the difficulty lie the opportunity” to reveal the confidence within myself. After some inner tension and nothing seeming to move toward receiving what I thought I needed, I learned to trust myself.
A similar approach applies toward breaking free of a habit that doesn’t serve you and replacing it with something empowering. In order to rewrite the program, a person must have the desire to change. Even with the assistance of a teacher or coach, they can open the door, “but only you can take the step through the door” (Chinese Proverb). In chapter 9 of Limitless, Jim Kwik writes about the importance of small, simple, steps to help develop a skill and/or accomplish a project. When it comes to breaking a habit there are 3 elements that a required:
The motivation - how strongly a person wants to stop/to change?
The ability - how established is the habit? Will they have the ability to change it?
The prompt or cue - what are the consequences of not breaking it?
The teacher or coach can educate the person (showing them the door) about the ability and getting started (the cue), but ultimately it’s up to the person to improve himself or herself i.e walk through the door.
This is an ability - to break through (un)natural tendencies - granted to man from the Creator. It is alluded to in the words of Jewish Sages that, “an oath administered to him [before birth, warning him] be righteous and do not be wicked” (Niddah 30b). In the hassidic discourse, Overcoming Folly, Rabbi Shalom Dov Ber, the 5th Lubavitcher Rebbe, writes that the word in Hebrew for oath (shevuah, שׁבוﬠה) is similar to the Hebrew word for satiety (sovah, שׂובﬠ). When man (referring to man and woman) is satiated, his body is full with the vigor to perform his purpose. “Hence,” the author, expresses the words from the Sages, “an oath administered to him,” can also be read to mean “he is satiated” by the power granted to him to overcome any limitation(s).“
It’s all within you and me - from birth! We each have the power to break free from habit and improve our character, our health, and our life. It starts with a motivation to change, a belief that it’s possible, and a realization that we have the power within us, granted to us.
“When you change a belief, writes Dr. Joe Dispenza in You are the Placebo, "you have to start by first accepting that it’s possible… You just have to make a decision that has finality. And once the amplitude or energy of that decision becomes greater than the hardwired programs in your brain and the emotional addiction in your body, then you are greater than your past, your body will respond to a new mind, and you can effect real change.”
Even when "a spirit of folly overcomes you” and you slip up, so to speak, returning to that old habit, if you made a firm commitment you will continue moving forward. As you may know, the learning curve is not a straight line but a line that goes up and down but ultimately moving over time in the positive direction. Cultivate compassion and be patient with yourself during moments of seeming regression. Another reminder in the words of William H. Murray:
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.
Whether you look at the oath administered to you or you reflect on the power making a firm commitment, as testified by various leaders in science and in personal growth, it is all a way to express that you have all you need [to succeed] within you!
All of the work one practices with health - physically, mentally, and spiritually - is not developing something that wasn’t there, but rather revealing what always was, the natural way of health; as Michael Neill writes, “We don’t create abundance. Abundance is always present. We create limitation.” The same applies with health and breaking through barriers and limitations. If we had to create it, it wouldn’t be synonymous with the powers bestowed upon us before birth.
What habit is holding you back from allowing the ever-present abundance to come through? Think about an important task or goal you’ve been putting off. How can you break it down into small simple steps you can do each day?
Make a firm decision to break a habit, learn that skill, cultivate health, or whatever it is for you, and commit to embracing your greatest expression of health and of life.
You’re well on your way to it :-)