Week Two Self-Study
Unlearning Who We Thought We Were: Investigating Belief Systems From our moment of birth, we have been groomed within a countless number of familial, social, cultural, religious, educational, and institutional paradigms that are not reflective of our true nature, which is love. We will often move through our lives completely unaware of the degree to which unconscious programming is running the show, and that so many of the behavioral patterns and belief systems that frame our reality are not actually “ours” at all. Unlearning who we thought we were to come home to a more nurturing, nourishing, authentic state of existence takes courage, curiosity, and a whole lot of compassion. One of the most important things to remember is to be gentle with ourselves as we are unlearning generations of collective logics that perpetuate harm by limiting each other’s humanity. While we want to be accountable to ourselves and others to do the work on ourselves, we can also do it gently, as an expression of love towards ourselves and others rather than as self-punishment for being “bad.”
Vocabulary:
Limiting Belief Systems Implicit Bias Microaggressions Patterns of Victimhood Disposability Politics Destination Vibration
Readings:
• “The Pain Body,” excerpt from Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth • “Grief, Trauma, and Intimacy,” excerpt from Sheri Mitchell’s Sacred Instructions • Excerpt from Ta-Nehesi Coates’s Between the World and Me