Who do you say you are? What story do you tell yourself about yourself? What thoughts do you think about you? How do you talk to you? What do you believe about you?

Something that helped me a ton was realizing that I am the voice in my head. You are the voice in your head. Now that voice has been influenced by all the people in our lives. Over the years we have listened to what other people have said then we have allowed the thing they said get rooted in our brains. Often, we hold onto and repeat an unhelpful, toxic, opinion someone said about us. When we do this, we are giving our power away and letting someone else determine our identity.

I used to think, I just think what I think, and my thoughts are true. Also, I thought I could not help what I was thinking. And it felt like my thoughts/reactions were automatic and I had no control. Once I realized that I was the one allowing the thought and ruminating on what my brain offered me, I began practicing awareness of my thoughts.

This intention of paying attention to my thoughts overtime made way for a pause in my reactions. As I practiced noticing my thoughts, I intentionally decided to let go of the ones that did not serve me, that were not helpful. I decided to tell myself a better, God’s Truth, story about myself. I decided to think good thoughts. I decided to be kind to me. I decided to encourage and validate me. I decided to practice self-compassion.

When my brain offered, “you are not good enough,” “you don’t measure up,” “look how much more she is doing,” “who are you to think you could do that,” “you messed up again,” “who could love someone who disappoints them all the time,” kind of thoughts, I intentionally told myself “I am a child of God, I am loved by The King, I am filled with the Holy Spirit, I am filled with grace and power.”

At first this was all I did, repeat these truths over and over again throughout the day, for weeks, months, a year. (Now I do not have to repeat it all the time because most of the time I believe and choose to live from a place of trust in God. Trust that God loves me. Trust that He is for me. Trust that He is working all things together for my good, even when I cannot see how, and it doesn’t make sense to me.)

Our identity/self-concept is our thoughts about ourselves. Who you believe you are becomes who you are. When I figured out that I could tell myself and believe whatever I wanted, I decide to believe what God says.

God say I am loved. I practice believing that He loves me regardless of my performance or regardless of if I ever change or reach some goal. He loves me as is. God says I am enough. He says I have worth and value because He made me. He says I am fearfully and wonderfully made. God says I am full of purpose. He says I am adored, resilient, strong, capable, kind, encouraging. He makes me a good steward. He helps me be a good student of life, a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend. He equips me to be a good leader. God accepts me. He is not surprised or turned off by my mistakes. He lovingly picks me up when I fall, dust me off, comforts me. The list could go on and on.

I decided to agree with God about what He says about me and practiced believing until I believed. I decided to root, ground, center myself in His Truth. I decided to believe in and rest in God’s love for me.

Instead of letting other people thoughts frame my self-concept I decided to let God’s thoughts frame my self-concept. This took intention and effort and time. This took a lot of forgiveness and grace, as I went back and forth between new and old, and still do.

We never get to the place where we eliminate our humanness. We grow in our capacity to embrace all of it.

We practice living into our true self from a place of love. We choose to live with awareness, vulnerability, openness, compassion, abundance, generosity, forgiveness, and joy. We notice when we slip into false-self tendencies of being defensive, self-conscious, judgement, resentful, envious, and miserable and we gently and kindly tend to ourselves and choose to renew our mind on Truth and return to true-self.

No one lives in true self all the time. We are human. As we live more into our full humanity, we do not beat ourselves up when we mess up or forget. We practice self-compassion. We do not make it mean anything bad when we slip into false self. We repent, turn around, and practice grace. As we do this for ourselves, it enables us to offer it to others as well.

We practice, and we get better as we practice!

Learning to live from God’s Truth about us, as our true self majority of the time, is life changing! Freedom is found when we live in God’s Truth! Life is much more enjoyable when we live in God’s Truth!

Keep practicing believing! And asking God to help you believe!

A mantra I repeat each morning is this… (I got it from Dr. Edie Wadsworth who says she got it from Louise Hay)  

I experience love wherever I go. I am surrounded by loving people and easily give love to others. 
I begin and end everyday with gratitude.
My heart is open and I am willing to experience anything God brings my way.
I am full of creative ideas for my life, my family, and my business.
My body is strong and I create abundant energy for myself by how I eat and move and rest.
I easily forgive myself and others and joyously accept God’s truth about my worth and value.
I am surrounded by love. All is well.
I show up with love and service for myself, my family, and all those I meet everyday.
I live and work from a place of sheer abundance. My heart and life are full and overflowing.