The Brainwashing of Self-Sabotage

Since you were a toddler you have faced overwhelming forces determined to brainwash you, hold you down, destroy your self-esteem, manipulate you into buying shit you don’t need, consuming toxic substances, going into debt, blowing up your relationships, and basically becoming a worker drone in the collective. You were unknowingly brainwashed by these forces and programed with numerous negative, dysfunctional, and harmful beliefs.  And once you accepted those beliefs as your own (unknowingly), you’ve probably been practicing behavior that is still today, self-sabotaging the results you say you want. 

We all have developed core foundational beliefs about the world around us and how we fit into it.  The most important core beliefs in terms of the self-esteem you develop and how happy and successful you ultimately become, can be quantified in the following six categories:

• Money/Success
• Marriage/Relationships
• Sex/Sexuality
• God/Religion
• Health/Wellness
• Career/Work

Here’s a frightening, startling and cogent fact: your default setting on most or all of these beliefs was set before you were ten years old.  Really. 

You may think it’s farfetched to think that beliefs you developed in these six areas – as a child – are dramatically impacting your relationships, prosperity and happiness decades later.  But that reality is pretty much a given.  You could be sabotaging your marriage, getting passed up for a promotion, or have $60,000 worth of credit card debt right now – because of programming you received at six, seven or eight years old.  Really.

Let’s break down what this actually looks like…

• Did your parents affirm things like “money doesn’t grow on trees” and “we can’t afford that?”  You probably had jealous feelings (or even hate) of wealthy people before you were ten.
• Did one of your parents cheat on the other, or did they argue all of the time as you were growing up?  You crystalized core beliefs about marriage and romantic relationships before you ever experienced your first one.
• Was sex a taboo subject in your home growing up?  Were you taught “conventional” beliefs like boys play with trucks and become doctors and girls play with dolls and become nurses?  You were a mess of hang-ups and dysfunctional sexual beliefs before you even reached puberty.
• Did the nuns in your Sunday School rap your knuckles with a ruler and teach you that you were born a sorry sinner?  Your core beliefs about god and religion were pretty much set by the time you were six.
• As a child, was 90 percent of the food in your pantry manufactured substances like breakfast cereals, frozen entrees, and pastas with an expiration date a couple years into the future?  Did the role models in your life carry an extra five pounds for every decade older they were?  Did your grandparents (or even parents) have ten different prescriptions they took daily?  If so, you developed some very limiting beliefs about health and wellness before you were a teenager.
• Were you taught that work was something to be endured for eight hours a day, and then you live your life after? Or that working for a big company or becoming a union member would provide financial security for your family?  Either way, you bought into a lie.

Now do you believe you might have been brainwashed to self-sabotage yourself?  Please share your thoughts below.  And I’ll explore the subject deeper in the next post.

Peace,

- RG