“Religion is what you believe on purpose.”
—Brooke Castillo, The Life Coach School
For the past several months I’ve been training intensively in life coaching. It’s been quite a journey discovering just how relentless, wild, and powerful our THOUGHTS are.
Sometimes I love the notion that our thoughts create our reality and honestly, sometimes I hate it. Especially in those moments where I’m feeling completely shitty and the last thing I want to do is acknowledge that I’m feeling shitty because I’m choosing to feel shitty. I’m still working on this. Currently the time lag between the shitty feeling and the acknowledgement of my responsibility for shitty feeling ranges from several minutes to several days. It kinda depends how pissed off I am. Yup yup. There is much work to do.
In this post I’d like to share one of my favorite coaching worksheets: “New Religion.” That title right there is killer, isn’t it? The idea is that a person’s religion is a powerful set of thoughts he or she chooses to believe on purpose. Did you ever notice how passionate some people are about their religious beliefs? I think that is awesome, so long as those beliefs — a.k.a. the thoughts they are choosing to think over and over and over — are making them feel awesome + not harming others.
Creating your own “New Religion” allows you to passionately align yourself with a series of beliefs that make you think, feel, and act exactly how you want.
Sidenote: This is purely for FUN! If the idea of creating a “New Religion” for yourself makes you uncomfortable, just change up the words. “New Core Beliefs,” “New Mind Stream,” be creative!
We all have the freedom to choose what we want to believe in — to choose our “religion.” If you’re having some difficulty figuring out what you want to believe (the foundational thoughts you want to organize your life around), a great place to start is to decide how you want to FEEL. Then choose thoughts which will help you to feel those feelings.
Once you’ve outlined your shiny, beautiful, new “religion”, devote yourself wholeheartedly to finding evidence for your “religion” all around you.
BOTTOM LINE: Reinforce the beliefs that make you feel freakin’ amazing. Ditch the ones that don’t.
This is what I came up with as my “New Religion” when I did this worksheet a couple of months ago. It makes me feel…freakin’ amazing.
1. I believe that I can do anything in the world that I want to do. (Feeling: freedom.)
2. I believe our purpose in this world is to bring love to the places—within and without—where there is fear. (Feeling: motivated.)
3. I believe that I am the only person who can make me happy. (Feeling: empowered.)
4. I believe that women are powerful and are the key our planet’s future evolution of consciousness. (Feeling: hopeful.)
5. I believe that everyone is special and needs to know it. (Feeling: love, love, love!)
So, what’s your “religion”? I’d love to know. Feel free to share in the comments below.