It’s time to begin refurnishing the rooms in your mind. Yes, you heard me correctly. It is possible, even after years and years of those rooms being cluttered with lies, distortions and anxiety-based fears, that you can decide to clear the rooms out and replace them with new furnishings and décor.

As I shared in my last Post, Part 1, the various rooms in your mind contain pictures that hang on the walls, pictures that you have hung that make significant statements, both positive and negative, and provide the memories that you have attached to each of them.

Unfortunately, many believe that they are ‘stuck’ with whatever the rooms are filled with, including old pictures of painful memories, or even newer ones that are hung to remind you not to venture out in life, or take new risks or develop new skills.

Some synonyms for refurnish are: remodel; recondition; refresh; renew; restore. Each of these words is based upon the activity of letting go of the old and replacing with new pictures that are more reflective of who you really are today.

The truth is that many, if not most, of the pictures that hang in the rooms in your mind were created and based upon lies about yourself that were either told to you by others or told to yourself during times of fear or anxiety.

Unless these old pictures are replaced through a ‘remodeling’ of your thinking, then the power of the old pictures, or thoughts, will continue to direct your life.

So, where do you begin with the process of refurnishing your mind?

Here are the first 2 steps in renewing and restoring your thinking:

1) Awareness – Become aware of the old pictures that are hung on the walls. It is so easy to walk by the furnishings in your actual home without stopping and looking around for what doesn’t fit or work anymore. The same is true with the thoughts in your mind. After years of thinking and believing that you are not enough, or that it is too scary to attempt to change, we accept those beliefs and live as if life is ‘just the way it is.’

Over the years, you have pushed down these painful and anxiety-provoking memories and ‘pictures’ in your mind until they run silently in the background of your thinking, like a computer program working 24-7 out of your awareness.

In order to refurnish your mind, begin by committing to creating awareness of what it is in your thinking that creates the obstacles to your creativity, effective performance or a joyful life. Seek out a Mentor, Coach, Therapist or any resource to join you as a partner in the initially scary process of identifying what pictures have to be cleaned out in order to renew your mind.

“The first reason for man’s inner slavery is his ignorance, and above all, his ignorance of himself. Without self-knowledge, without understanding the workings and function of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself, he will always remain a slave, the plaything of forces acting upon him. This is why in all ancient teachings the first demand at the beginning of the way to liberation was to “Know Thyself.” ~ George Gurdjieff

2) Acceptance – The 2^nd step in refurnishing your mind, after you become aware of how the old furnishings block you from achieving your current goals and dreams, is to begin to accept what you haven’t had up until now.

Accept that, as a result of painful events or toxic relationships growing up, you did not develop the self-confidence and self-worth necessary to take the risks and chances required for success. is the foundation of beginning to ‘let go’ of the old paintings that say “I am not enough…Life is too big for me to handle…It is better to play it safe and not go for the things I desire.”

Acceptance of what you needed emotionally and did not receive, and of who you have believed that you are, is the beginning of “Letting Go” in order to move forward in the remodeling of your mind. To refurnish, you must accept and let go of the old to make room for the new.

“I’m not what I ought (or was created) to be, but I’m not what I used to be, and by God’s grace, I’m not what I’m going to be!” ~ Josh McDowell

In my next post, Part 3, I will share 5 Action Steps on how to begin to ‘refurnish’ your rooms with new pictures in order to remove these negative and fear-inducing messages that have created roadblocks to the life you desire.

The post The Pictures That Hang in the Rooms of Your Mind (Part 2) first appeared on Dr. Nick Lazaris.