Feel It Till You Live It
“When you change your thoughts and feelings on a cellular level, you literally change your reality.” — Dr. Joe Dispenza.
We’ve all heard the age-old advice: “Fake it till you make it.” Project confidence, even if you don’t feel it, and success will follow. But what if there’s a more assertive approach? What if the key to unlocking your full potential is feigning confidence by genuinely feeling it? I wish to introduce the concept of “Feel it till you live it,” a philosophy that emphasizes the power of embodied belief. You can tap into a potent force that shapes your experiences by aligning your emotions and actions with your desired reality. This is not about pretending but empowering yourself to create your desired reality. We’ll explore how this works, the science behind it, and practical techniques to cultivate genuine confidence, not just a performance. Get ready to ditch the facade and embrace a life fueled by authentic belief. This is your journey to empowerment.
Desiring something doesn’t guarantee it will manifest in our lives. I’m not proclaiming anything new; however, sometimes, we get stuck on this idea because our desires are strong, and we are adamant that they should show up. Is this something you’ve experienced? How did you cope with the disappointment of your desire not manifesting as anticipated? Our limiting beliefs get in the way and block our desires from becoming visible. Recognizing our limiting beliefs is challenging because they are hidden from view until they manifest in our reality. Expressed differently, our current reality is a projection of our past thoughts and beliefs. Everything you see in your world now can be compared to an old sitcom playing reruns until you upgrade your thoughts to align with your new reality. While The Law of Attraction has gathered much attention, it can be misleading because of its assumptions. What it doesn’t take into account, particularly for those new to the idea, is that your beliefs and subconscious programming override your desires. Your subconscious programs have been playing out most of your life and have a powerful way of shaping your reality.
This is where the concept of embodied belief and its connection to our emotions is vital in shaping the reality we wish to create. An embodied belief is a conviction that’s not just intellectual but integrated throughout your entire being – mind, body, and emotions. It’s the difference between simply knowing something and truly living it. It’s an inner knowing beyond reasonable doubt that your desires, whether for better health, improved finances, better relationships, or a career, will come about despite physical evidence. Some might dismiss these ideas as New Age mumbo-jumbo. However, these principles are not new and were first taught in the early 1900s. Many New Thought authors, including Florence Scovel Shinn and Neville Goddard, wrote about these principles well before The Secret movie popularized it. They taught the idea of embodying your new reality at the emotional level, which imprints it into your subconscious mind, thus shaping your reality. Some theories suggest that by integrating our thoughts, emotions, and actions (embodied experience), we can potentially influence our subconscious to a greater degree.
The Science Behind Embodied Belief
“The subconscious mind is a million times more powerful than the conscious mind. And it’s the subconscious mind that controls our biology.” — Dr. Bruce Lipton.
Our beliefs have a surprising influence on our physiology and behavior. The mind-body connection is a powerful force that can be harnessed to improve our well-being and achieve our goals. Here’s a breakdown of how it works, along with some fascinating research:
1. Placebo Effect:
Our minds are influential. Believing a sugar pill is medicine can trigger fundamental changes in the body, such as reduced pain or a better mood. This shows that expectations can influence our biology.
2. Positive Thinking Pays Off:
Believing you can succeed is a powerful motivator. Studies show that people who write positive affirmations about their goals, such as weight loss, achieve better results. Therefore, positive beliefs fuel our actions.
3. Unconscious Bias is Real:
Hidden beliefs can influence our behavior. Even if we consciously believe in equality, unconscious biases can lead to discriminatory actions, as shown by tests measuring these biases.
4. Beliefs Change Your Brain:
Experiences and beliefs can turn genes on or off (epigenetics). Meditation, which involves cultivating calmness, can change gene activity linked to stress management. Therefore, our beliefs can impact our brain function and health.
5. Body Language Talks Back:
How we hold ourselves can influence our hormones. Power poses can increase testosterone (confidence) and decrease cortisol (stress), even if faked. There’s a two-way connection between our beliefs, body language, and physiology.
So, what does this mean in the context of living your desires and embodying them at the mind-body level? By aligning your emotions with your desires, you signal to your mind and body that your future reality is already present. Authors such as Dr. Joe Dispenza and Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., have studied and written extensively about these principles.
This section explores how they approach the concept of embodied beliefs.
1. Focus:
- Dr. Dispenza emphasizes the power of conscious thought and its ability to influence neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to reorganize itself.
- In contrast, Bruce Lipton delves deeper, focusing on how embodied beliefs impact gene expression at the cellular level.
2. Method:
- Dr. Dispenza advocates for meditation, visualization, and actively changing thoughts and actions to reshape embodied beliefs.
- Lipton suggests aligning emotions and the subconscious mind to influence embodied beliefs.
3. Key Takeaway:
- Dr. Dispenza argues that embodied beliefs can rewire neural networks in the brain.
- Lipton suggests that embodied beliefs can influence the cellular environment, potentially impacting gene expression.
So, while the principle of “fake it until you make it” has some merit, it requires deeper exploration, as the title suggests: “Feel it until you live it.” Through practices such as visualization, affirmations, and genuinely feeling your desired outcome, you become unified with your desires at a deeper level. It becomes an embodied experience whereby your mind and body become one with your desires. It is the concept of “acting as if,” not to fake confidence but to embody the feeling of achieving your goal or desired state. Olympic athletes know this concept well through mental rehearsal, whereby they psychologically prepare for an Olympic event months or years before race day. They mentally rehearse the scene of achieving their goal, summoning faculties such as sight, sound, and touch, and live it in their mind and body as if the event were real.
It’s important to note that feeling is not passive; we don’t just summon powerful feelings without taking action. We should take inspired action and align our behavior with what we intend to create in our reality. This is one of the misconceptions of The Law of Attraction, where people believe that focusing on their desires without action is sufficient to manifest them. We take inspired action alongside cultivating the desired emotions to increase our chances of shaping the reality we intend to create. To take this idea further, some believe creation is already finished within spiritual or philosophical frameworks, and we exist within a simulated environment with various dimensions or realities. Based on this idea, as you’re reading the words on the screen, you are living in one reality with multiple realities coexisting simultaneously beyond your awareness. Shifting from one reality to another requires aligning your thoughts and actions with the future you wish to live.
Practices For Embodying Your Beliefs
“You can create a wonderful life for yourself if you just make up your mind to do it. Start by changing the way you talk to yourself.” — Louise Hay.
Here are some practices for embodying beliefs:
1. Identify Your Limiting Beliefs:
This is the first step to becoming aware of your negative thoughts or beliefs holding you back. For example, “I’m not good enough” or “I don’t deserve success.” By acknowledging these limiting beliefs, you challenge and replace them with more empowering thoughts.
2. Visualization with Feeling:
Visualization is a powerful tool for embodying beliefs. Instead of imagining your desired outcome, focus on summoning powerful emotions into the visualization. For instance, feel the joy of achieving your goal, the confidence that radiates from within you. The more vivid and emotional your visualization, the more deeply it becomes ingrained in your mind and body.
3. Gratitude as a Stepping Stone:
Gratitude is a powerful emotion that can help shift your focus to positive aspects of your life. By practicing gratitude for what you already have, you become receptive to attracting more of what you desire. Consider gratitude a stepping stone to embodying your belief to achieve your goals.
4. Body Language and Affirmations:
Body language and self-talk can influence your beliefs. You may wish to experiment with practices such as standing tall, making eye contact, and using positive affirmations to influence your subconscious mind. Author Amy Cuddy elaborates on these concepts in her book Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges. She states that it is possible to imagine a confident version of yourself and mirror your body language to correspond. Repeating positive affirmations throughout the day reinforces your new belief and helps you embody it in your actions and posture.
So, ignore the message of “fake it till you make it.” There’s a more profound power in feeling it till you live it. Embodied belief is about aligning your emotions and actions with your desired reality. It’s not just thinking about it; it’s feeling the success. The Law of Attraction focuses on desires, but embodied belief bridges the gap. By cultivating emotions that resonate with your goals, you signal to your mind and body that this future is already here. Science backs this up: positive beliefs can change your brain and hormones. Practices like visualization with feelings and affirmations further solidify these beliefs. But remember, the feeling is not passive. Take inspired action to create a powerful synergy between your thoughts, emotions, and actions. Some even suggest we exist in a simulation with multiple realities. Shifting realities involves aligning yourself with your desired life. Feeling it to live means embodying your future. It’s acting “as if” you’ve already achieved your goals, experiencing the emotions of success. This rewires your subconscious and shapes your reality. So, ditch the facade, embrace the feeling, and unlock your full potential.
