Like all stories, the formation of your belief system has a beginning, middle and end; heroes, heroines, villains and bit-part players; a main theme and subplots.
You may not be able to remember the beginnings of your story, but here are a few ways to trace some of the early decisions that became part of it.
The following exercise will help you identify some of the early decisions you made about yourself and your life.
You can use a tape recorder for this exercise, or record your answers in your journal.
Give your responses to the questions fairly quickly.
Trust your first response even if you are not sure what it may mean.
- What is your earliest memory?
- Is there a family story about your birth?
- What is the story about how you were named?
- Describe your mother.
- Describe your father.
- Describe yourself.
- What did your mother want you to be?
- What did your father want you to be?
- What do you like most about yourself?
- Describe the good feeling that you most often have in your life.
- What could you do to make your mother angry?
- How did she express her anger? How did you respond?
- What could you do to make your father angry?
- How did he express his anger? How did you respond?
- What do you like least about yourself?
- Describe the negative feeling that you most often have in your life.
- What would be ‘heaven on earth’ for you?
- What do you wish your mother had done differently?
- What do you wish your father had done differently?
- If by magic you could change anything about yourself by just wishing, what would you wish for?
- What do you want most out of life?
- Do you think of yourself as a winner or a loser?
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