Releasing My Childhood Beliefs

    “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” -George Bernard Shaw

There comes a point in everyone’s life where they question who they are and what they believe in. It often happens when you’re in your early twenties and still trying to figure out who you are as a person. 

When I was nineteen years old, I thought I already knew who I was and what I believed in. A lot of life happened to me as a teenager and I thought I had it all figured out. Wow, was I sorely wrong. I would express my beliefs to others and receive a different perspective or mindset on the issue we were discussing and I would often question myself why I believed in issues of the world the way I did. Where did my beliefs come from? Why do I believe this way? I came to the conclusion that it had everything to do with the way I was raised and what I was taught by my parents, teachers, and family. I was a product of my environment, and my beliefs were solely based on the way I was raised. But then I began to wonder, ‘am I going to accept that I am a product of my environment and that’s just the way it is?’ And I knew in my heart that was something I could never settle with.

I began to educate myself on the Justice system, climate change, education, and who’s involved in our government and I continue to research all of the above to this day. I separated myself from the beliefs that were engraved in me and looked at the research with an open mind. There were a lot of things going on in the world that I wasn’t aware of, or that I was taught wasn’t true. Many of these issues have a lot of hidden truth behind them because the media doesn’t publish everything, and it’s a hard pill to swallow for a lot of us, especially those that look away from the truth and act like it isn’t there. 

It eventually became my duty to shed all of the beliefs, traumas, religion, and other things that were taught to me when I was a young child, and to become my own person with my own beliefs. I still to this day have a hard time learning about different religions or going out and drinking, smoking, or being okay with my sexuality without thinking it’s a sin because of how I was conditioned to believe as a child.

Today I am still learning who I am, and I am always keeping my mind open to things that I’m not educated about. I may struggle with my past traumas and past beliefs, but I am blessed to be able to have an open mind and recognize that I can learn and change my beliefs. I still have a lot of growing to do and I’m happy with the person I’ve become since I was nineteen years old. I learned to love myself, I came to terms with my sexuality, I’m educating myself on different world issues, and I’m growing more and more every single day. My advice to anyone and everyone that has ever said, or still says, “well that’s just the way I was raised, so that’s how I believe”, if you are an adult, you have made that decision for yourself. It no longer stems back to the way you were raised, it stems back to you. You still have the chance to grow, educate yourself, and create your own beliefs. Never put yourself in a box in a world full of endless possibilities.

“Your past doesn’t define you, your present does. It’s okay to create a vision of the future because it affects your behavior in the “now,” but don’t dwell on past mistakes. Learn from them and focus those lessons in the moment. That’s where change can really happen.” -Jillian Michaels 

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