Impress Yourself, or Else (free gift inside)
The Self Image Starter Kit
“You’re a loser. A failure. You’re nowhere near where you should be at this point in your life.”
“No one likes you. What’s there to like!?”
“All this ‘work’ you’ve done & what do you have to show for it? It’s pathetic.”
“You should just quit. Give up, you’re clearly not meant to be anything.”
& it was in a brief moment of conscious interruption that I realized two things —
I was using other people’s voices to express my own hidden insecurities, &
That my identity/self image was the real culprit (and needed to shift, stat)
No one was saying these things to me. But there I was using people & experiences from my past to project this image of myself into the present. There I was mentally spiraling over who (I imagined) saw me this way today when it was my own validation I was seeking, always.
Of course I felt stuck! No wonder the change wasn’t giving what it was supposed to gave! Even after all the therapizing, journaling & introspecting, life coaching, book reading, psychic readings, energy healing…
Luckily for me, last year, the environment I had this epiphany in, was the year of The Chariot/The Tower & was a 7 Yr — calling us to go within & deconstruct anything that might be standing in the way of us moving forward into the next chapter of life.
It was the prime time for unearthing the stubborn forces & forms (structures) that need to move so we can get out of our own way, and actualize the kind of change most desired over the next 2-3 years (ending of the 9 year Numerology Cycle & beginning of a new one).
This year, insight into how one might do this began to crystalize as I found myself connecting the dots between the countless lectures on Self Image and Paradigm Shifts I’d previously consumed, and contemplating the energetic environment we’re currently, collectively, in for 2024.
Let’s get into it…
WHAT IS SELF IMAGE & HOW DOES IT IMPACT YOUR LIFE (WHY IT MATTERS)?
Your Self Image can be defined as a set of ideas you hold about (within) yourself that inform, influence & inspire the way you think, how you behave, what you engage with, and how you interpret the results of those things. It shapes your perspective on everything that happens in your life, affecting how you choose to respond to both setbacks & successes.
You’ve probably heard the spiritual adage that you already have everything within you to achieve the life of your dreams.
Yet, having & experiencing are two different things.
There’s a difference between making changes in your life because you love, respect, and accept yourself & know you deserve to experience more/better because of that, vs. feeling like you need to change who you are out of self-hate, self loathing, or not-enough-ness.
“A change of fortune is a new direction and outlook, merely a change in arrangement of the same mind substance - consciousness. If you would change your life, you must begin at the very source with your own basic concept of self.”
- Neville Goddard
Your Self Concept holds the key that unlocks all of your power & your ability to experience that which you truly already are.
It defines what you believe you’re capable of, therefore controlling the things you allow yourself to go after (your dreams & desires), sets boundaries for the situations and people you allow into your life & permit to take up space in your mind, and determines the energy you show up with when approaching your life (whether the scenario be pleasant or dire, are you showing up as an undefeated winner or a loser without a chance?)
It affects how much money you make & ask for (and whether you feel deserving of it or not), how you respond when someone pays you a compliment or whether or not you allow an insult to cause injury, sets the stage for the way you dress and take care of yourself, the way you talk, and the patterns you think in on autopilot.
It’s the main force behind cultivating a life that’s impressive to you, and not going after the life other people/systems want for you…
HOW IS IT FORMED (& DEFORMED) OVER TIME?
From the ages of 0-7, our tiny but mighty brains are in Theta mode (a state of hypnosis). We’re basically a living, breathing, drooling Subconscious Mind, open to suggestion and, like a sponge, absorbing everything we take in from our physical environment through the 5 senses.
I suspect that when people say we only use about 10% of our brains, they’re referring to the divide between the Conscious & Subconscious.
The important thing to remember is the Conscious Mind is the Intelligent Mind, whilst the Subconscious is the Emotional Mind.
Since the Subconscious Mind has no power to reject information, the stories we internalize from the people around us and the world at large begin to shape & mold our paradigms (the way you see yourself & the world around you). Because this part of our consciousness is influenced by strong emotion (something kids can be great at), it leaves a mark!
That’s what makes kids so “impressionable”.
& If you wanna get real meta with it, the study of epigenetics & systems like Human Design & The Gene Keys tell us that a good portion of our programming is encoded before we’re even born! Yep, while we’re getting all comfy in the womb, the “generational curses” and ancestral gifts (!) we’re designed to enact, experience & exorcise in this lifetime are taking form in what would otherwise be a blank slate if not for DNA & the impact of the environment our birthing parent is in the entire time we’re growing towards birth.
Even outside of those impressionable ages, though, you’re still being conditioned & programmed all throughout your life (literally everyday), except now your Conscious Mind has come online & has the power to accept or reject.
But since your image has already been formed in childhood, since the Subconscious is the one that’s really running the show (the other 90% we’re not using), or because you haven’t actually learned how to use your mind properly, most of us continue through life (unconsciously) accepting information about ourselves, our world, and who & what we have to be in order to survive (the brain’s primal focus & function) that often does more harm than good.
So, the system is as such: we (either)
use our Conscious Mind to passively feed our Subconscious Mind with information from the external world (perpetuating the past since everything in your physical reality is the result of a previous thought, belief, or behavioral pattern held by yourself or the Collective Unconscious), or
use our Conscious Mind to actively imagine an ideal reality & identity that gets implanted into our mind’s heart (the Subconscious), effectively turning the unknown into the known
"And the Lord had respect unto Abel and in his offerings; But unto Cain and to his offering he had no respect." - Genesis 4:4, 5
Cain and Abel, as the grandchildren of the Lord, can be only personifications of two distinct functions of your own consciousness. The author is really concerned to show the "Two Contrary States of the Human Soul", and he has used two brothers to show these states. The two brothers represent two distinct outlooks on the world possessed by everyone. One is the limited perception of the senses, and the other is an imaginative view of the world.
Cain - the first view - is a passive surrender to appearances and an acceptance of life on the basis of the world without: a view which inevitably leads to unsatisfied longing or a contentment with disillusion.
Abel - the second view - is a vision of fulfilled desire, lifting man above the evidence of the senses to that state of relief where he no longer pines with desire. Ignorance of the second view is a soul on fire. Knowledge of the second view is the wing whereby it flies to the Heaven of fulfilled desire.
Cain offers the evidence of the senses which consciousness, the Lord, rejects, because acceptance of this gift as a mold of the future would mean the fixation and perpetuation of the present state forever.
The Lord, or consciousness, has no respect for such passive use of imagination - which is the gift of Cain. He delights in the gift of Abel, the active, voluntary, loving exercise of the imagination on behalf of man for himself and others.
- Neville Goddard, (emphasis my own)
Either way, the Subconscious controls & influences what we do with our physical bodies, the results we get & how we perceive our physical reality, which then restarts the feedback loop and gives us something else to respond to/internalize/reject or change.
“Inasmuch as your assumption is creative and forms an atmosphere, your assumption, if it be a noble one, increases your assurance and helps you to reach a higher level of being. If, on the other hand, your assumption be an unlovely one, it hinders you and makes your downward way swifter.”
- Neville Goddard
Now, whether or not you had stellar examples of how to be a high value human from birth wasn’t up to you (at least not the human you - your Soul might’ve chosen the perfect conditions for executing its purpose before agreeing to incarnate, if you’re of that mind ;) ).
Whether your mom/birthing parent was living la vida loca or living in a literal hell for 40ish weeks wasn’t up to you (and maybe not even consciously up to them)…
Whether you were bullied by boos & besties (or rando bullies) alike or if people, to this day, kiss the ground you walk on…
Or whether you internalized images of what beauty, success, and happiness looked like & learned how to talk to yourself from genuinely loving, trustworthy, & wise sources or a healthy society or not…
None of these factors takes away from the fact/my personal belief that we were created in the IMAGE of God = containing the supreme power to create & influence reality.
I believe in innate perfection and inherited dysfunction, and that it is therefore our divine birthright to refuse the constraints & illusions of existential conditioning & reclaim the experience of our true essence…
HOW IS IT (CONSCIOUSLY) CHANGED?
After working on a number of patients and observing the success of their transformations, Maxwell Maltz, the late cosmetic surgeon who wrote the legendary “Psycho-Cybernetics”, noticed that the difference between the patients who left his table feeling like a brand new version of themselves, and those that left feeling the same way they did when they came in to him, was whether or not their self image shifted with the changes. He saw that physical modifications that were also accompanied by a positive internal shift in identity resulted in people that felt they’d been given a new lease on life, while those that expected the procedure to change how they saw themselves automatically did not, leading him to determine that a person has both an internal self image + an external one.
Luckily for us, going under the knife or needle isn’t at all necessary to experience the benefits of a new self image (though, to be clear, if that’s also a part of your transformation plan, do you, boo).
Psycho-Cybernetics is a term coined by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, which means, “steering your mind to a productive, useful goal so you can reach the greatest port in the world, peace of mind.”
- Amazon
The main thing that separates us from the rest of the Animal Kingdom (who also use the 5 physical senses), according to Bob Proctor, are the 6 Higher Mental Faculties that only we as Humans are lucky enough to have access to:
Imagination
Intuition
Reason
Will
Memory
Perception
It’s the correct understanding and application of these mental faculties that has the power to transform your self image & therefore your life.
We can use these powers to either reinforce or reinvent our realities.
“If you change your concept of yourself, the events ahead of you in time are altered, but, thus altered, they form again a deterministic sequence starting from the moment of this changed concept. You are a being with powers of intervention, which enable you, by a change of consciousness, to alter the course of observed events - in fact, to change your future.”
“Let man disregard appearances and declare himself to be the man he wants to be. Let him imagine beauty where his senses reveal ashes, joy where they testify to mourning, riches where they bear witness to poverty. Only by such active, voluntary use of imagination can man be lifted up and Eden restored.”
“Deny the evidence of the senses, and assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled”
- Neville Goddard
Above Screenshots from the Proctor Gallagher Institute on Youtube: How To Improve And Build Your Self Image In 2023
At its core, the process of cultivating a new self image that sticks involves:
Recognizing that your Subconscious Mind is the one in control of your Paradigm (which determines your vibration → actions → results)
Using your Conscious Mind to dream up & hold the vision of a new image & concept of self
Impressing that image onto the Subconscious mind by speaking its language (emotion & symbolism)
Doing so with consistency & repetition until you have proof of the shift in Paradigm (your Subconscious Mind’s acceptance of & assimilation to the new you, evidenced by your new vibration, behavior, & reality)
This being the year of Strength & The Star, an 8 Year Numerologically, the Universe is more supportive of this work than ever. The energetic environment we currently find ourselves in illustrates the process perfectly.
We will overcome our old paradigms & adopt more empowering (8) self images by dreaming up in our mind our heart's true desires & overpowering the past through consistently impressing the new vision & image onto our subconscious.
The infinity symbol of the Strength card - the art of repetition, connecting to one’s eternal essence, using feedback loops & patterns to our benefit
The woman & the lion - overcoming the "beast"/ego (baser instincts) through love, compassion & soft power (rather than brute force), reclaiming nobility & revealing an existence that’s unencumbered by toxic conditioning (transcending both Nature/DNA & Nurture/programming) through Self Mastery
Old paradigms (the lion) are strong as hell bc they've been developed from birth & the literal formational years of our lives. Yet the simple act of creating a new paradigm through new beliefs/ideas & actions/habits that reinforce the ideal (Star card) has the power to eradicate/expel/exorcise/exonerate the old bc it's no longer getting its time in the sun, it dies of malnutrition
The Star card stresses the use & importance of imagination & Divine Cooperation (making a wish & believing in miracles, “shooting for the stars” & trusting the Universe to support you), integration & harmony (harmony between inner parts, integration of the shadow & true self; symbolized by her bringing two bodies of water together/pouring into them simultaneously), & choosing hopefulness over helplessness (coming after the fall of The Tower card, being willing to pick oneself up & begin again)
The Star calls for concerted self focus & self centeredness (like a true “Primadonna”, grounded in the essence of one’s Higher Self), the rehearsal of a chosen role (like a superstar actress would), & re-membering the true Self as One with the cosmos, a divine creation designed with a distinct vibration, a heavenly body plugged into the source of infinite intelligence (stardust).
SATURATION in the Age of Aquarius (Lord of the Star card, ruled by Saturn/Uranus) - what we consistently feed our minds (Air sign) prevails over what our eyes can see & the body can sense.
My 6 Step Process of Self Impression + Self Empowerment:
Interrupt your programming + Implement a new world order
“The ideal is always waiting to be incarnated, but unless we ourselves offer the ideal to the Lord, our consciousness, by assuming that we are already that which we seek to embody, it is incapable of birth. The Lord needs his daily lamb of faith to mold the world in harmony with our dreams.”
- Neville Goddard
INVESTIGATION: Taking an inventory of your current self image. Investigate every area of your life, looking to your current results, & trace it back to the simplest form of self concept: your actions → the thoughts & beliefs that inspired those actions → the image you hold of yourself that caused those thoughts & beliefs. Without judgement or condemnation, see how the way you’ve grown to view & feel about yourself is related to the way you show up in different areas of your life & affects how you automatically perceive things, and take responsibility for how that vibration anchors you into your current reality.
IMAGINATION: Defining who you most desire to be & the life you’d rather be living instead. How would you love to see yourself moving forward? Abandoning all ideas of the “small self” & constructs of the past, who do you believe yourself to be on a Soul & Spirit level? Who & what is beneath the labels you’ve adopted since birth? How does this person live their life inside & out? What is their essence? Describe your true self in detail & see the bigger picture of why you incarnated to begin with (visualize your vibration).
ICONOCLASM: Determining which aspects of your current self aren’t even you or are no longer helpful & need to be deleted from your operational program. Whose eyes are you seeing yourself from? Whose opinion have you made your God? What baggage or what flaws have been projected onto you by people that never truly saw you? Most importantly, which ones are you still holding onto/choosing today to identify with (whether consciously or unconsciously)? Free yourself from them by deciding they’re no longer a part of your story. Thank them for their services as you show them the way out.
INTEGRATION + INCANTATION: Checking for Inner Congruence/Conflict between your Inner Identities/Parts (the Internal Family System may be helpful in this). Decide which qualities of your true nature have been hidden to your detriment & need to come forward in order to move through the world with integrity and a sense of wholeness. Establish your new Energetic Signature by declaring who & what this new/true version of you is (verbalize your vibration).
INITIATIVE: Devoting all your Time, Energy, & Attention (consciousness) towards impressing the new image onto your Subconscious mind through acts of embodiment (habits, behaviors, dress & environment, work & creative projects, etc…). Now that you’ve done the Inner Work, it’s vital you take advantage of the feedback loop our minds are naturally programmed within, and start using the external world to signal to your Subconscious Mind that the shift you’ve made in your Paradigm is real.
INSISTENCE: Finding a way to retrain your mind everyday, holding yourself accountable to actually be who you say you are, & working BTS to eliminate remnants of the old you as they come up. Repetition breeds learning (impression). Revisit your imagination + incantation (verbal + visual representations of your chosen Self Concept). Over time, by law, the new & true will replace the old & overdue, and you’ll be able to redirect your Consciousness towards bigger & better things as signs of the old you relinquish their hold on your Subconscious.
MY GIFT TO YOU: THE SELF IMAGE STARTER KIT
I’ve turned this 6 step process into a workbook where you’ll use the gifts of each of the Inner Archetypes to craft a new self image. The 55 pg workbook is divided into 4 sections ft 11 exercises + a 30 day challenge ft 1 simple daily practice. Also included are the 6 higher mental faculties & 8 pillars of soft power.
