***Attitude: Are You Eating Lemons or Enjoying Lemonade?

Is your life full of lemons or lemonade?

Expressing your Inner Wizard is about seeing lemonade instead of lemons rather than making lemonade out of lemons. If you believe that your self, your environment and the world is made up of lemons then most of what you see will be - lemons! Your mind will be constantly on the look-out for lemons to prove your internal, unconscious, belief system – your Inner Critic - is RIGHT. The world is full of lemons and lemons are what you expect to get! If, however, your mindset is programmed to look out for lemonade then that's the lens through which you will view your selves, your environment and your world. This is the view of your Inner Wizard.

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." - Max Planck, Nobel Prize-winning physicist

Have you ever decided to buy a car? You've selected the exact make, model and color of the car you wish to purchase. Seemingly all of a sudden you start to see the same make, model and color of car everywhere. Until you selected that particular car you saw only a handful of them on the streets. Once you clearly identified what it is that you wanted your mind became programmed to look out for it and attract it. Just as you programmed your mind to look for a specific car, your mind is programmed on the belief system you adopted for yourself when you were very young.

Examples of 'lemon' Inner Critic beliefs include:

• I'm not smart enough.
• Rich people are jerks.
• I'm not worthy.
• The world is a dangerous place.
• Salespeople just want to rip you off.
• I'm a failure.

More often than not you're not even aware of these internal beliefs, yet they run your life! For example, if you listen to your Inner Critic and believe that rich people are jerks then you will never become, or stay, wealthy because you certainly don't want to be a jerk!

A simple belief about yourself guides a large part of your life and you probably don't even know it. This belief permeates how you view your experiences and the choices you make. The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It is your mindset that stops you from already being, doing and having what you want in life.

Ok, so how did you establish your internal programming, your mindset, to begin with?

At a very young age you saw, heard or felt something and gave it a meaning. More often than not you misinterpreted what you saw, heard or felt. After all, you were very young.

Think about it. I’ve often asked parents if they ever said or did something that their child completely misinterpreted. They all say, “Yes! Every day!”

Guess what you did as a kid! You misinterpreted a lot of what you saw and heard and made up a belief – empowered your Inner Critic – based on what you think you saw or heard.

For example, a parent or teacher could have said, "Look how smart your sister is, she got an A on her test." Your young ears hear this and take on the belief, "If I get anything less than A's I'm not smart." Unless you're a straight-A student, you go through your life thinking you're not smart." You question your judgment. You think you're not smart enough to accomplish your goals. Since your unconscious belief system is always looking to be right, you unconsciously constantly look for evidence that proves "You're not smart". You ignore, or simply do not see, any evidence that proves you are smart. So, you either block yourself from even going after certain goals because you believe that you are not smart enough to achieve them or you set yourself up for failure to prove, once again, that you are not smart enough!

By the way, your parents and teachers did not get up in the morning and deliberately figure out ways they could mess up your life. They were simply doing the best that they can. They have Inner Critics too, complete with their own set of unsupportive beliefs about themselves, their environment and the world. The choices they make are based on their own internal programming – and whether they’ve given their personal power over to their Inner Critic or Inner Wizard.

Many people use affirmations to reverse such Inner Critic beliefs as "I am not smart' within their thought pattern. They may look in the mirror daily and tell themselves that they are, indeed, smart. Trouble is, unless they believe that they truly are smart enough at their deepest level the "I am not smart" Inner Critic viewpoint will continue to run them.

If your conscious thoughts are not in alignment with your unconscious beliefs, your mindset, the unconscious beliefs will prevail. You bring into your life what you are wanting, your dreams and aspirations. When your conscious and unconscious beliefs are the same – in alignment – and your personal power is restored to your Inner Wizard, life becomes easy and magical. Those serendipitous and fortunate ‘co-incidences’ and ‘out of the blue’ opportunities happen frequently. Life flows smoothly – even around the bumps and twists along the way.

The good news is your internal programming can be changed. Change your thoughts to change your life. Life transformation is about seeing things in a new way. As your Guide, my job is to shine a light on how you think and make decisions, reveal your unconscious Inner Critic, work with you to remove its power and re-connect with your Inner Wizard. Returning your personal power to your Inner Wizard will create an internal belief system that will support you as you turn your dreams into reality.

"We always attract into our lives whatever we think about most, believe most, expect on the deepest level, and imagine most vividly." - Shakti Gawain

©2008 Valery Satterwhite. International Association for Inner Wizards™ All Rights Reserved.