How Beliefs Parallel an Easter Egg Hunt

Even if you never participated in an Easter egg hunt, the similarities to how you move through life are present. Cause and Effect exist, even in such a childhood event.

Every morning, as I suggest to participants in my coaching program, I sit with a notebook and pen and write my belief statements, set my intentions for the day, and ask my power team a question and note their responses. A few mornings ago an answer from one team member was:

"Allow yourself to be fascinated as you remove layers of beliefs. Release the belief that there's a need to hurry or rush this. Mine the experience, the process, for every golden nugget you hid from yourself so you could experience the joy of finding each one."

When I saw the words "golden nugget," the memory of one particular Easter egg hunt I participated in as a child flashed back to me.

My mother and I arrived at the house hosting the hunt. Children and parents I knew and didn't know meandered noisily in the front yard as we awaited the signal for the hunt to begin in the back yard. Small hands gripped basket handles in anticipation. Each of us wanted to collect as many eggs as possible, and each of us wanted to find the golden egg, the egg that guaranteed us the prize. I don't recall if I was five or six years old, but I clearly recall my thoughts and feelings.

My thoughts were focused on the number of children there (competition). Once the hunt started, my focus was on paying attention to who was finding what, whose baskets were filling faster than mine, worrying about who would find the golden egg. I hoped it was me, but I didn't believe it would be. I didn't have fun, but did experience angst, disappointment, jealousy, and anger, especially when the hunt was over and I looked at the three eggs in my basket. That event and outcome fulfilled what I'd heard about how the "real world" was from those who strived to prepare me for life based on their beliefs and, therefore, their experiences. No one in my circumscribed world ever thought about cause and effect, much less designing our lives from the inside out, meaning from the thought to the experience.

How different my experience of that egg hunt, as well as a good portion of my life, would have been if the early teachings had been different. The benefit of reframing and shifting such beliefs is the realization that it isn't about having the golden egg in your basket; it's about making the most out of participating in the finding of it. Whatever form our golden egg takes, its presence in our life is temporary. We can enjoy it for a while, but eventually it's time to look for another one.

What if we accumulate limiting beliefs during those early years so we create our own Easter egg hunt for life? What if from the spiritual aspect, we decide to hide lots of eggs with words written on them such as Joy, Potential, Meaning, and, of course, the golden one inscribed with Be Your Self and Love You? [Maybe this is why the word unique starts with U (you).]

In life, any outcome that is a tangible (and an intangible) is always accompanied by the Feeling we have about achieving or attaining it. We often believe it's the tangible or outcome we desire that matters, but it's the feeling . . . always the feeling. Much of our suffering comes from the belief that we can only feel the way we desire once we get what we want from another or from life. This is the reverse of how the physical universe works. More of us know this now, thanks to quantum physics and metaphysics; yet we still tend to insist the universe, life, and others must do what will make us feel the way we desire to before we can feel what we wish to. Is it any wonder so many live lives of quiet or not so quiet frustration?

It's a matter of semantics as to whether you call how our experience of reality works quantum mechanics or Law of Attraction. How it works is that you have to feel the feeling you desire first, even if you have to start with a small amount of it and expand it. You always start where you are, not where you wish to be or think you should be. Why not choose to feel what you desire to feel no matter what, as often as possible? Every time you make this conscious choice, you find another golden egg thatâ??s been hiding and waiting for you to rediscover it and put it into your basket.

Beliefs statements are invaluable; yet, it isn't simply a matter of writing or repeating affirmations about what you want. The most effective way to use this method is to write one or more beliefs statements that don't serve you (the non-supportive statements you tell yourself); then, rewrite them as statements that do (who you are or wish to be or wish to experience). Revisit these statements as often as needed. Touch the feeling of them as your reality until you hold them at the inner level as your truth.

We tend to repeat negative or limiting beliefs or stories to ourselves and others about who we are or how we experience life and wonder why nothing changes. Rewrite these any time they surface. Fill your basket with what you truly desire. Leave the rocks and litter on the ground, and put only the beautiful, the meaningful, the joyful, and the fun into the basket of your life.

It doesn't matter if you celebrate a religious holiday at this time or not, but it is a time of renewal, of rebirth, of reinvention. Apparently, we humans have long recognized the relevance of allowing ourselves the opportunity of being metaphorically reborn. Thankfully, this isn't limited to once a year. We can renew, rebirth, or reinvent ourselves any moment we choose to do so.

When I experienced that Easter egg hunt all those years ago, the other children weren't my competition, as I believed; my competition was my thought forms: assumptions, presumptions, and limiting beliefs. The golden egg was within me, not hidden in the grass or crook of a tree branch. My basket wasn't empty at the start of the hunt; it was overflowing with potential and possibilities. I didn't know this because I'd been taught to believe otherwise, just as I'd learned to focus on what the other children were doing rather than on what I was. Without knowing better at the time, I'd removed any possibility of joy and play.

What have you believed about yourself and life that doesn't serve you? What would you rather believe now? What will you do to shift this? If you don't do this for yourself, who will?