The quality of life is often built around personal perspective. We hold beliefs around other people, but what do we believe about ourselves? Schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information. Schemas can contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to retain new information that does not conform to our established ideas about the world. Most self-schemas are formed in childhood. Beliefs about ourselves can be either balanced or unhealthy, serving as contributions to the complex and interesting nature of life.
Self-schemas include thoughts about physical attributes, interests, personality traits (introvert or extrovert), and behaviors. Any extreme belief about one’s self would be described as self-schematic in that area or dimension. The example would be a person who believes they are highly spiritual without any interest in religion, which means they are holding a schema in that dimension. Aschematic would refer to holding no belief in an area or dimension.
We can develop self-schemas from our past, but experts believe we develop self-schemas regarding our future selves, too. Self-schemas are built on the roles we play, with others or in our minds. Those beliefs can ultimately define reactions, performance, thoughts, alignment with core virtues, and interaction with partners, family, friends, co-workers, and ourselves. Perhaps I hold a self-schema around communication with angels! (tee hee) Let’s get a whisper and find out:
The events of the first years of life focus on the influence from parents, which can leave an indelible mark on the energy of every individual. Because the parents represent the authority figure and the person most responsible for a child’s safety, development, and existence, their influence can be retained in certain beliefs for the entirety of life. Bias and prejudice, self-esteem, interests and passion all develop from early childhood and continue to evolve with maturity.
Everything a person thinks and believes about themselves can manifest in the roles in which they cast themselves. Seeking knowledge, curiosity, passion, and imagination spark the light that shines the truth regarding life purpose and alignment with core vibrations. Stepping back from any situation or condition can shift the perspective and allow an individual to become a conscious observer. From another elevated vantage point, each person can more easily define or redefine the truth regarding their existence.
While standing in a forest, it’s easy to see all the trees as one. Yet if you choose one tree and hold it in your arms, you will see the uniqueness and the beauty of the individual life that contributes to the collective. The same is true for people, but you must hold yourself from the space of your heart to know the truth of who you are. Conscious shifts require actions that reflect intentional efforts toward transforming any belief that has penetrated the dimension of the soul.
Making a list of insights or impressions about your self-schemas can create the awareness that leads to an immediate shift through recognition of the truth. You are living in what could be the most transformation time for humans on Earth. This may include extreme challenges, but overcoming challenges gives the most meaning to the life experience. The key is loving yourself and others enough to hold a space for change toward the highest potential alignment.
Bring joy, ease suffering and create beauty, then dance like you mean it!
Blessings, Russell
“If you lose your ego, you lose the thread of that narrative you call your Self. Humans, however, can’t live very long without some sense of a continuing story. Such stories go beyond the limited rational system (or the systematic rationality) with which you surround yourself; they are crucial keys to sharing time-experience with others.” Haruki Murakami
