What Lies Beneath?

The renovations continue at Casa Smith this week. Having taken a bit of a breather for the past few weeks, I'm heading back into the messy world of restoration. This time it's plastering and stripping back flooring.

I have visions of living in a cloud of dust for the next fortnight. Plaster powder hanging in the air like icing sugar on baking day. Wood dust coating every surface. The cat's usually glossy tortioseshell coat fading to a Halloween-worthy shade of ghostly grey.

Before the work can even begin, there's furniture to move, soft furnishings to cover, pictures to take down and books, candles, lamps and plants to relocate. The mere thought of the disruption brings me out in hives.

There is no avoiding it though. If I want to create the beautiful home I'm imagining, there's no dodging the mess that inevitably comes before it.

The thing about renovating an old house is that once you start tinkering with the fabric of the building, you never quite know what you're going to uncover.

Those cracks in the ceiling look harmless enough, but could easily end up needing more than a quick skim of plaster. Lifting the shaggy carpets might reveal hidden surprises lurking beneath the surface. Those beautiful original floorboards I'm hoping to restore may need considerably more work than I'd anticipated before their natural beauty can shine through again.

I could just paper over the cracks, quite literally. Cover up the imperfections and make everything look lovely on the surface. How long would it be, though, before the cracks start to reappear? Sometimes, it's only when you start stripping things back that you discover what's really going on underneath.

I've been thinking about how often we do exactly the same thing with ourselves.  We try to change our outward facing circumstances, set new goals, develop better habits and make all sorts of improvements to the way we live. That can work for a while but over time, despite our best efforts, we find ourselves encoutering the same old issues, repeating familiar patterns and noticing the the ingrained habits resurfacing.

So much of how we experience and respond to the world around us is influenced by thoughts, feelings and beliefs that operate beneath our conscious awareness.  As we move through life, we absorb beliefs about who we are, what we're capable of, what we deserve and what's expected of us. Some are formed so early that we can't even remember where they came from. Others develop through experiences, relationships and the roles we've occupied over the years. Over time, we stop recognising them as beliefs. We simply accept them as facts about ourselves.

Maybe you've always believed you need to work hard to prove your worth. Maybe you think that putting yourself first is selfish. Perhaps you believe that you are not particularly confident, creative or courageous. Such beliefs can become so deeply embedded in our identity that we don't even think to question them. Yet they continue to influence the choices we make every single day. They dictate the possibilities about our future that we're willing to consider.

This is what lies at the heart of personal transformation. Becoming curious about what's underneath. Examining the beliefs we've inherited, the stories we've told ourselves and the assumptions we've carried for so long that we've forgotten they were ever optional. Not because something needs fixing. But becasue something gorgeous is waiting to be uncovered. 

It's the essence of the work we do in the Breakthrough Sessions.

Just like those beautiful old floorboards hidden beneath layers of carpet, there are parts of ourselves that have simply been covered over by years of expectations, responsibilities and conditioning.

Personal transformation isn't about mending something that's wrong in order to become someone different. It's about revealing the richness of who we were born to be and allowing it to shine through again.

Making It Intentional

Think about an area of your life where you keep encountering the same frustrations, challenges or patterns, despite your efforts to change things.

Rather than focusing on what you need to do differently, ask yourself:

What would I have to believe about myself for this pattern to keep showing up?

And perhaps more importantly:

What might become possible if I stopped believing it?

Your Next Step

If you're tired of finding yourself in the same situations, making the same compromises or talking yourself out of the things you really want, perhaps it's time for a different approach.

The Breakthrough Sessions help you finally move beyond what's been holding you back, develop the self-trust, confidence and clarity to make different choices and discover just how much more is possible and what else you're capable of.