False Self-Concepts, Be Gone!
My friend Roman Vaynshtok, a Reiki practitioner and teacher, wrote a thought-provoking article with advice for having true self-concepts and becoming the person God meant us to be. He allowed me to share it with you on my blog . . .
How Beliefs Form
Our beliefs and preconceptions often form quietly. They are shaped by our upbringing, culture, experiences, and our need to make sense of the world. Over time, they become so familiar that we stop noticing them. They move into the background of our awareness, influencing how we interpret situations, respond to others, and even see ourselves. In this way, they can become invisible chains that keep us in a predetermined box, limiting our world.
These mental patterns are not inherently negative. They help us navigate life, offering structure and sense in a complex and ever-changing reality. But when we begin to mistake them for absolute truth, they close us off. Curiosity fades. We stop exploring and start filtering everything through what we already established as “truth.” The world becomes smaller, more predictable, and less flexible. Our limiting beliefs are creations of our mind to protect us from “unnecessary risk”, from “possibility of failure,” from the “judgment of others.”
Dealing with Limiting Beliefs
Everything in our lives can be changed only after we try to look with compassion and try to understand the causes. The same applies to limiting beliefs. When we stop fighting or dismissing them as something negative and accept them as a protective mechanism, everything changes. This approach changes our mindset. We move from the place of fear to the world of unlimited possibilities. In the world, we can win and also lose, but losing is not failure – it’s a learning experience. A world where the desire for success is much stronger than the fear of failure.
Before we address our limiting beliefs, we need to recognize them. It is the quiet voice that whispers “this is who I am,” “I’m not good at…,” “it always happens to me,” etc. These beliefs are not necessary truths; they are the chain that holds you back. There are a few steps that can help you challenge them:
- · Be aware of the power of self-talk. Ideas you repeatedly bring about yourself could become a self-fulfilling prophecy or a self-sabotaging tactic, so question them.
- · If they say, “I’m not good at public speaking,” try reminding yourself that you speak in front of a group of people, even if they are friends or family gathering.
- · Create a new narrative. Gather evidence that contradicts your beliefs. Anything in your daily interactions or at work that disputes your limiting beliefs, if you notice them, will weaken your self-limitation.
False Concepts vs. Experience
Your previous experiences from childhood or early years created these beliefs. They cannot be dismissed or easily ignored. What we can do is question their truth by collecting evidence that challenges them. Our brain does not respond to wishful thinking; this is why positive affirmations very rarely work, but it will accept real experiences. This is why it is important to collect/recognize evidence of even the smallest successes that will question old beliefs. By doing that, we eventually can replace old beliefs with new ones. The number one obstacle to this is when our brain tells us that our success is pure luck. This is why consistency in collecting and presenting evidence is so important. Our job is to show ourselves the evidence that our brains have trained us to ignore. Our approach is not to confront but to give our brains alternatives with evidence attached.
The moment we recognize that our perspective is just one interpretation among many, something changes. A space opens between us and our beliefs. In that space lies the freedom to ask questions and to challenge our beliefs. So, after your presentation, you can tell yourself, “I did it. Maybe it wasn’t perfect, but it was better than the previous one. People were listening. I became better at this.”
It is very important to understand that our brain updates beliefs through experience far more readily than through logic, and that identifying and changing self-limiting beliefs takes work and time.
A Funny Example
In the fifth grade both of my best friends were redheads, while I thought I was a dull brown. One day I even washed my hair with vinegar because I read that it would bring out red highlights. It didn’t. Decades later, a friend who had black hair and I were cutting each other’s hair. When I mentioned my brown hair, she picked up two cuttings from the floor, mine and hers. “Look, your hair isn’t brown. It’s as black as mine,” she said. She was right.
A Commercial
Roman’s wrote the book Reiki: Energy of Love, which I edited for him. If you are curious about Reiki, purchase a copy.
Limiting beliefs have held many people back…. But Reiki practice and Reiki precepts provide additional tools to address them.
Have you ever had a false concept about yourself changed? How? Did an experience correct it? Or someone’s words?
Hummingbirds: God’s Intricate Creation
I chose an apartment on the third floor so I would be on a level with birds. One day while I was standing on my balcony, a hummingbird flew right by my nose. That was probably because of the hummingbird feeders on my neighbors’ balconies. My feeder was not a success. Ants loved it. However, a friend who does stained-glass windows, gave me this glass hummingbird to hang in my window:
We are lucky to have these fascinating birds in North America. I did some research and discovered that they are amazing in many ways. Like a helicopter, they can fly in any direction and hover. Unlike other birds, they have blade-like wings connected only from the shoulder. This enables them to fly straight up and down, sideways, and backwards. Their top speed is 34 miles per hour.
Another thing that sets hummingbirds apart is that they do not walk or hop like other birds. They shuffle sidesways.
Some Facts
The wings of small hummingbirds can flap 99 times a second! They create a humming sound. Hence, their name. They do make various chirping and tweeting sounds, as you can hear in the video below, which also shows a variety of these birds.
There are 375 species of hummingbirds, but like some other creatures, they are declining. One species migrates between Alaska and Mexico, a journey of about 3,900 miles!
Two 30-million-year-old hummingbird fossils have been discovered. They are the smallest, living relative of dinosaurs. The little ones are three to five inches. The bee hummingbird weighs less than .07 ounces. The largest hummingbird is 1.09 ounces.
Hummingbirds can detect ultraviolet light. Their favorite color is red.
The lifespan of ruby-throated hummingbirds is three to five years.
Their Menu
Hummingbirds feed while hovering, not perching as other birds do. They have long beaks, either straight or curved, to feed on nectar. Their long tongues are forked along the sides to take in the nectar. Hummingbirds spend most of their days sitting and digesting.
Besides nectar, hummingbirds eat small insects like fruit flies and small spiders. Their favorite insects are midges, which should please those people near Lake Erie who are plagued annually by those bugs. Hummingbirds can use up 150,000 calories a day. To preserve energy, they enter a torpor, a deep sleep state.
Courtship and Children
Male hummingbirds have the most diverse colors of all birds. In fact, many have are iridescent throat feathers. Their plumage makes them attractive to the females.
During courtship the males show off. They fluff out their throat feathers and do aerial feats. They fly in loops, dive bomb, and ascend rapidly. Anna’s hummingbird rises about 115 ft. above a female and dives at 89 feet per second, twice the speed of peregrine falcons pursuing prey. In addition the males sing complex songs to court their chosen one. They might also chase the females or fly back and forth in a wide arc in front of her.
Females build the family nest, a small cup about an inch and a half in diameter. She builds up the walls to fit her body, using silk from spiderwebs, lichen, bark, and moss. Wisely, the nest is under branches to shield from rain. The woman is also solely responsible for the young ones.
About two weeks after mating, she lays two eggs the size of a pea. She incubates them for two or three weeks until they hatch. For three of four weeks she feeds them and then the young birds can fly.
Both male and female birds are promiscuous.
By the Way
Interestingly, Aztecs believed that fallen warriors are reincarnated as hummingbirds.
Hummingbird cake is made with crushed pineapple and bananas with cream cheese frosting. Supposedly it originated in Jamaica, whose national bird is a hummingbird. The name fits the cake, which is a sweet dessert. It is rather simple to make. Here is a recipe.
Creation, the work of God’s hands, reveals him to us. The hummingbird shows God’s ingenuity, tenderness, and love of beauty.
Have you ever eaten or made hummingbird cake?
Do you see hummingbirds where you live?
Freedom Isn’t Free
On July 4 we celebrate the birthday of our nation when we became free from Britain’s tyranny. More than that, we celebrate the freedoms that are the bedrock of our society. As our Declaration of Independence states, all people are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” In the USA we enjoy offer freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly, among other freedoms. They are enshrined in our Constitution.
Our freedoms have always lured others to become American citizens, including my grandparents. Sadly, today, people who are fleeing oppression and seeking freedom in America are finding the opposite. They are being turned away and even imprisoned. We forget or ignore the invitation offered on the Statue of Liberty:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
On July 4 we also remember those who suffered or even gave their lives to protect our free country. The Korean War Memorial reminds us that freedom isn’t free. Still today it requires sacrifice, not only by men and women in our armed forces, but by us. It takes courage, time, and passion to speak up and act to safeguard and defend our precious freedoms.
God and Freedom
God is in favor of freedom. After all, far from a tyrant, he created us with a free will. We are free to oppose him. Then when Satan had held our human race captive, God freed us by the sacrifice of Jesus. God wishes that we live freely and happily. Someone defined freedom as “the ability to swing your arm up to the point where the other person’s nose starts.”
As we enjoy fireworks, picnics, and patriotic music this July 4, let’s hope and pray that freedom will ring out throughout our land and for everyone. This is what we sing in the song America: “From every mountainside, let freedom ring.” Freedom here is compared to a bell—like the Liberty Bell.
The American Flag
On June 14, 1777 the Continental Congress passed the Flag resolution. The flag was to be thirteen red and white stripes with thirteen stars in a blue field, representing a new constellation. (The colonies’ flag had similar stripes, but in the corner was the British Union flag.)
According to legend, Betsy Ross, an upholsterer in Philadelphia who made uniforms, tents, and flags for the Continental army, made the first American flag. She created five-pointed stars instead of the six-pointed ones Washington envisioned. This legend was fueled by the Charles Weisgerber’s 1893 painting “Birth of Our Nation’s Flag.”
A 17-year-old designed the flag we fly today. In 1958, Ohio high schooler Robert G. Heft created the 50-star design for a class project, anticipating that Alaska and Hawaii would soon join the Union. His teacher gave him a B minus. When Congress chose Heft’s design two years later, the grade was changed to an A!
This latter fact and 10 interesting facts about are flag are on the National Flag Foundation‘s website. It offers even more information about the flag such as how to fly it.
“My Country ‘Tis of Thee”
Samuel F. Smith, a Baptist minister who composed more than 150 hymns, wrote “America” while he was a seminarian. In just a half hour on a rainy day, he produced this famous national hymn. The first three verses inspire pride in our nation, and the last verse asks God to favor and protect it.
Here is one version with lyrics:
What is your favorite patriotic song?
Which freedom of ours do you particularly cherish?
How will you celebrate the Fourth of July?
Sacred Heart, Symbol of Love
The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the focus of our devotion in the month of June. (Each month has a particular focus. For example, May is devoted to Mary.) Appropriately the United States Bishops consecrated the United States to the Sacred Heart on June 11 this year (2026). Why the Sacred Heart?
A heart symbolizes life, love, one’s whole being. “I love you with my whole heart,” means “with all that I am.” Jesus’s heart represents his immense love for us. One reason God became human was to love us with a human heart. He performed the supreme act of love: dying for the beloved. As he died for us, a lance pierced his heart.
Once while standing in line in the library, I glimpsed a Sacred Heart badge in the wallet of the man ahead of me. Some people consider this devotion passé or sentimental; children may think the art of Jesus’s heart out of the body morbid. Yet, Pope Francis wrote an encyclical on the Sacred Heart, Dilexit nos (He Loved Us).
Sacred Heart in Art
In art, the Sacred Heart is surmounted by a cross and encircled by thorns, symbols of how he loved you to death. The heart bears a wound from a lance. Flames shoot forth from the top of the heart, representing the burning love Jesus has for you. In some pictures, Jesus holds out his heart for you to accept.
This Devotion’s Origin
Saint Gertrude the Great, a mystic, already had great devotion to the Sacred Heart in the 13th century. She prayed: “O Sacred Heart of Jesus, fountain of eternal life, Your Heart is a glowing furnace of Love. You are my refuge and my sanctuary.”
The devotion flourished in the 17th century after Jesus asked Saint Margaret Mary to promote it, saying he wanted everyone to know the depths of his love. He said: “Behold this heart, which has so loved men [and women], but which is so little loved in return.” Unrequited love is sad. Unrequited divine love is tragic.
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal advised, “Sometimes put yourself very simply before God, certain of his presence everywhere, and without any effort, whisper very softly to his Sacred Heart whatever your own heart prompts you to say.”
Saint Bonaventure wrote: “Who is there who would not love this wounded heart? Who would not love in return Him, who loves so much?”
Jesus requested frequent Communion, especially on the first Friday of each month; holy hours; and a feast iin honor of his Sacred Heart. Jesus also made twelve promises.
Now people own Sacred Heart scapulars or badges, observe nine first Fridays, and celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday 19 days after Pentecost. Families are consecrated to the Sacred Heart and enthrone his image.
A True Story about the Sacred Heart
A Sister’s family was devoted to the Sacred Heart. Left with an empty nest, her parents wished to adopt a baby, but had no luck. Before making vows, Sister gave Jesus an ultimatum: “You don’t get me if my parents don’t get a baby.” At a conference in Canada, another Sister chanced to meet an orphanage’s administrators and talked about the parents longing for a child. On the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, the parents received a letter from Montreal’s bishop inviting them to choose a child. They adopted a boy, and Sister made her vows.
Jesus welcomes and answers your prayers, too, if they’re for the good.
You and Jesus
How might you stoke your love for Jesus? Read the Gospels and hear him speak to your heart. Spend time aware of his presence and bask in his love. Participate more fully and often in the Eucharist.
Honoring Jesus under the title of the Sacred Heart shows love in return. Celebrate an enthronement to the Sacred Heart, consecrating your home and heart to him. Pray the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Go to Mass on First Fridays. Your love for Jesus may spark love in other people.
We thirst for something more. Our heart is like a jigsaw puzzle with a piece missing. Only God completes it. Conversely, the heart of Jesus may also want a missing piece: You!
Here is a short prayer you might adopt:
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore
that I may ever love you more and more.
For Reflection
What do you or have you done to honor the Sacred Heart of Jesus?
Was anything in this post a surprise to you? If so, what?
Here is a prayer with peaceful music:
Eucharist, Our Sacred Meal-Replay
An Amazing Gift
I think this is the third and last post that did not reach subscribers.
On Holy Thursday we heard the story of how Jesus instituted the Eucharist. And lately the Mass readings have to do with this sacrament. Jesus took some bread and said, “This is my body,” and then he held a cup of wine and claimed, “This is my blood.” Some faith traditions hold that these words were merely symbolic. For some two thousand years, Catholics have taken the words of Jesus at face value. Still, how easily we let our Communions become routine and stale, forgetting what an astounding miracle they are. We might even fail to take advantage of this gift. As St. Augustine wistfully noted, “Christ is the bread, awaiting hunger.”
Because of the Eucharist, Jesus remains with us on earth, we’re able to share in his redeeming sacrifice, and we are united as his mystical body. Beyond that, we are able to actually consume God in the form of bread and wine! At Mass we feast on God. Jesus becomes one with us, divinizing our humanity.
In the words attributed to Saint Teresa of the Andes:
“I eat Jesus. He is my nourishment. I am assimilated by him. What greater happiness is there than this: to hold tightly to our heart the God who is our God! Receive Communion as well and be deeply aware of the One who visits you, infinite love, divine madness; of One who not only became man like ourselves, but who became bread. After you receive Communion, ask Jesus, the God you hold prisoner in your soul, to stay with you throughout the day so that you may love him and give him thanks.”
Prayers to Participate
When the priest raises the paten with the host, we can mentally place ourselves on it too, offering our lives to God the Father.
At the Consecration, when the priest holds up the sacred host, I was taught to say, “My Lord and my God.” These were the words of the apostle Thomas when he acknowledged the true presence of the risen Jesus.
And when the priest holds up the chalice of wine, I was taught to say, “My Jesus, mercy!” For that was the blood that was shed for my sins.
Facts about the Eucharist
Here is a Eucharist IQ Quiz that I use in my workshops on the liturgy. You simply have to tell whether each statement is true or false. The answers are at the end. Don’t peek!
- The Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life.
- The Mass is our highest form of worship.
- The word Eucharist means “thanksgiving.”
- Jesus gave us the Eucharist at the Last Supper. He told us to do it in remembrance of him. At Mass we remember his death and resurrection.
- At Mass the sacrifice Jesus offered at the Last Supper and on Calvary is re-presented.
- At Mass salvation goes on. Sin is atoned for, and the graces won are poured out on us.
- At the sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus is both the priest and the offering.
- At Mass we offer Jesus to the Father with him.
- At Mass we also offer ourselves to the Father.
- The sacred bread and wine are truly Jesus. This is called the Real Presence.
- Jesus is totally present in both the bread and the wine and in every part of each.
- The change of the bread and wine into Jesus (called transubstantiation) is brought about by the Holy Spirit through the words and actions of the priest.
- By consuming the food and drink that is Jesus, we become more like him.
- Jesus is present as long as the substances remain bread and wine.
- At Communion we are also united with the Mystical Body of Jesus: the Church.
- At the Eucharist we participate in heaven’s liturgy; angels and saints are present.
- The Eucharist is a sacrament of initiation. Only Church members can receive it.
- Bread and wine signify all God’s gifts of creation for which we give thanks.
- Bread and wine recall the Passover when God saved the chosen people from death by the blood of the lamb.
- The altar signifies that the Eucharist is a sacrifice and a meal.
- At Mass we feast at the table of the Word and the table of the Eucharist. It anticipates the heavenly feast.
- When we receive the Eucharist, our sins are forgiven.
- We prepare for Mass by being free from grave sin and by fasting for an hour
- We bow before receiving the Eucharist and respond Amen.
- The Eucharist is a gift of love from the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Hopefully you persevered through all twenty-five statements and you eventually realized that all of them were true. Yes, this is a trick quiz. The Eucharist, though, is no trick. Jesus really meant it when he said, “This is my body,” and “I will be with you always.” Isn’t his love for us outrageous? And aren’t we fortunate that we live in this century when we can receive Communion every day if we wish and not just with special permission as in former times!
The first hymn here is quite lovely. If you have a half hour, you might listen to the entire video.
What do you recall about your First Communion?
Which is the most awesome Mass you have attended?
What do you say to Jesus after receiving him in Communion?
What is your favorite Eucharistic hymn?
