Can you think of some of the rules you learnt as you were growing up? 'Don't touch flames, they will burn you!' and 'Don't walk in front of a car, it will hurt you.' The rules about the physical word we learnt when we were small, have stood us in good stead as we have gone through life. They have kept us safe. As those little sponges we were, that information went in and it stuck. The trouble is, that we learnt some less useful things when we were small. Things like you are stupid, not good enough or ugly. These things are not true but because they were being learnt at the same time as the useful stuff, they looked like they were of equal value. There are some helpful, practical things to learn about the physical world but this is not the same for the things we learn about the self. The things we learn about ourselves are made of someone else's thinking. They are NOT true! They are NOT the same as the rules about the physical world. And when we can start to see the quality of the thoughts we have about ourselves, we can more easily let them pass. It is possible for all of us to have a different relationship with the things which we think about ourselves.

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