2020 has been the perfect year for hindsight concerning the effects of either taking personal responsibility or blame shifting / scapegoating. When you believe there is something “bad” happening in your personal reality and it is someone else’s fault rather than your own, you are shifting the blame from you onto someone else. This is also called scapegoating. Scapegoating is the practice of singling out a person or group for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. Of course, people will say (and truly believe) that the blame is merited when they’re doing it. I’m sure you’ve done this, because, even though I’m very aware of it, at times, I also fall into this old, engrained, habit.
Blame Shifting / Scapegoating Makes You Feel Powerless
If you take personal responsibility, then you feel free and empowered. However, if you place the blame for something onto another, then you feel like a slave to that other. 2020 has given us many examples of how people have felt enslaved. One example is the mask rage or fear that sometimes occurs when a mask wearer encounters someone without a mask. That feeling of being a victim of circumstances is solely dependent on blame shifting. That is, the person feels the blame for them getting sick is on a non-mask-wearer and not themselves.
If someone was afraid of getting sick, then they would, in an ideal world, take personal responsibility for their own health. They could take vitamins, meditate, exercise, wear masks, and/or stay home if they were truly terrified. Instead, there are people who feel powerless, out of control, and at the mercy of whether or not other people wear masks. They have chosen to give power over their health to other individuals rather than keeping the power for themselves, simply because they have chosen to not be personally responsible for their own health. This is an example of willful slavery.
Choosing to give your power over your life away to someone or something else feels really bad. The only reason this year has felt like an “awful” year to some people is because of this blame shifting. This year, on all sides of various issues (as I discuss below), people have given their power away. Thankfully, you can always take that power back at any time.
Our Personal Reality is in our Control
According to the law of attraction, our beliefs change the personal reality we live in. Scientifically speaking, of course, they do. When an artificial intelligence program tries to “see” the world, it tries to make what it “sees” fit into what it was originally programmed with. If it’s been programmed with pictures of waves on beaches, as you move a piece of cloth over another, it “sees” waves on a beach.
We strive to make sense of what happens to us. If you seemingly get rejected as a child just once, you have no idea what it means. If it happens a few more times, you start to look for the meaning of it. You look for a reason why you are seemingly being rejected. You may start to believe that the meaning of your being rejected is that there is something wrong with you. Though some people (who are not aligned with God-Source) might agree with that idea, it’s not ultimately true. It’s just a limiting belief of yours and theirs.
Personal Realities are Perceptual
In the video above, the computer is learning to see (perceive) what the camera sees (the actual reality). However, it has limited knowledge of what it’s seeing, so it relies on what it does know in order to try to make sense of what it’s seeing. We are the same way. Humans are often making judgments about other people based on limited experiences with them. Those limited experiences are used to form limiting beliefs that keep us from seeing reality as it actually is.
Ever been called an idiot by someone online who has never even met you? Yeah? If so, they are ignorant of you, and then they pre-judge based on very limited knowledge. In their reality, you are an idiot, but the actual reality is that you are not. This is why you should never really mind if someone has a bad opinion of you; it’s based on limited knowledge. Their perception of you is also tinted by their own limiting beliefs and skewed perceptions of the world. They don’t see the reality of you. They’re rejecting their perceptions of you.
What we see in our personal reality is enlarged by our current beliefs. Think of yourself as a camera, and what you focus on (with your thoughts) starts to get larger and larger. But if you question your beliefs you can shift what you see and what you focus on. You can let more light into your world just by changing your focus.
Questioning Your Beliefs To Take Your Power Back
I once mentioned the idea of changing beliefs to someone and I was initially surprised by her negative reaction. She said basically when other people do that it is called brainwashing, mind control, thought re-education, etc. Yes, others who long to control people do try to change their beliefs.
Because of this, some people have a negative response to the idea of changing their beliefs. However, I would suggest that children have been programmed from birth in ways that have been very limiting. If a child is taught that you have to work hard in order to be prosperous, that child will grow up to be a hard worker. That belief is not a very beneficial belief as people tend to do difficult work rather than seek work that comes easy to them. I’m not against putting a lot of unresistant energy into work, but if you’re not aligned with what your specialty is then you’re very resistant and it doesn’t come easy to you. Difficult work is actually a sign you’re not going with the flow of life.
Who programmed your current beliefs?
After our initial years of life, we have accumulated a lot of limiting beliefs that shape our personal reality. Our personal reality is not the actual reality that God-Source sees. But we can de-program ourselves by questioning those old limiting beliefs. When we question limiting beliefs we can finally see reality as God-Source sees it and feel our freedom. That is taking your power back.
Who do you want in control of your mind?
Rather than living with the limiting beliefs you grew up with, you can take control of your own mind now. Then you will realize you don’t need to control others to get the life you’ve always wanted. What other people do or don’t do will no longer bother you. You can take personal responsibility for your personal reality by questioning your limiting beliefs. Personal responsibility is extremely freeing.
Blame Shifting / Scapegoating is Willful Slavery
On the flip side, rejecting personal responsibility and placing the blame for our personal reality onto other people, events, or organizations (such as governments), means we feel like a slave to those things. As soon as you start to blame some other person, event, place, or thing as the reason why something happened to you or to someone else, you enter the Dreaded Drama Triangle (DDT).
When you blame something outside of your responsibility, you start to feel powerless (like a victim). Then you feel at the mercy of those situations or people or organizations that you feel have power over you. In the Drama Triangle people will often feel like slaves to persecutors. When you feel power-less, you look for power from a savior (sometimes in the form of government/laws, guns, medicine, etc.).
Recent examples of blame-shifting / scapegoating
- Claiming to be sick (or that others are) because someone else didn’t wear a mask
- Claiming to be poor (or that others are) because of racist oppression
- Claiming to not be able to open your business because of lockdown mandates
- Claiming to be poor because you haven’t been able to work because of COVID
- Claiming to have to wear a mask because stores require it
- Claiming you have to take a vaccine to work and/or fly
Merited Blaming or Scapegoating?
Many people would say those examples don’t seem like blame-shifting or scapegoating. Instead, to them, they seem like merited blaming. However, a person’s health depends on their own actions, mental state, and their beliefs. If people want to be healthy, they can exercise, eat healthier, get their vitamins, etc. Beliefs and attitudes are also proven to change an individual’s health.
The article The Body (And The World) Was Designed To Heal Itself also discusses the German New Medicine theory that deviates from the more mainstream germ theory. In the German New Medicine belief, someone with symptoms would believe they are healing (not sick) and that there was a trauma that had initially happened. As I discuss in that article, the trauma is based on beliefs that could be questioned. You can take total responsibility for your health and the things that happen to you. So can everyone else, so we need not worry about others’ health.
If someone has done it, it’s not impossible
As for the rest of the examples on that list, they’re obviously not true. If some people have done the exact same things that those beliefs say are impossible, then they aren’t impossible. If they aren’t impossible, then they’re a limiting belief. People can and have been ordering items online and/or just refuse to use stores that refuse to allow them in without a mask. Many black people have become very wealthy in the US, a country that supposedly has racism that would keep them poor. Some people have been ignoring the lockdowns and have had their businesses open throughout and so they have been making money, especially if they are the only businesses open in that area. You can still make money if you believe you can. Not to mention, you could always start your own new business that doesn’t have the same restrictions. More businesses will pop up that don’t require masks or vaccines. People will find alternative ways to travel (perhaps a new freedom-loving airline will be started?). Either way, there are always alternatives.
Control Your Mind, Control Your World
Once you start to question your beliefs and ask, “is it true?” then you start to see evidence that suggests there is a way that the limiting belief is not true or not always true. People who take personal responsibility rather than blame-shifting end up doing what they want to do when they figure out how. Figuring out how only comes after starting to wonder if there is a way that it can be done.
Feeling at the whims of life events is a very powerless position. But it’s purely by choice. People have the choice to question their beliefs and start to wonder if there is another way to get what they want. As I mentioned in the article Your Beliefs Can Lead To Freedom Or Slavery, your beliefs are the key to why you feel negatively or positively about anything going on around you. You can question them and find your freedom again.
Truly Ask Yourself “Is it True?”
Is it true that 2020 was an awful year? I, and many other people, had a great year. Many online businesses started to boom. New businesses were created, such as mask stores on Etsy. Many people made more money this year than last year. A lot of people spent time with their families in a way they didn’t think was possible before. Some people spent excess time working on new talents and exercise regimens. Yes, some people had a bad year, and this is not discounting it. 2020 was in the eye of the beholder. Every year is. If people choose to blame-shift, with limiting beliefs like, “COVID ruined everything,” then they will experience the consequences of those beliefs. But they are always able to question their beliefs.
After reading this article, your mind might start to race with beliefs that you just know are true. You have built up a lifetime of experiences that seem to “prove” it is. But the reason you have found so much “proof” is because you believed it to begin with. Many people have changed their beliefs after questioning them. They have taken the time to look for ways in which the limiting belief was not true. And as you look for evidence to prove you are wrong, you will find a way. As Dr. Joe Dispenza says, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” As you start to think about ways in which your belief might not be true, your brain will bring more evidence or ideas to your mind to prove that your new belief is correct.
So, make a list of limiting beliefs, try to turn them around, and then start to look for ways in which the limiting beliefs are not true. And if you ever need help, this is what I do.
