From Self-Doubt to Self-Reverence: The Inner Shift That Changed Everything

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been moving through a profound internal shift, one that has changed the way I see myself, my work, and my Worth. A friend recently reflected that I have a passionate new energy they’ve never seen in me before. That reflection felt like confirmation: I’m finally letting go of limiting beliefs and creating new ones. What began as a personal unraveling has become a defining turning point in my spiritual journey.

THE BLOCK I COULD NEVER NAME

As a coach, I knew a long-held belief or block was holding me back. I was constantly in doubt about what I could offer the world, and every step forward I took, I carried a laundry list of old beliefs that told me who I was not.

Fear and doubt were draining my soul.

I had done so much inner work, you name it, and I tried it. I released layers of emotional trauma, yet I still couldn’t identify how I was holding myself back.

WHY I TURNED TO SPIRITUAL MENTORSHIP

I decided I wanted a spiritual counselor this time, someone who shared my worldview and understood spiritual psychology. I had worked with this mentor before in bio-field healing sessions, and something in me knew it was time for deeper soul work.

What I didn’t expect was that the most significant breakthrough would come from uncovering a pattern I had lived with for most of my life.

THAT AHA MOMENT THAT SHIFTED MY IDENTITY

During this mentorship, I realized that my biggest block was this: I was holding on to other people’s opinions of me as if they were sacred truths.

My mentor called it “being loyal to a thought or belief,” but that didn’t fully land until I came across this quote by Mark Twain - “Its name is Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think of it is the voice of God. Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul”.

The word ‘reverence’ zapped my heart like lightning.

Reverence to me means something sacred. And suddenly I saw it clearly: I had revered other people’s opinions of me more than my own.

That heavy, tangled web of other people’s voices was keeping me from unraveling who I truly am.

THE AFTERSHOCK: ANGER AND GRIEF THAT SURFACE WITH AWAKENING

We often think an ”aha moment” will feel like instant freedom, and sometimes it does. But this time, the clarity came with a wave of intense emotion:

• Anger at all the voices I had let define me

• Anger at myself for holding onto them for so long

I realized how often I had undervalued myself, giving away my worth for free or accepting far less than I deserved. And then felt bitterness and resentment when others didn’t value me.

But the truth was undeniable: Others didn’t value me because I didn’t value me.

That was the reality I had been unconsciously creating.

FORGIVENESS: THE DOORWAY BACK TO MYSELF

After the anger came the next step: forgiveness.

• I forgave others for their projections that I had taken on as truth.

• I forgave myself for believing those projections

Some feedback I received over the years genuinely resonated with me, and I integrated it. But many comments, the intentionally malicious or careless ones, landed like emotional darts. Poisoned darts that lodged in my heart and stayed there for far too long.

So I began pulling them out, one by one:

• Acknowledging each dart/opinion/comment

• Forgiving the person

• Forgiving myself

• Releasing the emotional pain attached to it

This is real work we are here to do.

CHOOSING SELF-REVERENCE AND A NEW WAY OF BEING

The more we release old emotional wounds and practice forgiveness, the more I make space for acceptance, grace, compassion, and love to fill my heart instead of heaviness and pain.

I’m still pulling out darts. But now, I feel lighter.

More importantly, for the first time, I am holding myself in reverence.

Here’s what I know now:

• I have a loving, powerful heart.

• Everyone projects their own inner beliefs.

• I am inherently worthy.

• My natural gifts provide significant value.

• My intuition speaks through my body, even through something as strange as a ‘nasty smell’ when fear or doubt arises, signaling me to shift back to love.

Above all…

This is a practice.

The more we practice thinking new thoughts, feeling gratitude, and embodying truth, the more our brains change. And when our brain changes, our actions change. And when our actions change, our lives change.

As I continue releasing old wounds and practicing new ways of thinking and feeling, I’m discovering a lighter, more grounded version of myself, one that honors my own voice above all else.

A REFLECTION FOR YOU

If you’ve ever carried the weight of other people’s opinions or struggled with self-worth, I hope my experience offers encouragement.

What belief, opinion, or emotional dart are you finally ready to release so you can hold deeper reverence for yourself?