The story of my experience with Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself by Dr. Joe Dispenza is probably the most important story I have yet told on any of my platforms.
When I first ordered the book, I was super excited because I’ve seen lots of great reviews and was eager to read the book myself. Mind you, I didn’t really expect too much from it as I simply thought it’s gonna be a great read. Boy, was I wrong.
This is the story of my journey through Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and why I think you should do it too.
1. the structure of the book
Before we get into all the fancy stuff, I want you to understand what made this book so very different from all the others. There is an Introduction, 14 Chapters of valuable information, Afterword, Appendix A, B & C, Endnotes, Index, Acknowledgments, and About the Author section. The biggest turning point for me was the appendix which basically represents the journey Dr. Joe Dispenza invites you to embark on.
What kind of journey you may ask?
Well, after reading all of the 14 chapters you are asked to put everything you have learned into practice. And the practice is meditation.
The course of these guided meditations requires AT LEAST 4 weeks. Every single week has a different meditation attached to it and you are supposed to grow your practice. What I mean by that is when you are done with week 1, you move on to week 2, however, you are supposed to now do both, week 1 and week 2 in one sitting. In essence, by week 4 you will be combining all of the guided meditations. This means that your practice will take more time as you go.
You can also look at these meditations as Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 & Step 4. However, when you sit down to meditate, you are always starting with Step 1.
All of these guided meditations combined together will take approximately 1 hour.
Now, remember how I said AT LEAST 4 weeks? It took me a little over 2 months to complete. So don’t be afraid if you have never meditated for 1 hour. You will only reach that amount after you start week 4. And I think, overall it actually took me almost 4 months. This happened because when I first started the practice, I went back home for almost a month and dropped the thing completely.
2. the message behind 'breaking the habit of being yourself'
2.1. the basics
I don’t want to burden you with too much information when the aim of this blog post is to give you an overview of my experience. For this very reason, I’m going to try and keep this section as short as possible. If you would, however, like me to do your usual book review and summary, please do let me know.
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself is based on quantum physics. There are, of course, countless people who will tell you that everything that quantum physics stands for is a lie. Then again, there are still people who think that the Earth is flat. So I invite you to form your own opinion. Dr. Dispenza uses quantum physics to explain how we can change our whole entire being.
The Newtonian school or the so-called ‘classical’ physics model teaches us that everything, everyone, and their dog are solid. Even energy is explained as a force to move things.
About 200 years later, Albert Einstein revealed that energy and matter are essentially the same thing and are ‘interchangeable’.
Quantum physics states that atoms are mostly energy and empty space.
Newtonian school: matter affects energy.
Quantum school: energy affects matter.
2.2. further ideas
Dr. Joe Dispenza continues to explain how everything starts with a thought and you can actually ‘remember your future’. However, you need to understand that in order to change the future, you need to BE different. Your thoughts cannot be stuck in the past, because you will produce more of the same.
You need to completely rewire your brain and it is not enough to visualize yourself in a particular scenario once. You need to practice repetition. Only then will the brain learn the new patterns and drop the old ones. In addition, you need to be completely honest with yourself and admit what you have been hiding. In essence, you need to dig deep and fully admit to yourself what parts of yourself you want to release.
This process is impossible without complete honesty.
2.3. time is not linear
This is a difficult concept to grasp, especially when just a few seconds ago I was telling you not to dwell on the past and to ‘remember your future’. But did you notice how it says ‘remember’? Quantum physics states that all potentials exist in the now and they are all equally possible. Our thoughts, actions, feelings, and intentions can affect not only the present moment or even the future. It also affects the past. STAY WITH ME.
A double-blind study led by Leonard Leibovici in July 2000 showed that we may not fully know how time works.
Between 1990 – 1996 there were 3393 patients who had a severe bloodstream infection. 10 years after, Leonard Leibovici carried out an experiment randomly separating these patients into two groups: a control group and an intervention group. The intervention group had people praying for them. Just a reminder, the prayers took place in 2000. The control group was not prayed for. The conclusions that were made after the experiment were clear. The patients who were randomly selected for the intervention group had a significantly shorter length of fever and stay at the hospital. The mortality level (although, not significant) was also lower.
There is still so much that we don’t understand about time, however, if you KNEW that your actions, intentions, and thoughts today could define your past, present, and future, would you do anything differently?
3. the 4-week meditation program
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself provides you with all of the needed meditations in the book. You can either record them yourself, buy the guided meditations from Dispenza’s website or use one of the recordings on Youtube. I personally like the recordings done by Chris Turner.
It’s really important to choose the voice of your meditations because I was listening to another channel when doing weeks 1 & 2 and it wasn’t as effective as Chris’. When I turned to his channel, I immediately felt like ‘yeah, this voice doesn’t bother me one bit, now we’re talking haha’.
Before each meditation ALWAYS make sure you won’t be disturbed, have enough time, and feel comfortable. I personally always meditate at the end of my bed facing the window, because I like the cushiony effect.
3.1. week 1 (Induction)
Duration: ± 20 minutes
Step 1: Induction
Honestly speaking, week 1 was probably the hardest for me because I really wanted to master it before moving to week 2. In week 1 you are learning how to move into Alpha and Theta brain-wave states. Dr. Dispenza actually asks you to concentrate on the exterior first before you can start working with the interior. For this reason, the meditation which you do during your first week takes around 20 minutes and concentrates on your body and external environment. We need to learn to consciously feel our bodies and stay in control.
You have two options: body-part OR water-rising meditations. I have tried them both and liked the body-part meditation way more. The guided meditation basically asks you to focus on the space that your separate body parts occupy in space. You start with your lips moving down to your legs and finish by focusing on the space that the entire space occupies in space. As I write this now it seems ridiculous how many times I wrote the word ‘space’.
I probably spent 2-3 weeks doing just the body-part induction before adding week 2. Although I have been meditating for years, I found myself drifting away when I got used to the meditation and I wanted to train myself to stay on track.
3.2. week 2 (recognizing all the 'poop' stuff)
Duration: ± 30 minutes
Step 1: Induction
Step 2: Recognizing Your Emotions
Step 3: Admitting & Declaring Your Emotions
Step 4: Surrendering Your Emotions
Week 2 requires us to ask ourselves specific questions about our belief systems and personality traits. You have to write down your answers. Writing them down is not mandatory, but highly recommended because you can come back to your answers before each meditation.
This is where I started exploring my past experiences and traumas that needed releasing. Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself asks you to pick one survival emotion that is a big part of you and you wish to unmemorize it. As I couldn’t pick one, I picked two (however, it all changed as I made progress during week 3).
The calibrations levels of some of the emotions that lived within me were extremely low (shame and guilt), and I knew that if I continue living like that, it would bring massive health problems to me in the future. If you are hearing about calibration levels for the first time, I recommend reading a few books by David R. Hawkins, a psychiatrist with more than 50 years of experience. If there is one person with whom I would love to have a cup of coffee and ask like 100 questions, it’s him. ♡
In essence, each emotion has a calibration level or a vibrational frequency. It’s all energy and we know that emotions that have a low calibration-level attract low vibrational events.
During week 2 you should not hold back, lay it out as it is. In all honesty, it was truly liberating to do that. You may feel like you are eager to move on to “remembering your future”, however, you need to make space for it first and it’s not an easy process. The end result is rewarding, though.
3.3. week 3 (my breaking point)
Duration: ± 40 minutes
Step 1: Induction
Step 2: Recognizing Your Emotions
Step 3: Admitting & Declaring Your Emotions
Step 4: Surrendering Your Emotions
Step 5: Observing and Reminding Yourself of Who You No Longer Want To Be
Step 6: Redirecting Yourself
As I was in my second month of doing the meditations I reached my breaking point. I don’t know what happened or why, but week 3 felt like a huge spoon digging through my soul and scrapping off anything that may be hidden. This is also the week that completely shifted my perspective and most of the answers I gave during week 2 changed. With digging through my shadow self I caught myself realizing that my survival emotions are not shame or guilt, it’s actually fear. This completely flipped my perception because share, guilt, regret, these emotions are all based on the past while fear focuses on the future.
During week 3 meditations you are supposed to observe yourself on the daily basis. What do you think during the day, what thoughts have the power to sneak up on you, and what actions do you end up taking? I think this is what made my true emotions reveal themselves because I was no longer trying to find an answer, I just took the observer seat.
‘Redirecting Yourself’ which is Step 6 in the program asks you to play the so-called ‘change’ game and through repetition teaches your brain to snap out of certain emotions. Almost 3 months after completing the program I still sometimes use this method in my daily life.
After I finished week 3, I made some of the most important and life-changing decisions ever. I know it’s going to be difficult to relate to my situation because I don’t go into detail, however, all I can say is that I was able to finally talk about my past traumas out loud. I finally was able to shake off the burden I used to carry with me all day every day. More importantly, I felt like I was given a battery of courage and nothing would be able to destroy it.
I GREW IMMENSE COURAGE WITHIN MYSELF TO MAKE A DECISION I WAS TRYING TO AVOID FOR YEARS.
3.4. week 4 (creating a new mind)
Duration: ± 60 minutes
Step 1: Induction
Step 2: Recognizing Your Emotions
Step 3: Admitting & Declaring Your Emotions
Step 4: Surrendering Your Emotions
Step 5: Observing and Reminding Yourself of Who You No Longer Want To Be
Step 6: Redirecting Yourself
Step 7: Creating & Rehearsing Your New Future
This is the fun part. The part everyone is waiting for. Well, at least I was lol. Ever since I was a kid, I would daydream, visualize, and imagine myself in so many different scenarios. I was THAT kid who would talk to myself on the street. And yes, I was called out for it haha.
Week 4 is all about combining all of the steps into one fluid meditation. You go through induction, parts of yourself you want to drop and welcome, you are living your dreamiest visualizations. This is the yummiest part of the program and I have zero shame in saying that I cried during it like 70 times. It can get pretty emotional and trust me, it’s completely natural, normal, and even welcomed.
I visualized my future (or shall I say present self) so vividly it felt like I could almost touch it. From the work I want to do to the people I want to surround myself with. Most importantly, I focused on the emotion I felt during Step 7. That’s the most important part and it without a doubt was a memorable experience. After all, we never forget how certain things make us feel.
4. Conclusions
In my humble opinion and as someone who genuinely read the book and did the program, I RECOMMEND EVERYONE TO DO IT. You may be surprised by what comes up. You may not enjoy it at first and as humans, we tend to light up when starting something new and then drop it after a week, because the motivation is gone. However, I invite you to stick with it. Give it a fair try.
Don’t be fearful of the long sessions. If you choose to go with Chris’ version, the sessions will be shorter than the time I indicated above each week.
Be honest with yourself during the journey of Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. Nobody’s watching, except for the Universe.♡
Namaste. I am proud of you.
Thanks for this! I just finished the book and am about to begin my journey. 🙂 So fascinating and such incredible data as well. Really ready for this. Thank you!
Hi, Lauren! This book has literally changed my life, so I’m super excited for you. 😊 Let me know in case you will have any questions!
I’m doing the audiobook and want to do the program when I am done. What if I don’t know what I want out of life?
Hi, Stephanie! Who does haha? 🤪 Don’t let this discourage you, focus on the feeling that you wish to bring into your new life, that is the most important facet of it anyways. Sometimes I question if the things I am working on are truly what I need/want, but then I just come back to the inner state that I wish to hold space for.
Hi! Thanks for this article!
I’m curious, when you stopped doing the meditations as you mentioned did you go back to doing just week 1 or did you pick up where you left off?
I did them for 6 weeks and felt great! But then fell out of the routine and I’m not sure if I should start with just week 1 or just do through week 4 like I was.
Thanks!
Hi, Marie! I cannot remember exactly if I started completely fresh, but I think it all depends on how you feel. If you sense that you want to get used to the program again, I would recommend just starting over and then perhaps progressing more quickly. If you feel quite comfortable with week 4, just dive right in. 😇 Good luck! 🌸
Hello there! I’m planning to start the 4-week meditation session and wanted to know where did you access the meditation audios?
I can’t seem to find them all on the website and the audible version is 2h long instead of the 40-50 total stated in the book. I would love to know!
Thanks,
Aminata
Hi, Aminata! Apologies for my late response.♥️ I believe that the videos I used to meditate to are now deleted, unfortunately. I could only find WEEK 1 and WEEK 4.