Impact Over Intention Q&A: Protection or Truth? How to Recognize the Difference.

This episode is a listener Q&A from the Impact Over Intention series, where I respond to a powerful question that came out of Episode 1:

How can someone recognize when a belief they’re living from was formed in protection rather than truth and what’s the first step to changing it?

In this conversation, we break down the difference between protective beliefs and truth-based beliefs not in theory, but in real, everyday experience. I explain how protective beliefs are often rooted in fear and safety, while truth-based beliefs feel expansive, grounded, and aligned. We also explore how the body plays a role in this distinction, including physical cues that signal protection mode and emotional states that reflect truth and alignment.

You’ll walk away with simple, practical ways to notice whether a belief is coming from fear or from truth, and a clear first step you can take to begin shifting it. This episode isn’t about forcing change it’s about awareness, self-leadership, and learning to trust the signals your body and emotions are already giving you.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in a pattern you couldn’t explain or unsure whether a belief truly belongs to you, this Q&A will help you slow down, tune in, and begin choosing alignment over protection.

Transcript

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Thank you for tuning in to this episode of TK Conversations, the podcast that does an internal deep dive to help you address those internal things that you have been avoiding, but also having that open, honest dialogue to help inspire, empower you, and to help you move forward through this journey that we call life. Today's episode is part three. Part three because I am in the middle of my impact over intention series. And the first episode was the stories that shape our identity, parenting and childhood. And from that episode, I received several questions from some of my listeners. And I took a pause there and wanted to start answering just a couple of those questions. So part two was basically separating who you are from what we are taught. And that was a QA session. I have three questions I was going to address. In part two, I was only able to get to one of those questions. So today being part three, I am going to answer question number two. And if we have time, I will go into question number three. If not, that will be on next episode. So let's dive right in. The question that I was asked was, how can someone recognize when a belief they're living? I'm sorry, let me read that over. How can someone recognize when a belief that they are living is formed based on protection rather than the truth? And then the second part to that question is what's the first step in changing it? So I'll address everything within that question, um, and I'll break everything down kind of into sections the way I did in part two because I want to make sure that everyone listening and in my community is very clear on what it is that I am sharing with you. And you know, you guys always have the opportunity to email me, click the link, send me a message, and I will reach out to you or I'll address it on the podcast. But don't ever hesitate to reach out. Don't forget to give me a five-star review and hit like, subscribe wherever you listen to my podcast at. So now going into question number two. When I first read it, the first thing I thought about was discernment and the internal work. So discernment basing it off of them asking, how do I recognize if the belief is a protective belief or if the belief is truth? And truth meaning the core identity that's truly them. So I want to start by giving us the difference between a protective belief and what a truth belief is. And remember that truth belief is that core our core identity, who we are before we were told who we are, before we were taught anything, before we had the labels, played the roles, had the expectations-just truly us. So when we think about protective beliefs, I look at it this way: they are fear-based, and they limit our growth. So when those protective beliefs are provided to us, are installed in us, they are solely to protect us from the world around us. That's what's being done, just point blank. That's it. But what it does is it keeps us comfortable. So if we're protected, that means we're gonna stay comfortable and that comfort overpowers truth. Because the mind and body rather be comfortable than uncomfortable, so keep that in mind, and then the other way that I also think about it, and I want you guys to attach on to whichever one makes more sense with you, whichever one that you can resonate with, and that's why I always give a variety of what it means. And by all means, if each one of them are bullets for you and makes sense, I love that as well. So the other one, the other way that you can think about a protection belief is that it's a thought that your mind creates to prevent pain, rejection, and failure, just to name a few. So when that authority figure, that parent or guardian is installing those protection beliefs in you and creating your identity, it is really out of love, and it's to prevent that pain, to prevent rejection, to prevent failure, along with a couple of others. And some may say those are, I think they say maybe there's five core fears, and I just kind of named off a few of those, but keep that in mind, that is what that protection belief is, and once that's installed inside of us, what we do is we continue to feed that, so it they planted the seeds, they created the identity, and then we continue to water it throughout our whole lives, we continue to feed it so it would grow and grow. That's the protective belief. So if we compare, and I hate to use the word compare, but when we're looking at the protective beliefs and the truth beliefs, remember truth is your core identity, who you are. Well, you know what? Before I go into the truth, when let me let me say this. I'm gonna summarize the bullets that I basically gave of how you know what a protective belief is. So when it comes to protective beliefs, they're never about who you are. Remember, they are never about who you are, they're about what your mind has taught you and created to keep you safe. That's a good way for me to sum it up for you. Now, let's dig into the truth beliefs, the core beliefs. Your core, your foundation, before you had any labels on you, was aligned with you. It's your true identity and it's aligned. Mind, body, soul, spirit, all of it is aligned. That internal core of you, it's supportive, it enables growth, it's self-confidence, it's self-trusting, it's solely, it's solely rooted in awareness, values, and it's just your internal knowing. You just know, you know, you have that feeling of I just know that I know, and no matter what is said or done, it just cannot be shaken because you know, you know, you know. That's what that is, that's what that truth is, that's the core of you, and all of that comes out of alignment, none of it comes out of fear, and what it does is it expands the possibilities of everything that you can do instead of limiting what you can do. Protective beliefs limit everything that you could do because it is to keep you safe. That's its main focus. Your truth, the core of you, your foundation, and who you truly are, there are absolutely no limits whatsoever. You have possibilities everywhere, and there are no limitations. That's how I want you to continue to think about that. Now, if we continue to go, let's say just a little deeper in the process of just going through this question. Now we have what protective beliefs are and what our truths are, who we are to our core. Then we go into the physical and emotional aspect of this question. And I know when the listener sent me in this question, they were having their thoughts based on their perspective and their beliefs, but I have to dissect the question because it seems straightforward, but it's not. There's so many moving parts in there, and I would be doing a disservice if I didn't provide those different things to you guys. So let's think about the physical part of it. When we're dealing with protective beliefs and staying safe, that physical part will feel in our chests, our chest get tight. Say we start dealing with anxiety attacks, we start feeling depressed, we have body aches and pains, we're defensive. We say things like if you were to create a phrase or something, I can't. That's a key one. I can't, I can't. That's protective. You can't because you have to protect whatever it is that fear that is within you, and the fear was created based on the protective belief that was installed inside of you that you've watered and have grown and fed and to continue to develop this whole entire time. So that's a way for the physical aspect to impact your body and for you to know that that is a protective belief. Now, if we think about the truth belief, who we are to our core, just our truth, our foundation, that right there is an emotional part of us, and then we can still feel it. Those feelings come from that, and those feelings are say you're able to take deep breaths, you feel calm, you feel grounded, you feel still, no defensiveness, no uneasiness, you just feel calm and still and at peace. That's another way to tell. That is the truth belief, that is your core, that's your identity. So a good way we could kind of think about those two is that when something comes up and you immediately know, okay, this is a belief, does this belief keep you small minded? Or does it expand you? If it keeps you small minded in a form of limitations, then that is a protective belief. If it allows you to expand and move forward and grow and be open, that's your core, that's your truth. That's how I want you to look at both of those. So now let's think about this in the form of, well, you know, with the second piece to the question that was asked. How can I change it? I'm paraphrasing. So the way to change that is we have a couple of ways we could do this, but I want you guys to think about it this way. Once you recognize the belief, you became aware. So now I know, okay, this is a belief, and I'm gonna figure out is this belief true? Is it my core or is it a protective belief? Once you can distinguish, you that means you're aware. What you want to do is separate yourself from it. So now I know this is a belief. I need to separate myself from the belief. We're gonna say this is in the sense of it is a protective belief. You do not want to claim that belief because it's not yours, it doesn't belong to you. If it doesn't benefit you or serve you and help you in any way, shape, or form that keeps you on forward momentum, you have to let it go. So you have to separate yourself from it. And what I mean by separating yourself and not taking that on as an identity is name the belief, whatever that belief is, give it a name instead of it being your identity. Say this is a protective belief, it's not the truth about me, it's just that plain and simple. This is a protective belief. Other way you could do it is just ask yourself one simple question. What is this belief trying to protect me from? And that may be some people's easiest way of going about it. What is this belief trying to protect me from? Once you ask yourself that question and you're able to answer it on what it's protecting you from, now it stands alone. Now you have separated yourself from that belief, and that's the first step in taking action based on the question. Second part of the question, remember, was how do I change it? So first part was how can someone recognize when a belief that they're living with was formed in protection rather than the truth? And then the second part of the question was, what was the first step in changing it? So I've I've dissected that question completely, broke it down into some phases for everyone. So just to paraphrase it and sum it up here is your awareness enabled you to recognize that that was a belief, that that was a protective belief, and what you have to do is separate the belief from your identity because your beliefs are not your identity, that's not the true you. You got to know what is the true you, so you recognize it, which is awareness, and then the first step is to separate yourself from it by giving it a name, and then at that point, you are able to choose what you do from that moment because now you know what it is, and you know what it is not, and now you have a clear picture to actually make a choice of what you want to do, so you do not have to react to anything when it comes to that. I'm just looking at it as a whole, no more reacting, but you can respond because you're completely aware you've separated yourself from it, you see it for what it is. Now you can make a choice that is best for you, the core you, the foundation of you, and not based on the beliefs that were installed in you. Hope that made sense to everyone. So, what I'm gonna leave you with today is just uh I wanted to summarize it and just simplify it as best as I possibly could. So think of it this way: in order to change a belief, you have to no longer allow them to define you. Because remember, you are not your beliefs. That's what someone else installed inside of you. They put that seed in you, they nourished it and fed it until you were capable of nourishing it and feeding it yourself. So remember, don't let them define you. You are in control, you're able to make the choice. So we did not have enough time for question three. So there will be a part four, which would be the last question within the first episode, and that'll come on next week's episode. Well, the next episode, which will be released in sometime this week. There's two that are released every week Tuesdays and Thursdays. So the next episode will be Thursday. Remember, always allow your light to shine bright. Remove those layers that people and you have put on top of it because your light is shining whether you see it or not. Thank you again for joining me for TK Conversations. I will be talking to you guys soon.