Shedding Old Limiting Beliefs: Soul Recovery and Shadow Work for Awakening

Have you noticed that old wounds and limiting beliefs showing up lately? You’re not alone. Many of us on the spiritual path are feeling an intense surfacing of our deepest shadows right now — and although it can feel unsettling, it’s actually a blessing in disguise.

In this episode, I invite you to see these resurfacing patterns for what they truly are: an invitation. We’re in a time of energetic shifts, solar flares, astrological alignments, and a spiritual “thinning of the veil” that is asking us to gently bring light to the parts of ourselves that have been hidden in our subconscious. These old stories and protective parts were never here to punish us — they were formed by a younger self who did the best they could to feel safe.

Through Soul Recovery, we don’t fight our shadow — we welcome it, witness it with compassion, and release it with love. Together, we’ll explore how to recognize these old beliefs when they show up, how to feel our feelings without becoming them, and how to step into our sovereign, whole self that’s always been there beneath the stories.

As you listen, may you be reminded: your shadow doesn’t define you. It’s simply showing you where more light wants to enter.

Ready to take your Soul Recovery journey deeper?

Join Rev. Rachel in person for a transformative in-person weekend retreat—July 19–20 in Lafayette, Colorado, or September 13–14 in Asheville, North Carolina.  Learn more and reserve your spot.

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not allied or representative of any organizations or religions, but is based on the opinions and experience of Rev. Rachel Harrison. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Take what you need and leave the rest.

Chapters

• 0:00 Energetic Shifts and Shadow Work
• 7:51 Soul Recovery Introduction
• 16:59 Shadow Work and Limiting Beliefs
• 22:15 Shifting from Victimhood to Sovereignty
• 27:17 Soul Recovery Process Steps
• 28:03 Feeling Your Feelings Without Identifying
• 31:25 Information About Soul Recovery Resources

Transcript

Rev Rachel Harrison: 0:00

If a lot of your old stuff, your old shadow wounds, a lot of your old belief systems, have been coming up a lot recently. You are not alone. This is happening to so many of us who are on this awakening spiritual journey because there is an energetic shift happening and so if you've actually been rattled and having a lot of those old limiting beliefs showing up in your life, it's on purpose to give you an opportunity to see them. You've actually been rattled and having a lot of those old limiting beliefs showing up in your life, it's on purpose to give you an opportunity to see them, so that you can use your soul recovery to bring light to your shadow. It's time to let all those old beliefs go and transform into your whole higher self. Enjoy the episode. Whole higher self. Enjoy the episode.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 0:47

Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast a spiritual path to a happy and healthy life. My name is Rev Rachel Harrison. I started Recover your Soul after having profound changes in my life from my recovery of alcoholism, codependency and control addiction. I was guided to share the tools and principles of spirituality and soul recovery to help others transform their lives as mine was transformed. For us to overcome external circumstances, we need to turn the attention to ourselves, focusing on our inner change and healing. Positive results in our lives will follow. Welcome to the Recover your Soul podcast and community. I'm Rev Rachel. Thank you so much for choosing in today. Thank you for trusting me on your soul recovery journey.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 1:37

This is where we're remembering our wholeness. We're learning how to be okay, beyond okay. We're actually learning how to be happy and healthy regardless of what's happening around us, through a spiritual path, and I continue just to deepen my own spiritual journey and just be so grateful for the transformation that's happened in my own life, because it's still lifey. Out there there is still a lot of the exact same stuff that used to shut me down and I felt overwhelmed and I felt uncontrollable and I was trying to fix everything. I was really suffering, suffering being that feeling of trying to make it be something else, that we didn't want it to be what it was. So then we were doing everything we can to make it be something else and in that there's just so much pain and discontentment and frustration and real grievance and resentment. And when we step into this place of soul recovery, we're actually stepping into the knowing that we can learn from these experiences, but we do not have to be part of them. We're taking our power back and saying I am going to choose a different way of being. I am going to choose a new path. Today is a new day and the way that we do that really is by really exploring ourself, our thoughts, our beliefs.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 2:59

I wanted to talk today in this episode a little bit about what's coming up for you, that the beliefs and the patterns and the stories that have been what we call the shadow and the shadow work, that Carl Jung used this idea that there are these elements of ourselves. And I'm going to ask you if they're coming up really heavy for you right now, because are have been coming up for me really, really intensely right now. And when I tap into the other spiritual teachers and channelers and in the real world that's out there that I am just fully immersed myself in and love so much because it just feels it feels so much more peaceful there, it just feels like there's more ability to attune to my higher power, to my higher self, and the word out there, the concepts out there, are that right now there is a lot going on in an energetic level, really a lot going on an energetic level and we can feel it here on the plane of being human beings, here at Earth Squall. There's a lot going on at energetic level and we can feel it here on the plane of being human beings, here at Earth School. There's a lot of energy and it comes all the way from, if you look at astrology, the people who are into astrology. The astrology readings are showing that this is an incredibly intense time and that is showing up to be rightfully so, and also on the energetic level even even it's so amazing the solar flares that are happening.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 4:32

That energy on a spiritual level is on purpose because it's here to awaken, to charge the energy around us, to bring up these pieces of ourselves that are being brought up, to be revealed. This is part of the soul recovery process is to really look at these aspects of ourselves that have these old, tired, limiting beliefs and for them to come up and be exposed. Not for you to reinforce them or to believe in them even more or say, see, this is why my life isn't working, this is what's going on with me, but really for you to look at them and see them in a way where you see from this new soul recovery place that you've been working on with me, where you can look at it as a witness with gentleness, compassion and kindness, and say compassion and kindness and say, wow, that is what's in there. I'm letting a pain or a belief system that came from parents when I was a small child that was from their own ignorance is the word that's coming to me or their own inability to be present in that moment, or the pain and the wounds that they had, that they were in projecting and inflicting upon me, that I put them into my mind as if those were real. And now I'm seeing that they're not real, that they're just stories. They're these old stories, these old beliefs of not being enough, of doing things wrong or being responsible for everyone, and they're coming up not for you to double down on them. They're coming up for you to see them, witness them, love them, accept them, have gratitude for them and to release them and let them go.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 6:20

As I record this, it is summer solstice, june 21st. They say on a spiritual level that this is one of those times, if you really look in the energy, that there is this thinness in the veil. They call it that the ability to step into this more awakened state, is more available, that that space is more transparent, and I am stepping more into being willing to talk openly and I am doing more of that over on the bonus recovery soul podcast, which is going to be rebranded to be called awaken your soul, because you're here, because this is calling to you and the guidance I continue to get is don't be afraid to talk about it, because I'm not telling you that you have to go all the way out into the woo. Go into what is being called to you. You are here on your spiritual path to discover yourself, to remember who your soul came here to be, without all this sludge. Remember who your soul came here to be, without all this sludge, without all this stickiness that comes from all these old stories and old beliefs and old patterns.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 7:32

You know, I was reading on social media the other day somebody who is talking about their childhood and they want to help other people who may have had these complicated childhoods that they had, help other people who may have had these complicated childhoods that they had, and it was a long post around a narcissistic parent. And what I think is so interesting is that there's a couple ways that you watch people go through these experiences and one of the awarenesses that I have is there's no right way or wrong way. It's not as if the soul recovery path is the only path. As a matter of fact, it is the exact same journey that so many other spiritual teachers are teaching, because it is a path of awakening. I just have my own terminology, my own way of doing it, but what I recognized in that was there was an identification that she had as being wounded from this parent that she was holding, and it didn't feel to me and again, this is my interpretation of how it felt to me it felt to me like she was holding onto it, as if it's to say see, this is why I'm like this and this is what this person did. That wasn't okay and this is the story, right.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 8:51

So in soul recovery, what we're learning is we're learning to express and speak our story, because our stories are so valuable, because they're going to give you information about what that shadow is. What is that limiting belief? What is that story that you're telling yourself over and over again, that's actually underneath in your unconscious and subconscious, that is actually keeping you from being able to break through and move into a new way of being right. This is step three is discovering unhealthy patterns, beliefs and stories in soul recovery. Step five is releasing the patterns that no longer serve you so you can move to step six, which is embracing new beliefs and rewrite your story. But the old story is giving you information, so it's never about dismissing the story. It's about witnessing how deeply you identify with it and then you claim it, because when you claim it, you're actually still holding on to the story and the healing doesn't come from going around and really feeling victimized.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 10:04

In the experiences that you had as a child and we all had very difficult situations the victim is a brain place that says this terrible thing happened to me and I want you to know. Some really difficult and painful and traumatic things happened to you. Absolutely they did. But when we come at it from a spiritual angle, from the soul recovery perspective, we're actually looking at it from this place of curiosity and tenderness and compassion to a younger self and how it felt to them. We are not a victim. We are feeling beings and the feelings are actually the power of what our souls came here to experience. Feelings are incredibly powerful. They have so much to offer us and information and experience and growth, feeling feelings and having the experience and then how it feels in your body is really the power of what your soul came here to be. So when you reach back into those experiences, it's as if you take those characters and you stop identifying them as being good or bad or whatever it is.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 11:20

Generally, let's look at a parent right, like this parent was a narcissistic parent. They're playing a role, they're having an experience and you're holding space for them without any expectation or identification. And that's a big shift sometimes to make because that's how we're usually taught is this is what parents do and this is your mom and your dad and this is how they're supposed to be and this is how they screwed up or this is how they did things right. What we're doing is we're like looking at these souls, like look at as a soul cluster of these different souls that came into how this, this lifetime, and to teach each other things and to break patterns, and for some souls it's to stay in their karma. They don't get to awaken this time, but you are, you're awakening, you're doing it so you can look at these experiences that you had as a child and you can take off these labels and expectations and you can be curious about what it felt like to you, instead of blaming and naming them as the addictive, alcoholic father or the narcissistic, unavailable mother or the emotionally unavailable brothers or sisters or whatever it was. Yes, that is a label that you can give it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 12:45

Set that aside, step into your shadow and be curious about how it felt to you. What did that feel like to you? Because that's where the power is. That's where the healing is. It's not about naming the other. You're powerless. That's step two in soul recovery. We're powerless over everything outside of ourself. You are powerless over how they showed up. You're powerless over what their ways of how they reacted to you said to you, out of their own intention or non-intention, whatever it was, but it felt a way to you. And this is really where the healing is, because when you can touch in and you can begin to really feel those feelings from your younger selves, they will show you the stories and the beliefs that were set up. Are you ready to step into your soul recovery?

Rev Rachel Harrison: 13:42

Visit the website RecoverYourSoulnet to learn more about the nine-step soul recovery process. Dot net to learn more about the nine step soul recovery process. I hope that you'll join us the first Monday of every month for the free soul recovery support group on zoom, where we learn more about soul recovery and connect with each other. If you'd like to work directly with me to move through the nine step soul recovery process, I'm here for you, but you can also choose to work the steps on your own, with individual modules intended to support you to work at your own pace and on your own time. And if you want even more soul recovery, join us for the Recover your Soul bonus podcast for Patreon members and Apple podcast subscribers, where I interview amazing people sharing soul recovery tips for us and also do spiritual book studies. You can also find Daily Inspiration on Facebook and Instagram and join our private Facebook community. Visit the website for more information, links and registration for everything.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 14:37

Back to the episode, and you know for me that one of my big ones was around getting in trouble from this one time right. It's so amazing how it doesn't take all that much For some people. They have these incredibly painful repetitive situations. Well, I had this one time of getting in really big trouble when I was four years old, but I also had more times of not getting in trouble and learning how to be good. Not getting in trouble and learning how to be good. I had more experience, not from the infliction of something, but from the knowing. To not get in trouble was how I stayed safe, and what did that feel like to me? And so when I go in and I touch those places of what that felt like to me, that's where I can begin to uncover this deep place that has a massive fear of rejection, of not doing something right.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 16:46

And isn't it interesting that, whether you come from a family with a lot of dysfunction or what some people are like no, no, no, I grew up in like this great family and everybody was really there for each other. We all set into roles that we played and this creates our shadow. This creates this part of ourself that has some sort of limiting belief. That is made from a child, it's made from a younger self, and I have an episode that's around our protectors and parts, and this is part of that where you recognize that those parts of us that had these intense feelings that we didn't know how to feel when we were younger, we created our soul creates a protection to keep us safe. So for me, my protection was to be a really good little girl. Right, be a people pleaser, be a codependent. Make sure everybody else's needs are taken care of before your needs.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 17:45

Well, one of the things that's really coming up for me in this massive energy shift that we're having right now, which has been going on for about a month. So, if you've been having stuff come up for you, I want you to really just give yourself energy shift that we're having right now, which has been going on for about a month. So if you've been having stuff come up for you, I want you to really just give yourself some grace and I want you to give yourself credit that you are attuned to the energy. We are vibrational beings. We are attuned to the energy. If you've been tired, if you've been feeling overwhelmed, if you don't know why you have like I just got to stop, I can't do anything right now, or you're having headaches or your body feels different, it's because you're actually feeling the energy that is coming from all these solar flares and from the stars, and there's something really beautiful in that. That's because you are awakening and you're connecting beyond what is in your body and your mind. You're actually opening up to something even greater still. If you can see how beautiful that is.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 18:48

So one of the things that's been coming up for me is the other major wound that I had was around rejection from friends and children and being an only child and having parents that were these very independent. You know, when I look at it from my adult self now I had these, you know, amazing parents who were very independent, had me because a star spoke to them on a hillside and told them that I was coming. So if you go way into the woo right, my soul knew that I was supposed to come through them. They weren't the kind of parents that just couldn't wait to have a baby and they were going to have everything around that baby. That wasn't my experience, but I had these independent parents and so I was. I was alone a lot and I was left on my own to take care of myself and to my own devices, and so when I tried to interact with other kids I didn't really know how to do that. I didn't have any brothers or sisters. I hardly even had parents that really like played with me or interacted with me on that on a kid level. I was treated like an adult by them from the very beginning, so I didn't really know how to interact with kids and there was a lot of rejection, and so that set up a system in me that really has said that people aren't safe and that I have to really care about what people think about me. And this has come up in the last month so intensely, over and over and over again from all these different angles, all the way from putting together the first draft of the manuscript before I could hand it over to Maddie, who's my co-writer, and let her do her magic and then we'll rework it together again.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 20:33

When I was writing and I was in the mix of first of all feeling and remembering all the really difficult, painful stories of my life that are part of that book of my own soul recovery process, that was really painful, but what was really painful was all the limiting beliefs that were coming up around who do you think you are? Who do you think you are to say this or to have a story to tell, or that you're not a good writer, or you don't know what you're doing? And it was. It was crushing and it was like can't even describe it. It was in a way that I had as if everything was really coming up in this way of like you're going to be. Oh, I just felt like I was going to die. I just felt like I was going to die in my being and luckily we're in this soul recovery process together where I could hold space for it.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 21:34

It was like I could watch myself from above, with the fear of rejection and the fear of not being enough and the fear of everything that is really rooted in the shadow of unworthiness that we all have, this unworthiness that we all have. And when you look at it from this beautiful space of imagine, you're seeing yourself through the eyes of love, of spirit, of Christ, of God, of source, of your angels, or whatever it is that you call it. And you are looking at yourself through these beautiful eyes. Do you see yourself as broken? It's not enough, of course not. What you see is you see the wholeness of who you are and you recognize the experiences in which you've experienced and the complexity that they were and how.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 22:28

So much information that was brought to you was brought to you out of fear and out of old historical patterns handed down from generation to generation, of how we speak to each other, how we talk to each other, what love looks like generations of addiction, generations of dysfunction, and you see a purity within yourself and a reminder that that's all just story. It's all just story. We don't have to identify with that story, right? So that goes back to when we look at these stories and we can see ourselves with this level of compassion. Then it goes back to the, of course tool that was a couple episodes ago as well. Of course, this little girl created this story about who she was and how she was supposed to behave.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 23:26

And of course, that moved on into my life, going forward, and how I've shown up and how I've tried to get approval from people and what I think I am and how I've been afraid and and how my codependency has worked. And then you can just love yourself so much, you can just bring yourself so much love and compassion and you can see it from this place. That says these experiences and which I've experienced. When I feel my feelings about them, I recognize that that's where all the juice is to give me information about what I'm ready to let go of, what parts of it have created other parts of myself, like I'm so proud to be somebody who is organized, who gets a lot of things done, who is reliable, who is a leader. I'm proud of those parts of myself and they came from these difficult, complicated situations that I went through. Those shadows actually created some of my best qualities, but I don't have to be in those qualities from a shadow place. I can be in those qualities from the bright light that we were all brought here to be.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 24:41

This energy of us to expand and awaken means that we can see ourselves in a new light so that, as these really limiting, old, sticky, residual, reactive and just trigger responses that we have of like how we see the world, are ready to be shifted. And what they're saying right now, the speak on the super spiritual end, is that as you release these, these, and as you step more fully into your sovereignty the sovereignty being the word that means nothing on the outside is determining who you are on the inside. You are sovereign in your knowing of who you are Then those old beliefs and those old definitions and those old holdings and this is who that person was and this is who I was, and this is why it's like this they soften and they energetically release and I just envision like little sparkle dusts coming off of them and just being transmuted back into the energy of everything and that what's left is this crystal clear you who feels feelings, who gets their heart hurt and broken, who has excitement, who has joy, who has ambition and things to do in the world, and also can feel sadness, can feel disappointment. Those are all valid feelings to have, and the more attuned that we get to our feelings, the less things are shadow, the more they're light and the more we become aware of what feels good and what doesn't. And when those things that don't feel good are giving you information about what is left to be healed or where you're staying stuck in relationships and situations that actually don't attune or align to you at all. But we're coming from a limiting belief that says I can't ask for more, I can't have what I need. Other people's needs are more important. I'm here to save them and again, that feeling that you're having, that feels uncomfortable, is giving you more information of how to release those patterns. And in that, what's fascinating is not only are you rewriting your story and rewriting your beliefs, you're actually shifting spiritually where you are in your life. You're moving to an entirely different spiritual essence of yourself. You're also retraining, and what the big word right now is rewiring your mind because those neuron paths have been so quick to fire and go in those old belief systems. You're actually breaking those up and moving them into a new way so that it's very easy to remember who you are.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 27:52

And that when those hits come, those nuggets of like, oh, like, oh, I really care about what people think, or I want people to like this, or I want to say the right thing, or I don't want to be in trouble. I recognize it. It's like a. It's like a oh my gosh, it's like a little thing that shows, like a little ball that shows up in the air like this bubble, a belief bubble, and it comes and you and I can see it and I'm like, oh yeah, there it is.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 28:19

This is about not wanting to be in trouble. This is about being afraid of what people think of me, because who are they anyway? This whole being in trouble, being rejected, and that's a deep, deep shadow of a little girl who was just trying to be safe. And then I remind myself that I'm safe. I remember my sovereign state. I'm powerless over other people, and what's going on? This whoosh of love and compassion comes into my heart, the bubble pops, and I'm gratitude for it. I'm so thankful to understand and be able to see myself better and it gives me that sovereignty and that strength and that connection to my source, higher power, creator, whatever you want to call it, god, jesus, whatever it is for you. I feel so held and loved in that space and I feel safe there, so that nothing, nothing, nothing can harm me Because I'm not responsible for all of those other things.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 29:28

And it seems, it seems so, gosh. I really want to say it seems so simple, right, it's like, yeah, well, everybody, we could all do that. It's simple but not easy, because those underlying beliefs are so rooted in and if you really go into the spirituality of souls, they may have been rooted in karmically for lifetimes awakening and moving towards. Can you even imagine moving into enlightenment, moving into this place where you really can release and allow all that is around you to be as it is and to use the power of your thoughts and your voice and everything that you think and feel and believe, to trust that everything is moving in the right direction for you and that you can open and see with love in everything, even if the people around you are not choosing the same, and that your heart can break and hurt and it can be hard and sad, but those feelings are an important part of being a human being. But we don't fall back into those old systems of putting their lives on the top of our list instead of our own healing.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 30:53

Your healing will make change in the world around you because you will see it in a new way, you will feel it in a new way, you will have compassion in a new way. This is the process of soul recovery. That is the process of awakening. It is a process that goes back to the ancients and this is just one way to name it, define it, walk through it. But what I want you to know, it's within you already. I'm not saying anything that isn't a wisdom that is innately within you already. It's about giving you permission to tap into that wholeness of who you are and giving you permission to let go of the people, the circumstances around you and and to turn into your spiritual journey and to choose yourself and your healing. That's the power of soul recovery.

Rev Rachel Harrison: 31:53

Until next time, namaste, thank you for listening and I hope that that helps support your soul recovery process. Just a reminder that every Friday is the Recover your Soul bonus podcast. This podcast is for Patreon members and Apple podcast subscribers, and not only do you get an incredible interview or book study that comes with being part of that community, but your subscribing helps support this podcast and the Recover your Soul community. If you want to listen to those bonus episodes but can't subscribe right now, do know that you can be a free Patreon member and have access, for limited time, to new episodes. Visit the website recoveryoursoulnet or check out the show links below for coupons and information for upcoming events. I thank you for sharing this podcast with your friends and family. I thank you for giving it five stars, and the reviews that are left bring tears to my eyes. I am honored to be part of your life. Together we can do the work that will recover your soul.