Are You Living in Your Parent’s World?

Self-Improvement

Mar 1

Which World Are You Living In? Your Parents or Your Own?

You may not even realize it, but for most of your life, you've been viewing the world through your parents' lens. The way they see money, relationships, success, failure, and even their fears and insecurities—these were all absorbed into your subconscious, especially in those early years.

For about the first seven years of your life, your brain was in a highly receptive, almost hypnotic state. In this phase, you weren’t just learning how to walk and talk—you were absorbing everything around you. Your parents’ beliefs, their habits, their emotional reactions—whether healthy or not—became the foundation for how you navigate life.

This is why you might find yourself struggling with money in the same way your parents did. Or why you react to stress the way they did. Or why you hold the same political, social, or cultural views without ever questioning them.

Awareness is the first step. You don’t have to keep living in their world. You can remove yourself from their programming and create a life that aligns with your truth, values, and unique path.

Because if you don’t take conscious control of your beliefs and mindset, you’ll keep running on autopilot—repeating cycles that aren’t even yours. You are not to blame for inheriting negative beliefs and the traumatic events you’ve been through. However, it is up to you to recognize that you are responsible for the life you choose to live as you age. As you get older it is up to you to take responsibility for your actions, your choices, and your beliefs on how you navigate the world. This is what being an adult is all about, being old enough to form your own opinions and values despite the ones you were taught growing up and being able to decipher which ones support you or not. This is what true adulting is.

IN TODAY’S GUIDE YOU’LL LEARN:

How to recognize the beliefs and patterns you’ve inherited from your parents
Identify whether those beliefs serve you or limit you
Actively reprogram your mindset to create the life you want

How Your Parents’ World Became Yours

Let’s start with the science behind this.

From birth to about age seven, your brain is operating in a theta state—a brainwave state that makes you highly suggestible. It’s like your subconscious mind is a sponge, soaking up everything in your environment without questioning it. At that age, you don’t have the ability to critically analyze or reject ideas. You accept what you’re told as truth.

If your parents had a scarcity mindset about money, you absorbed it.
If they viewed the world as a dangerous or unfair place, you absorbed it.
If they had self-worth struggles, those patterns became your own.

This is why generational cycles repeat—because children inherit not just genetics, but also belief systems, emotional patterns, and unhealed trauma. Your parents weren’t trying to intentionally pass down limiting beliefs. They were just living in their own conditioning—the same way their parents passed it down to them. Unless you break the cycle, you’ll carry those same beliefs into adulthood, unconsciously shaping your reality around them, and if you’re familiar with what we preach here at Internal, you would already know how important your beliefs reflect the reality you live in.

Negative Upbringing Brings on Harmful Worlds

Depending on your childhood growing up, you could've either been raised in a loving household where your parents provided for you and gave you the stability and support you needed to become a healthy, happy, and secure adult later in life. The teachings that were passed down to you might not need to be changed because you could be thriving, happy, and healthy in this lifetime.

However, for a lot of you, this may not be the case. You may have been raised in traumatic situations and had to grow up and become mature at a young age because your parents didn’t provide you with the resources and safety net to be a kid. Because of this, you may have later become an unhealed older version of yourself. And if you’ve read any of our other guides, you know that a lot of times in life, it’s your unhealed inner child that’s running the show—living in this older meat suit while internally holding the same fears, beliefs, and worldview as when you were younger.

If you look at your fears objectively, you will notice how many of them are the exact same ones you developed as a kid. You’re just in an older, more mature external version of yourself, while internally, there could be no difference from when you were young. This is true for so much in your life. As stated previously, if you grew up in a chaotic environment where what you saw and were taught becomes harmful because you could still unconsciously be repeating the same patterns and beliefs you once thought were the only way to live—simply because that’s all you knew growing up.

Now that you’re older, you have the ability to separate yourself from these narratives and surround yourself with things that will help you rather than hurt you in the long run. This could look like being in relationships with stable people, making choices that positively impact you, and believing that your life can be good.

This is why it’s so important not to let your upbringing or childhood dictate and run your life. It’s up to you to talk to that younger version of yourself and reassure them that what you saw growing up isn’t the end-all, be-all. It was just one out of 8 billion ways people are living on this planet, and you now have the power to decide how you want to live. There are no definite rules saying you must live exactly as you grew up. You can consciously decide to change this, but first, it takes awareness—becoming objective about the unconscious patterns you may not realize you’ve been following that aren’t supporting your desire to live a more fulfilling life in the long run.

Signs You’re Still Stuck in Your Parents’ World

Want to know if you’re still operating from your parents' programming? Take a look at your life right now. Here are some signs that you’re still unconsciously living in their world:

1. Your Beliefs About Money Are Theirs

Do you feel guilty spending money on yourself?
Do you believe making money has to be hard?
Do you subconsciously fear financial success?
Do you avoid budgeting or looking at your finances because it stresses you out?

If your parents had an unhealthy relationship with money—whether that was overspending, constant scarcity, or avoiding financial responsibility—you may have unknowingly inherited those patterns.

2. Your Views on Relationships Mirror Theirs

Do you repeat the same toxic relationship dynamics they had?
Do you struggle with trust or fear abandonment?
Do you have the same communication style (or lack of one) as them?

The way you approach relationships—romantic, friendships, even your relationship with yourself—is shaped by what was modeled to you.

3. You Follow Their Political or Social Beliefs Without Question

Do you hold strong opinions simply because they do?
Have you ever genuinely explored opposing perspectives?
Do you feel defensive or resistant when someone challenges your beliefs?

It’s natural to adopt your parents’ views when you’re young, but as an adult, it’s important to ask: Do I actually believe this? Or was this just given to me?

4. You Struggle With the Same Emotional Patterns

Do you react to stress the same way they did?
Do you suppress emotions like they did?
Do you feel like you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop?

If your parents operated from a place of fear, anxiety, or constant stress, that programming is likely still running in the background of your life.

How to Remove Yourself from Your Parents’ World and Create Your Own

So, how do you break free? How do you start thinking for yourself and creating a reality that aligns with your truth?

Here are some steps to help you push out all that negative bias:

1. Become Aware of the Conditioning

The first step is awareness. If you don’t recognize the programming, you can’t change it.

Take some time to reflect:

What beliefs about money, success, relationships, or life did you inherit?
Do these beliefs help or limit you?
If you weren’t raised by your parents, would you still think this way?

Journaling is a powerful way to uncover hidden patterns. Write down common phrases your parents used to say about life. Do you still live by those beliefs today? Think and be as objective as you can.

2. Challenge Everything

Once you recognize the conditioning, it’s now time to challenge it.

Ask yourself: Is this belief actually true? Or is it just something I was taught growing up?

For example:

If you were taught that “money is the root of all evil,” is that actually true? Or is it just a belief that was passed down?
If you were told that “you have to struggle to be successful,” is that a universal truth? Or just a perspective you’ve seen as child?

You get to decide which beliefs stay and which ones go.

3. Expose Yourself to New Perspectives

The best way to break free from old conditioning is to immerse yourself in new ways of thinking.

Read books by people who challenge your worldview.
Have conversations with people from different backgrounds.
Follow mentors or watch different perspectives and different ways of living from people who think differently than you.

The more you expand your mind, the easier it is to rewrite your beliefs.

4. Rewire Your Subconscious

Since your beliefs were formed subconsciously, the best way to change them is through subconscious reprogramming.

Here’s how:

Affirmations: Repeating new beliefs daily until they become automatic
Visualization: Imagining yourself living in a different reality
Journaling: Writing out your new beliefs and identifying patterns
Meditation: Quieting the mind to release old programming

Repetition is essential!! The same way your parents’ world was ingrained in you, you have to now ingrain into your own.

5. Take Other Actions

Your mind will try to keep you in familiar patterns. The best way to break them? Do the opposite of what you’ve always done.

If your parents avoided financial responsibility, start actively learning about money.
If your parents never prioritized mental health, start therapy or self-development work.
If your parents stayed in toxic relationships, set new boundaries and choose partners differently.

It’s important to know that nothing changes unless you change it.

What Do You Want Your World to Look Like?

Breaking free from your parents’ world isn’t about blaming them—it’s about freeing yourself, blaming them will get you nowhere, just resentful. Being resentful takes energy and if you have very little energy to start with, the best thing you can do is pour back into yourself. This looks like living a life that pours and gives in return to you. In some cases, your parents did the best they could with what they knew. But now, it’s up to you to decide what you want to be true.

You are not obligated to carry their beliefs, struggles, or limitations. You are not required to live inside their world forever.

You now have the capability to step into your world. The only question is: Will you create your own or keep living in one you didn’t?

Internal knows that the best investment in life is YOU!

That’s why we made our products specifically designed to help you along your holistic wellness journey. With a focus on quality and design, each product offers lasting benefits that bring real value and make a genuine difference in your life.