Healing Imposter Syndrome Spiritually & Energetically

The Healing Sanctuary
​The Podcast

This week on my podcast, I'm talking about Imposter Syndrome and how to heal it from a spiritual and energetic perspective. These public episodes are separate from my private meditation membership, which you can learn more about here. You can also find this podcast on your favorite podcast app here.

​Imposter syndrome is a very intense, confusing, and overwhelming feeling that can convince us we're not good enough, we don't belong, we're a fraud, and other people are more deserving and more worthy.

In this episode, I'm going to guide you through understanding imposter syndrome on a spiritual and energetic level. I'll explain what it is psychologically, what it has to do with identity, and what all of that has to do with energy, vibration, and our spiritual self. We'll then talk about what healing of imposter syndrome entails, and how you can begin that healing, right here and now.

We'll conclude with a 7 minute energy healing exercise that will help you to feel relief, support, and connected to the divinity within you. This is part 1 and 2 on imposter syndrome, so be sure and come back next week for more discussion and healing!

The donation based Positive Inner Voice meditation: click here

Hear the  episode on Positive Self-Talk and how to cultivate it: click here

Connect with me on Instagram: @meditate_with_melissa 

Thank you so much! If you know someone who would benefit from this episode, please share. And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating so others can find this podcast! I know you're here because you're struggling with something yourself, and I sincerely hope you find relief and feel better soon.

The Healing Sanctuary: Meditation & Empowerment · Healing Imposter Syndrome Spiritually & Energetically

​Time Stamps: 
1:34 - What is happening within us when we experience imposter syndrome? 
2:15 - A metaphor for Imposter Syndrome with radio frequencies 
4:15 - How we break free of imposter syndrome (a spiritual and energetic answer) 
5:30 - Thoughts, inner stories, and energy alignment with Imposter Syndrome 
6:05 - The Vibration of Imposter Syndrome and why it makes us feel panic and fear 
7:25 - Why Imposter Syndrome convinces us we're not good enough and what's actually happening within us 
8:25 - What the opposite of Imposter Syndrome sounds and feels like (and how to cultivate this) 
11:25 - Imposter syndrome and identity - healing who you think you are versus who you really are (unlimited, capable and worthy!) 
12:38 - Why does imposter syndrome force us to acknowledge how we talk to ourselves and what our inner narrative is? 
14:11 - How our inner voice developed, what we internalized as children, and what this has to do with Imposter Syndrome 
15:00 - More on identity and Imposter syndrome and why it's so important 
22:00 - The importance of love and support in your external world as you work on healing your internal world 
22:50 - A quick recap of everything we talked about so far 
23:44 - What happens when you begin to heal from Imposter Syndrome? What do you experience? What do you need to know? 
26:00 - Final thoughts, conclusions, related episodes (see link above!) and notes on part 2 
27:26 - End of Part 1 discussion 
27:57 - Beginning of mini-meditation / energy healing exercise 
35:10 - End of energy healing exercise and my healing offers 

Episode Transcript

​The Healing Sanctuary
10/14/22
Managing & Healing Imposter Syndrome Part 1

Hello and welcome to The Healing Sanctuary. I’m your host, Melissa Field, and this week I’m talking about Imposter Syndrome. As I prepared this episode, I realized it wouldn’t all fit in one episode, and so this is part 1 of 2.

This first part is going to cover imposter syndrome from a spiritual and energetic perspective. The second part is going to cover healing your inner child using the quantum field, and why that’s an important aspect of breaking free from feeling like you don’t belong or you’re some kind of fraud.

If you’re feeling intensely negative about yourself or your life, please note that this podcast is not a replacement for any work you would do with a professional therapist or trained counselor. This information is based in my own experiences and perspectives, and is just here to help support you and hopefully offer you some new insights and ideas for your own healing journey.

Imposter syndrome is something I am intimately familiar with, and that’s probably not a surprise if you’ve listened to any of my past episodes. In those, I talk a lot about negative thinking and critical inner thoughts, and those absolutely go hand in hand with imposter syndrome. I’ve had a lot of experiences with this phenomenon, and I’ll go deeper into that in part 2. But for today, I just want to dive into discussing what this is on a spiritual and energetic level.

So what exactly is imposter syndrome? It’s essentially a vibration within you that is out of harmony with the vibration of what you’re wanting or currently have. It’s as if the vibration within you is on a low radio dial, and what you want or just got is on a high dial, and those two frequencies are completely out of harmony. One is playing one station and the other is playing the other, and because you are aware they are out of harmony, you feel an incredible amount of discomfort, frustration and inner chaos.

Imagine if you were listening to two different radio stations. One is playing music you don’t really like, and the other is playing music you love. But because both are playing at once, you can’t enjoy either, and it becomes incredibly frustrating to the point where you don’t want to hear either. To give yourself some peace you turn off the only one within reach, which is unfortunately the one you liked. But without the distraction of two stations at once, you feel more at peace, and you enjoy this other music more and you start to convince yourself you never wanted that other music to begin with. You tell yourself it was never for you and you just need to learn to love this other music… and it doesn’t matter anyways, because if you turn it back on it will be ruined by this other station.

In this scenario, the music you love is the dream or goal you’re pursuing. It’s what you’re reaching for, and it’s what lights your soul up. The music you don’t like is the place you settle into out of fear and self-doubt. It’s the place your inner critic tells you that you belong, it’s the place where you feel free of imposter syndrome but also a deep longing for what your soul really wants. But whenever you reach for the goal or dream, that other station interferes with the music, and you convince yourself it’s not for you or didn’t really want it. Rather than going back to the original station, you’ve got to push through that noise and fully get yourself to the new station, which is a new energetic vibration.

In order to get out of imposter syndrome, you’ve got to get your inner vibration to match the vibration of your desire, dream, or goal . Let’s say your goal is to be president of your company. And your desire for that occurs from a positive place. There are things about it that make you feel excited, happy, empowered, confident, abundant, and so on. You are not pursuing this goal because you believe it will make you feel awful in the end. You’re not pursuing it because it makes you feel small and frustrated, but because deep down, it feels expansive and exciting – and those feelings are on the high end of the radio dial. But right  now, all of that expansion and excitement might now be covered by fear, and that fear is on the low end of the radio dial. This is the essence of the disharmony that we’re talking about.

If your dominant inner narrative is telling you all the reasons you’re not good enough, or that you’ll let people down, or that you’ll be overwhelmed, and you focus in on all the negatives you perceive about yourself, you will not be in energetic harmony to your desire, which is coming from a high vibrating place. Instead, you will get into a low vibration, and because you’re out of harmony with what you want, it will feel as if you’re not meant to have it, as if you’re not meant to be there.

When we feel out of alignment energetically, we feel as if something is wrong. We feel as if we don’t belong, like we’re a con person pulling off an elaborate hoax. This is incredibly uncomfortable, and that discomfort can be so high it can cause fear and even panic to rise in us. The fear comes from feeling like we’re going to be unmasked, or found out, or caught being somewhere we shouldn’t. What we feel people will see is our vibration, that they will see we’re on the wrong vibration and we don’t belong, and we believe this means something, that it says something about us.

But it’s not saying anything about us except we’re our of energetic alignment. Because we rarely talk about things in terms of energy and frequency we don’t understand what’s happening, and so we come to the conclusion that we really don’t belong, that we’re not good enough, but this isn’t what’s happening at all. Imposter syndrome isn’t telling you if you’re good enough or if you should be there – all it’s telling you is that you are out of energetic alignment, and you need to shift your inner frequency.

Of course, imposter syndrome is so intense, it can absolutely convince us that what’s really happening is we don’t belong or we really aren’t good enough. But this isn’t the reality. The reality is, you’re on one vibration and you need to get onto another.

Now, you might be thinking, but what if I’m really not good enough? What if I don’t have the qualities, or no one will see them? These are thoughts built around self-doubt, and that doubt is creating the energy. Thoughts built around self-belief will sound like, “I’m a capable person, and I can learn and grow in the direction I want to go. I won’t know everything right away, but I have what it takes to develop new skills and to master what it is I want. I believe in my ability to overcome obstacles, mistakes, and setbacks. I believe that who I am now is valuable, and I will continue to expand and build upon what I know.” And so on and so on.

So how do we get into that kind of inner talk?

The way to do that, is to shift the dominant narrative within you. You want to shift your stream of conscious from self-doubt to self-empowerment. I know this sounds easier said than done, and as someone who has struggled with a lifetime of negative and critical self-talk, I completely understand how overwhelming this can be.

If we could just shift our thoughts from positive to negative, we’d do it, right? This is especially tough when we’ve been thinking these thoughts since the beginning of our formation of our sense of self. This can be even harder when those thoughts spend a lot of time as background noise, rarely operating in our conscious awareness.

It may seem illogical that you can have an intense stream of negative thoughts and not be aware of it, but for the most part, most of us are pretty good at pushing our inner critical thoughts out of awareness. This is part of why imposter syndrome is so intense and feels like it’s telling us something new and important. It can seem as if this inner monologue of you’re not good enough and everyone else knows it comes out of nowhere, and if it just arose in this situation, as you were about to achieve this thing you love, it must be that you really don’t deserve it. Btu the truth is, that inner monologue was always there, it just wasn’t forced into conscious awareness.  

What forces it into your awareness is the energetic misalignment. The resistance of the vibration brings the low vibration into a place where you can’t ignore it. So for me, when I look back, I was always pretty hard and critical on myself. I never learned to be loving and supporting and encouraging towards myself. And when I began trying to step out of roles that made me feel low and worthless and into ones that were empowering and exciting, I began to see what I had actually believed all along, which was that I belonged in those places that didn’t make me happy.

I want to emphasize again that imposter syndrome is not telling you what you’re capable of or what you can do. It’s telling you what kind of narrative has been instilled in you, which created a vibration you feel comfortable with, which has been mostly operating in the background, and this vibration has just been brought to the foreground.

The critical and negative thoughts that put us on a low vibration usually develop at such a young age they become woven into everything we think and do, almost like a background hum that you become so used to, you no longer notice it. It feels as natural as breathing, but just because it’s natural does not mean it defines you or that it belongs there or even that it will be there forever. It just means you’re comfortable with it because your sense of self grew with it.

And this is another reason why imposter syndrome is so uncomfortable. It’s a direct challenge to the sense of self you’ve been cultivating since before you were even aware you were doing so. When we’re dealing with imposter syndrome, what we’re really dealing with is a threat to our sense of self, to our identity. When something feels like a threat to our identity, it can feel as if we ourselves are about to be destroyed in some way, and that’s an intense feeling.

For me, I had an identity that I was a worthless loser. I didn’t go around consciously thinking this all the time, but the feeling that I wasn’t good enough was always there. Even though this feeling was painful and caused me a lot of suffering, it was what I knew. I was comfortable with it, and to cast it off for something I didn’t know was really scary. To not walk around calling myself a worthless loser was definitely better for me, but the fear of the unknown was almost enough to stop me from actually letting go of my negative self-talk.
Imposter syndrome, on the one hand, is something very simple. It’s a vibration, a frequency we’re on, that is out of harmony with the vibration of what we’re wanting.

On the other hand, it’s a complex thing interwoven into our psyche and identity, and shifting that vibration can mean dismantling one sense of self and building another.

This probably sounds overwhelming and like something that would take years, if not an entire lifetime, and in truth, how long it takes you to unravel one narrative and rewrite a new one is highly personal and unique to you. The good news is, no matter how long it takes, every step you take will build empowerment and bring in relief. Even if it does take years, the journey you go on of self-discovery and rebirth will be so enriching you will find there are rewards and gifts every step of the way, and that the journey is as important as the end result.

So first of all, give yourself some love and compassion if you’re dealing with imposter syndrome. It really is an overwhelming and confusing and intense sensation. It isn’t just that we doubt that we’re good enough or qualified for the thing we want to do – it’s that we’re facing an inner narrative we built of ourselves and challenging it and leaving it behind for the unknown. What we know might be on a low vibration, it might tear us down and hold us back, but the comfort and the security of the known over what we don’t yet know can be hard to leave behind. I myself fall back into old patterns and habits all the time, simply because I struggle so much with moving into unknown and unexplored parts of myself.

A lot of what formed our sense of imposter syndrome came from the voices of the people around us, particularly our parents, being internalized as our own voice. We learned to talk to ourselves the way our parents or care givers spoke to us and to the people around them. But a lot of it also comes from things that were ingrained in us from cultural and social norms, such as other people’s racist and closed minded beliefs.

The experiences that made you doubt your worth and your abilities were real and impactful. It’s not your fault your sense of self developed in a world that is basically a melting pot of a billion different people projecting their inner fears and insecurities outwards. It’s also hard when you know changing your inner narrative won’t change the people around you, and that sense of not being able to control external factors can be overwhelming in itself.

For this reason, as you work on your inner voice, you also want to work on your support network. You want to have people in your life who understand your struggles and obstacles and will validate them. This doesn’t mean you literally need new friends in your life, it just means you need people in your sphere of influence who celebrate you and know what it’s like to face things like prejudice and oppression and other things that cause you stress and fear that you can’t control. This could mean you start listening to new podcasts, reading new books, joining groups online, and just nurturing your inner world with a positive sense that you’re not alone in what you’re experiencing.

So just to recap, imposter syndrome is a vibration within you that is out of harmony with the vibration of your goal or desire. Imposter syndrome is not telling you what you’re capable of. It’s telling you what the vibration of your inner narrator is, and that vibration is created from the thoughts you think. If those thoughts are overwhelmingly negative, then the vibration will be low. In order to change the vibration, you must change the thoughts, and changing the thoughts will change your sense of identity and how you perceive yourself.

When you change your sense of identity, you change how you see yourself fitting into the world. For most of your life, you have seen yourself as fitting into the world in a certain way, and so when you begin changing how you see yourself, the way the world sees you will change as well. This can sometimes lead to a period of feeling like you’re lost in the woods, because once again, you’re leaving behind what you do know for all new experiences and sensations. This is overall a good thing, as you will basically be rewriting the role you play, the character you are in your own inner movie, in a way that goes from fear-based to empowered.

However, changing your sense of identity can feel like a part of you or even all of you is being destroyed, and it can sometimes be very overwhelming, especially if you’ve internalized a lot of negative and critical self-talk. You may need the support or guidance of a professional, such as a therapist or a counselor. A self-love coach could also be a powerful ally in this journey. A lot of times when we face our inner critic, we face some pretty deep wounds, and so please, be gentle with yourself. Go slow. And know that we all struggle with our sense of self. There’s nothing wrong with you. And that voice that tells you that you can’t or you’re not good enough. It’s not your voice. Your real voice, the one that tells you that you can and you are worthy and you are capable, it's in there, and its’ going to feel so good when you get to it.

How to change that inner narrator is something that can’t be covered here, it needs to be its own episode, and thankfully, it is one! I did an episode a few weeks ago called “Healing Your Negative Self-Talk and Finding Your Positive and Supportive Inner Voice” that you can scroll back to. I also recently did an episode on using visualization to empower yourself and change your inner voice, and I highly recommend that, because visualization can really be a powerful tool in accelerating your healing.

Next week, I’m going to talk about shifting your inner narrator and healing imposter syndrome using the quantum field. This is a really powerful way to shift your energy and create change, and so I hope you’ll join me for that.

This brings me to the end of part 1, But before I finish, I want to do a little energy healing exercise that will hopefully help you with where you’re at and what you’re struggling with. I know you tuned into this episode because you’re neck deep in your own fears, and you deserve to feel better, so let’s see if you we can just make a little shift for you, right here and now.
If you can, do this sitting down with your eyes closed. If you’re driving or doing something that requires your attention, please just hit pause and come back when you can.

I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Continue to breathe slow and relaxed through your nose.

As you do so, bring your hands up to your chest and place them over your heart. With your hands on your chest, feel your breath flowing in and out of your body. Feel your hands moving with your breath, and really tune into each breath as it flows in, fills you, and then flows back out.

Begin to visualize a beautiful white light in the center of your chest. This light is the light of Divine love. It is the love that is with you at all times. It is the love that reminds you in every moment, in every breath, you are divine and you are worthy. This bright white light in your heart melts through fear and flows relaxation and ease throughout your mind and body.
As you breathe in, breathe into the light. See it growing bigger and brighter with each breath into it. And as you breathe out, surrender all that weighs on you to the light. Let it go, and let the infinite love of the divine take care of everything for you.

When you’re ready, take one more deep, expansive breath.

If you enjoyed that little exercise, then I would love to invite you to join my private meditation membership. It’s $5 / month, and it includes hundreds of powerful audios for healing, personal empowerment, and returning to the truth of who you really are.

I also have an inner voice meditation that will help you to find that supportive inner voice within you. There’s a 10 minute version included in the membership, and you can also get an extended version when you donate any amount. I’ll put the link to those in my episode notes.
I also mentioned an episode earlier on positive self-talk that I did, and I’ll put a link to that in my episode notes.

And if you’d like to learn more about any of these offers, or my other healing packages and courses, go to my website melissa-field.com. You can also find me on Instagram @meditate_with_melissa, where you’ll also find links to all of these things.

And with that I’m going to go ahead and end this episode. I’ll be back next week with part two. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a rating so that others can find this podcast. And if you know anyone who would benefit from this, please share.
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I’m Melissa Field, and I am so grateful you turned in today. I really appreciate you and I hope we’ll be connecting again soon, whether that be here or on Instagram or through my website.