The popular HBO show Westworld features robots who are designed to live a life that repeats, living the same pattern over and over with variation but no learning. The drama comes when a software change enables the robots to develop consciousness and use their free will to change their fate. Perhaps the popularity and resonance of the show is in witnessing characters defy their programming.

All of us with spiritual interest have found ourselves up against the wall of our existing consciousness (what we were taught and shown). Intuitively, we know there is more for us beyond the wall of expectation. Our heroes show us that by expressing their experience of expanded consciousness.

Human beings have a pattern of coming into life with great knowledge, then setting it aside in order to survive our families and society. All of us have great challenges thrust upon us, often to the degree that we enter survival mode. Spirituality (and modalities like therapy) help us to move out of surviving into thriving.

But what do we do when we come up against fate?

Recently, on three consecutive days, I spoke with three different women who were all dealing with fate. Each was from a family in which all the women had experienced the same fate. For two, the women in their families had died at or before a specific age, including their mothers. The other felt utterly powerless as she repeated the patterns of her mother and grandmother year after year. These patterns created a sense of doom. Each of these dynamic women were addressing this issue in a different way.

The core belief here is that someone or something is in charge of our lives. Like an unkind god or a predetermined life. We are taught to believe that we do not have a say and that we are not worthy of help. To speak something contrary to the pattern is an act of courage and defiance. But it can be done.

Speaking words out loud gets our own attention, the universe’s attention, and changes our DNA. Here are words to deny fate and affirm free will. (These helped the three women I spoke with.)

“I AM [YOUR NAME].
I am not my mother.
I am not my father.
I am not my ancestors.
I AM [YOUR NAME].
I am a conscious adult.
I see the patterns. Those patterns stop with me.
I release the belief that my life is ruled by fate.
I release the belief that someone else is in charge.
I am in charge of my life.
I am supported by angels and guides.
I choose love, peace and health.
I choose to live as long as I want.
I am fully alive right now.
I am safe. My family is safe.
I love my life.
Thank you, angels, for protecting me and my loved ones always safe.
Thank you, angels for helping me in every part of my life.
Thank you.”

(I welcome hearing how you feel and what you notice after saying these words.)

I was surprised by the response by a good friend when I asked for her perspective on the three women’s experience with fate. My friend was 14 when her mother died of cancer. She had counted the days and hours before she turned the same age her mother was when she passed. She said that the women’s attraction to spirituality had broken the pattern of fate already. Spirituality introduced awareness into the equation, breaking the spell. It was already done. Any intention toward visioning the future was a bonus.

We can not only change our fate, we can choose it. We have more heart than the robots.

It is an act of tremendous will to steer your mind free of repetition. That freedom must be nourished with hope and have a safe foundation. That freedom means the world. It is the space occupied by genius and grace. We all get a glimpse in dreamtime or in a moment of expression. Yet, we can nurture ourselves by using what we know, including affirmation.