INHERENT VS. INHERIT
On this episode of The Karen Kenney Show, I dive into the difference between what’s inherent in us -and- what we’ve inherited from the world around us.
I share how we sometimes confuse the two - taking on beliefs, stories, and even problems that were passed down to us, and then we start thinking that those things are just “who we are.”
Nope! The truth is, there’s a wicked big difference between what's built into us at our natural core and what we pick up along the way.
I talk about how being a Spiritual Being is something that’s inherent - like that sucker comes "factory installed" - meaning it’s just part of who we are, like our goodness, worthiness, and belonging.
On the flip side, there's some stuff like religion, beliefs about money, our eye-color, or even things like self-doubt that are often inherited from our families, culture, or society.
One of the big takeaways is the importance of questioning the stories and beliefs we’ve inherited, especially the ones that don’t serve us, or don't align us with our true nature!
So, I encourage you to pause and ask yourself, "What’s really mine, and what did I just pick up from someone elseoutside of me?"
This kind of self-reflection is a key part of personal growth and spiritual awareness.
At the end of the day, I want you to remember that you are inherently good, lovable, and worthy - no matter what you’ve been told, what you've believed in the past, or what you’ve inherited.
This episode is a little love letter to remind you of your true Self and to inspire you to let go of what doesn’t belong to you anymore or maybe never did!
Thanks so much for listening, and may you go out into the world remembering who you really are! ❤️
KK’S KEY TAKEAWAYS:
• Inherent qualities are the essential, unchangeable parts of who we are, like our goodness, worthiness, and belonging.
• Inherited beliefs, stories, and traits come from our families, culture, and society, and are not always true about us and our real selves.
• It’s important to question the ideas and narratives we’ve inherited, especially if they don’t align with our true nature. Because shit often rolls downhill.
• We’re all inherently spiritual beings, connected to Love, Source, God, or the Divine, regardless of what we’ve been told about our limited ego-personality selves.
• Much of our self-doubt and negative self-talk comes from inherited stories from our younger years, often from people who weren’t emotionally intelligent at the time.
• Personal growth and spiritual awareness take place when we start to get curious and reflect on what’s truly ours and are willing to let go of what’s not.
• Remembering our inherent goodness, beauty, and belonging helps us live more authentically, joyfully, and compassionately.
BIO:
Spiritual Mentor and writer Karen Kenney uses humor and dynamic storytelling to bring a down-to-earth, no-BS perspective to self-development.
Bringing together tools that coach the conscious and unconscious mind, Karen helps clients deepen their connections with Self, and discover their unique understandings of spirituality.
Her practice combines neuroscience, subconscious reprogramming, Integrative Hypnosis, somatic work, spiritual mentoring, and other holistic modalities to help regulate the nervous system, examine internal narratives, remove blocks, and reimagine what’s possible.
A passionate yoga teacher, long-time student of A Course in Miracles, and Gateless Writing instructor, Karen is a frequent speaker and retreat leader. Via her programs The Quest and The Nest, she coaches both individuals and groups.
With The Karen Kenney Podcast, she encourages listeners to shift from a thought system of fear to one of love, compassion, and personal responsibility.
CONNECT WITH KAREN:
Website: http://karenkenney.com/
Podcast: https://www.karenkenney.com/podcast
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KarenKenney
Transcript
Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen Kenney show. Okay, this is
Speaker:my third time trying to stop this damn show. I keep cracking
Speaker:myself up because of my sweatshirt.
Speaker:Oh, my God I'm wearing. My sweetie got me another Batsy
Speaker:head. Batsy head is one of my favorite artists, and he got me
Speaker:another Batsy head sweatshirt for my birthday. And this one
Speaker:just has one of his little characters, like a little cat
Speaker:with like, bugged out eyes, and his arms and his legs just
Speaker:sticking straight out, and he's just sitting there, and it says,
Speaker:heck, like heck. That's how I feel a lot of the times. Oh my
Speaker:god. Okay, let's dive right into this show. Now, before I start
Speaker:talking, let me just tell you that I've been wanting to talk
Speaker:about this with you guys for a little bit because I realized
Speaker:that, um, although I have talked about this with other people, I
Speaker:have not shared it here on the podcast, and I didn't want to
Speaker:leave you guys out. I wanted to share it with you all. So most
Speaker:recently, I have a friend Brad Jensen, who is known as the soba
Speaker:body builder. Some of you might know him from Instagram and
Speaker:online. He has a really big following, whatever, but you
Speaker:might also know him from my podcast. He's been on my podcast
Speaker:and I've been on his podcast, so maybe that's where you recognize
Speaker:his name as well. And he is a program that he runs. And he
Speaker:often has me come in, I go in as a guest teacher when they get to
Speaker:the spirituality pot. So he has me come in and talk to his
Speaker:people about that. And most recently, like a month or so
Speaker:ago, I was talking to his people about this idea of like,
Speaker:spirituality and religion, and like, what was the difference
Speaker:between that? And one of the points that I made is that we
Speaker:are all spiritual beings, which means it is inherent in us, it's
Speaker:it's who we are. It's a part of who we are. And I'm going to
Speaker:dive into these definitions more in a minute, but I just want to
Speaker:kind of set the stage versus religion, which we often inherit
Speaker:right from the people that came before us, versus something that
Speaker:is inherent. Okay, so that's kind of where the inspiration
Speaker:for this came from. I was talking to his people, and I
Speaker:think just in general, what so many of us do is we confuse what
Speaker:has been inherited for who we really are, and I propose that
Speaker:they are not the same thing and that we should question these
Speaker:things. So first, let's break down what these words mean.
Speaker:Okay, and this isn't a Grammy lesson like to be fancy, it's
Speaker:just so there's a deeper understanding of how I'm
Speaker:applying this so inherent. What that means is that it is an
Speaker:essential or a basic part of something. It is a permanent
Speaker:part of something. It's a quality of you that cannot be
Speaker:separated from the thing itself. So another way of saying it's
Speaker:intrinsic. It's an essential characteristic or a part of
Speaker:something that is inseparable from that thing. Okay, then we
Speaker:have inherit and now inherent is often interpreted as to receive
Speaker:something from somebody has died, from someone who's died,
Speaker:or also to receive something from a previous owner, or even
Speaker:from a generation, because we can inherit money, we can
Speaker:inherit property, but we can also inherit things, like
Speaker:physical traits. We can also inherit things. And this is the
Speaker:whole point of this little episode, is that we can all
Speaker:besides inheriting money, land, property, whatever. We also can
Speaker:inherit physical characteristics, DNA, etc, from
Speaker:our parents. We can also inherit problems and circumstances,
Speaker:like, a lot of times when a new CEO takes over a company or a
Speaker:position or a political figure takes over, you know, a seat,
Speaker:whether it's in Congress, House, President, whatever, a lot of
Speaker:times they'll say, oh, he inherited all of these problems,
Speaker:right? Because, like, shit rolls downhill, right? Okay, so
Speaker:inherent is, like, it's built in. It's a basic part of and
Speaker:when I talk to whether it's my yoga students or my one to one
Speaker:clients or people in the nest the nesties, one of the things I
Speaker:try to remind them of, and it's not something that we I think we
Speaker:don't get told this enough, is that inherent in us, like
Speaker:literally, I always say, the way you came down the chute, the way
Speaker:that you came off the assembly line, right, like when you were
Speaker:created And you were made, you came through with these inherent
Speaker:qualities, what I would call inherent truths. Number one
Speaker:being, is that although you are a body, right, we feel like we
Speaker:have a body. We're living here in this realm, in this world on
Speaker:Earth, doing the human thing, right? You. Yes, and we are also
Speaker:inherently spiritual beings. We have spirit, we are a spirit. We
Speaker:have a soul. We are a soul, right? And yes, we have a body.
Speaker:But if we over identify with the physical body and the things in
Speaker:the physical realm and we forget about the inherent truths about
Speaker:us, then this is where suffering and problems start to occur and
Speaker:happen. So some of the things that I believe each one of you,
Speaker:whoever, whoever can hear my voice right now, I believe in
Speaker:you don't have to believe me, but I believe inherently. Here
Speaker:are some things about you. Number one, that you're one of
Speaker:God's kids, that you are a pot. You are a beautiful and unique
Speaker:pot of the greater whole and holiness. You are a pot, an
Speaker:important part, right, an individual part of the greater
Speaker:universe. Number one, you are part of the source, which, to
Speaker:me, is love, right? Call it God, call it love, call it the
Speaker:divine, call it the universe. Call it whatever you want to
Speaker:call it, right? Divine Intelligence. Source, mother,
Speaker:name, I don't get hung up on the name. You are connected to that
Speaker:source, and you can never be disconnected from that source,
Speaker:whether you born, whether you're born, you're alive or you're
Speaker:dead, you are always connected a part of that greater source.
Speaker:Know what else I believe? I believe that you are inherently
Speaker:good. I believe that you are inherently beautiful, that you
Speaker:are enough and that you are worthy, and that you belong, and
Speaker:that all these things are true about you. I think you came
Speaker:through with these things being true. They are inherent and then
Speaker:this is when the shit stirring starts. Is that you're born into
Speaker:a family, and when you are like, like, let me give you an
Speaker:example, people will often say to me, Well, I'm I'm Catholic,
Speaker:or I'm Christian, or I'm this, or I'm that. And I'll say, Well,
Speaker:you weren't born that thing. You were born as just like a little
Speaker:bouncing baby, like you were just born as a clean slate, but
Speaker:what you inherited were the preferences of your parents, the
Speaker:choices A lot of times, of your parents you received their
Speaker:beliefs. A lot of times, you got told things about yourself. And
Speaker:I often talk about this, little kids, if you're around babies,
Speaker:be just like babies and dogs. I always say this, like babies and
Speaker:animals, my dogs, my cat is not laying around going like, Am I
Speaker:good enough?
Speaker:You Am I worthy? Am I worthy of this meal? Like, am I lovable?
Speaker:Right? Do I belong? Like they're not having these existential
Speaker:crisises, and neither are babies because they don't have language
Speaker:yet. They can't ideate, they can't come up with meanings and
Speaker:stories and narratives about them. But you know, who can
Speaker:start to tell them shit about themselves, which is really just
Speaker:more a reflection of the adult and the people running the show
Speaker:that it is about that child and that baby. We inherit shit from
Speaker:them. We inherit their preferences. We inherit their
Speaker:own, lot of times, their own self hatred, their own lack of
Speaker:self worth, their own lack of emotional intelligence, the
Speaker:stuff that gets passed down, and it's not all bad, right?
Speaker:Sometimes you inherit great wealth, sometimes you inherit
Speaker:great wisdom. Sometimes you inherit through, through
Speaker:watching and bearing witness to people in your life, whether
Speaker:it's your parents, your parents, your grandparents, a sibling,
Speaker:whoever, a teacher, a coach, whatever, who is incredibly
Speaker:compassionate and kind, I would say, those of us who grew up
Speaker:watching Mr. Rogers, we inherited the invitation and the
Speaker:modeling of how to do compassion and kindness and patience and
Speaker:take our time, right? There's so much that we can inherit, but a
Speaker:lot of what we inherit right things that we start to believe
Speaker:are inherent, but they're not when we start to have thoughts
Speaker:like, I'm stupid, I'm not good enough, I'm not worthy, I don't
Speaker:belong. These are things that we start to make true, as if
Speaker:they've always been true, as if we came through not being good
Speaker:enough, not being worthy. But that's a lie, and we're deeply,
Speaker:deeply impressionable as children, as little beings, and
Speaker:if we don't pause. At some point this is, this is part of, like,
Speaker:spiritual awareness. This is part of spiritual growth. This
Speaker:is part of personal development. Is that at some point we stop
Speaker:kind of, like number one, blaming on everything, blaming
Speaker:everybody and everything that's wrong within us, on people
Speaker:outside of us, right? We stop looking out there for saying,
Speaker:like, oh, it's your fault that I feel this way. It's your fault
Speaker:that I'm doing this. It's your fault. Now, I'm not saying that
Speaker:there aren't systems in place, that there aren't institutions
Speaker:in place that carry on right systems in decades and whatever
Speaker:long, like, longer than decades, long, centuries old of racism
Speaker:and misogyny and sexism and all these and nepotism like think
Speaker:you know, there are things that go on that have been, that have
Speaker:been that way for a long time, and I'm not saying that those
Speaker:things don't, don't affect us. However, I believe there's a lot
Speaker:of those things on certain levels that we can't like when
Speaker:we're children. Let me put it this way, when we're children,
Speaker:we can't do anything about we are at the mercy of the power
Speaker:structures and the powerful people, and sometimes that's
Speaker:just your parents. Where we are influenced. We're influenced by
Speaker:their own thoughts, their own beliefs, their own stories and
Speaker:narratives, their own behaviors and their choices. So if your
Speaker:parents right, let's say your parents were like
Speaker:Scientologists, or whatever, and then you're born into this
Speaker:family of Scientologists. Well, a lot of that rhetoric, a lot of
Speaker:those beliefs, a lot of those customs, traditions, habits,
Speaker:ways of being, worshiping, all that shit. A lot of kids, right?
Speaker:It's not until they're older when they can start to have
Speaker:their own kind of critical thinking, and maybe they decide
Speaker:this isn't for them, and we can apply this to whatever religion
Speaker:or whatever, but a lot of times religions are inherited. A lot
Speaker:of times poverty is inherited. A lot of times racist point of
Speaker:views are just they continue to just be passed down until a
Speaker:person is aware, enough awake, enough able, enough willing,
Speaker:enough to get uncomfortable and to start to question these
Speaker:things that at one point, like, when you think about like Romeo
Speaker:and Juliet, and you're like, Oh, these families have always been
Speaker:at war. These families have always been against each other,
Speaker:you know? And there's a reason why, in A Course in Miracles, it
Speaker:says one of the holiest places on Earth is where an ancient
Speaker:hatred turns into a present day love. I think this could apply
Speaker:to where the United States is at right now too, in a lot of ways.
Speaker:Never mind other countries, right? If we just keep our eyes
Speaker:on our own paper as a country, and then if we can go even more
Speaker:micro and keep an eye on ourselves and our own thinking
Speaker:and stuff, we'll start to realize we've inherited some
Speaker:beliefs and some stories and some thoughts, some
Speaker:circumstances that we have to start questioning, because it's
Speaker:not inherently who we are. We are not inherently when we're
Speaker:little kids racist. I'm not saying we're not born into
Speaker:racist systems, but little kids are not outwardly hateful
Speaker:towards other people who have different skin tones in them.
Speaker:We're taught, we're taught to be little shit. Sometimes we're
Speaker:taught to be to be unkind. We're taught to be hateful. We're
Speaker:taught to be prejudiced, like our parents. Prejudices can roll
Speaker:downhill unless you go, Hey, that's uncool. What's that
Speaker:about? Until you start to question it. But most
Speaker:importantly, if we don't, how do I say this? I feel like we end
Speaker:up where we are in the world today because not enough people
Speaker:are questioning the inherent truths that like all men, people
Speaker:are created equal, that we should all have the right to
Speaker:pursue our own happiness, that we all are like one, the same,
Speaker:under quote, unquote God, right? These inalienable rights,
Speaker:because that's also what the term inherent describes
Speaker:something that is an inalienable right or privilege. And I think
Speaker:we all should have the inalienable an inalienable right
Speaker:to happiness, right into non suffering, freedom from
Speaker:suffering and not being persecuted. Do you know what I'm
Speaker:saying? But a lot of times, we end up persecuting ourselves
Speaker:because we take these inherited things and we start to confuse
Speaker:them for what is inherent about us. So I'm going to say it as
Speaker:many times as I need to say it on this show. I'm going to keep
Speaker:reminding people like one of my things is not only right an
Speaker:intention to spread more love, but to spread more kindness and
Speaker:compassion and to help people to remember who they truly are, and
Speaker:it is not your. Circumstances. It is not all these other things
Speaker:that we get passed down to us. And what I was trying to say
Speaker:earlier is it's all coming back to me. When we're little kids,
Speaker:we don't know that there's anything wrong, quote, unquote
Speaker:wrong with us, until somebody outside of us, somebody
Speaker:external, starts to say things to us, and a lot of times
Speaker:they're unkind things, because that person has a dysregulated
Speaker:nervous system. They have no emotional intelligence, they
Speaker:don't have any they haven't read enough books, they don't
Speaker:understand the impact that they're having on their
Speaker:children, or the people that you know the beings that they're in
Speaker:charge of care taking. And so they'll say things like, You're
Speaker:weird, you're fat, you're stupid, you're lazy, you'll
Speaker:never amount to much. I never should have had you. You were a
Speaker:mistake. Blah, blah, blah, and then all these things are said
Speaker:to these little beings who basically have a brain that's
Speaker:still developing, has a personality that's still
Speaker:developing, has an ego that's still developing, and there's
Speaker:like a little record button that's been pressed inside, and
Speaker:they're just documenting all the things that were that are said
Speaker:to them. And up to a certain age, they don't have the
Speaker:capacity to to question that maybe what their parent or
Speaker:guardian or caretaker or sibling or whoever, teacher, Priest,
Speaker:whatever is saying to them might not be true, we start to take
Speaker:these things that other people tell us about ourselves right as
Speaker:gospel truth, and we don't question them. And if we don't
Speaker:start to question some shit as adults, this is why things don't
Speaker:change. This is why a lot of times we don't change. So if we
Speaker:can start to stand in what's inherent in us, that we are
Speaker:spiritual beings, that we are part of the Divine, that there
Speaker:is nothing in that you are perfect and beautiful and
Speaker:lovable and capable of loving, that you are happy, healthy,
Speaker:healed, whole, holy, right, like that you have within you, this
Speaker:source of love, that that's what you really are. We forget
Speaker:sometimes, and we over identify with the body. We over identify
Speaker:with our bank account. We over identify with having a sweetie
Speaker:or not having a sweetie. We over identify like with the things
Speaker:that the internet tells us that success quote I'm doing air
Speaker:quotes, success looks like. And these beliefs and these
Speaker:structures and these stories and these ways of being get passed
Speaker:down from generation to generation within a family and
Speaker:then also as a culture. And we get to start questioning some
Speaker:things.
Speaker:We get to start questioning some things. And so I would love for
Speaker:you, if you're still listening to this, to ask yourself, what
Speaker:are the some of the things that I've inherited, what are some of
Speaker:the stories, the narratives, the beliefs, what are some of the
Speaker:like, external experiences, the environment that I grew up in,
Speaker:right that created feelings inside of me where I then
Speaker:interpreted and gave meaning to because this is what happened.
Speaker:This is how identity gets created as we are,
Speaker:interpretation in meaning, making machines and a lot of
Speaker:times, what we start to believe about ourselves is being
Speaker:inherent. Are things that were inherited through other people's
Speaker:ignorance, their own self loathing, their own lack of,
Speaker:again, emotional intelligence, understanding, you know, the
Speaker:power of their words and how their words can leave max. So
Speaker:it's up to us. There's certain things we've inherited that we
Speaker:can't do anything about other than. Like, obviously, wear
Speaker:colored contacts, but like, you were born with a certain color
Speaker:eyes, right? You were born with a certain color hair, you You
Speaker:were born a certain height. Like, there are certain things
Speaker:that get passed down, right? Whether it's the infamous such
Speaker:and such smile, or this one's nose, or that one's size of the
Speaker:hands, or, like, whatever the thing is, right? Maybe you
Speaker:inherited some money, maybe you inherited some land, whatever it
Speaker:is. But those things are not who you are, and again, who you are,
Speaker:you know, of course, in Miracles is a line that says something
Speaker:like, you have to be reminded, like 1000 1000 times a day, you
Speaker:know, or whatever, 1000 times you have to be reminded who you
Speaker:are, because your mind is filled with such false stories. I'm
Speaker:totally paraphrasing, but we have to be reminded. So consider
Speaker:this episode a little love letter from my heart to yours to
Speaker:remind you that you are the bee's knees, that you are the
Speaker:cat's pajamas. You're not broken. There's nothing that you
Speaker:need to fix, right? I know we feel that way, like, Oh, I'm so
Speaker:fucked up and oh, I gotta fix myself. No, so much of it is,
Speaker:is. Recognizing and removing the blocks and the barriers we've
Speaker:built against our own awareness of our of our own awesomeness,
Speaker:of love, of the love that we are that's really the work is
Speaker:instead of quote, unquote, trying to solve problems that we
Speaker:think we have, it's dissolving, it's dissolving the barriers to
Speaker:love that we've created, and we create it with our thoughts and
Speaker:our beliefs and believing the things that we've inherited,
Speaker:versus standing in the truth of your divinity of what is
Speaker:inherent in you, and this is your goodness and your kindness
Speaker:and your compassion and your intelligence and your belonging
Speaker:and your your inability to disconnect yourself, to separate
Speaker:yourself from source, because you are not a separation. You
Speaker:are a part of the Divine whole, and you belong here, and you
Speaker:matter, and you are welcome here, and it can be really easy
Speaker:to forget this. So I hope today has been helpful in helping you
Speaker:to remember. And each time we just, we just kind of lift the
Speaker:veil a little bit. We peel back another layer, and we start to
Speaker:step more and more and more into the truth of who we are, that we
Speaker:are part of the whole, that we cannot be separated from source,
Speaker:whether you call that God or love or universe or higher power
Speaker:or something else, and that you that you are loved. And if
Speaker:you're listening to this, I love you. Thank you for being here. I
Speaker:hope you have a fantastic rest of your day or evening, and as
Speaker:you kind of go out into the world, right, really again, take
Speaker:a moment to ask yourself, what is inherent in me and what was
Speaker:inherited? What are some of the narratives that I keep telling?
Speaker:What are some of the stories that I keep telling that weren't
Speaker:mine? The the origin story didn't start with you. It was
Speaker:passed down. And we have to question this, right? Whatever
Speaker:your beliefs about money are, what's your belief about other
Speaker:people, who you might see as other What's your belief about
Speaker:the left, the right, however you vote? What's your politics?
Speaker:What's your political beliefs? What's your religion? What's
Speaker:your whatever? As you keep going down the line, what do you what
Speaker:do you think to be true about relationships? How many times
Speaker:did you hear your parents say money is the root of all evil?
Speaker:Or, if you hear it enough times, right? Like, Oh, we can't afford
Speaker:it, so we inherit people's beliefs about other groups of
Speaker:people, about religion, about money, about sex, about food,
Speaker:about what's right, about values, what our core values,
Speaker:right? Our ethics, our morals. This is what life is for, is
Speaker:remembering right who you really are. And I think a lot of us are
Speaker:a little confused, and we started to take what people
Speaker:around us who have told us, we take it as gospel truth. And it
Speaker:was never your truth to begin with. There's the truth, the
Speaker:truth, the capital T truth, and that's the one. I hope you
Speaker:remember. All right. I love you guys. I hope you enjoyed this
Speaker:episode wherever you go. May you leave yourself, the animals, the
Speaker:planet, the other people, better than how you found it wherever
Speaker:you go, may you be a blessing. Bye.
