According to Henry Ford, what we believe actually becomes true for ourselves; whether we believe that we can do something or we cannot, we are usually right because our beliefs manifest themselves as reality. The question remains: given that we can create our own reality with our beliefs, why do we entertain negative beliefs instead of creating positive ones?
How beliefs are formed: Most of our beliefs ,we have about ourselves, were implanted in us between the age of 4-14 years. These were given to us by our parents, teachers, religion, society, family and those around us. When the same idea gets repeated by everybody in your social circle, you tend to accept that idea as a fact, and start acting accordingly; usually the human mind is prone to accepting and remembering a negative idea over a positive one because a negative idea or emotion requires much more thinking on our part. The worst part about beliefs is that once they turn into convictions, they become ingrained so deeply into our system that they are hard to change . I cannot tell you how many times I have come face to face with realities which are in direct opposition with what I believe; in other words, events which challenge my beliefs have happened in my life, yet, subconsciously I still chose to go with my existing belief system.
How Beliefs Affect Us: This is the case with almost all human beings; they do not necessarily believe what they see with their own eyes, but rather what they have already chosen to believe, and since we act in a manner consistent with our set beliefs, we become what we believe. It is a natural tendency of the human mind to act in a manner which is in direct correlation with what has already been accepted as true. If you believe that you are shy or boring, chances are that more often than not you would occur as a shy and boring person to another individual, and even if you are lucky enough to be pointed out by someone about how wrong your beliefs are, you would choose to ignore him and stick with your beliefs; after all, your mind has already given you enough evidence to support your beliefs and will continue to offer fodder to your beliefs over and over again.
Different Types of Beliefs: Beliefs are usually of two types: those which empower you and those that disempower you. Empowering beliefs are those that let you enjoy your life to the fullest and help you reach your goals; disempowering beliefs, on the other hand, hold you back from enjoying life to the fullest and reaching your goals. Ideally you should have more empowering than disempowering beliefs in order to live a fulfilling life, but in reality, the case is usually the opposite with most individuals. The one good thing about beliefs is that you can change them any time you want.
How to Change Your Beliefs: Here is one simple way to change your beliefs: for every belief you have, Checking its accuracy, ask yourself whether holding on to this belief is helping or hurting you. The second thing you can do is to train our subconscious mind where these are deeply embedded. There are techniques to do that. Also we can do affirmations daily. Our mind has no mind of its own. It cannot differentiate between true and false. So affirmations do wonders to change your belief.
We made an inner picture of ourself based on what others told us about ourself. We made all negative beliefs,’ I am not worthy ‘, ‘I don’t deserve’, ‘I cannot earn ‘ ,’I am not good enough ‘, are some of these. Now is the time to paint your own self image. Give all the negative beliefs you have about yourself and bring in positive beliefs . Let’s all live a life full of joy , happiness and ecstasy. Let not our beliefs stop us .
Truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it’s your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can’t package stress , touch it , or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking – Wayne Dyer
