Do You Determine your Beliefs, or Do Your Beliefs Determine You? (Part One)

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Where do our Beliefs Come up From

Accept you ever wondered why you believe what yous believe? Take you ever considered where your beliefs came from? How they got there? Was it an intentional process? Did you embrace those beliefs consciously or did you simply wake up one day and in that location they were; curiously stuck inside your head? Peradventure with a big "do non remove" sign on them. Do you ever question them? Doubt them? Resent them? Are you even aware of them, or practise they be independent of your witting self? Did you intentionally cull them? Did you larn them via your experiences? Did you adopt them from someone that yous respect and trust? Or mayhap you lot had them rammed downwards your throat by an authority figure somewhere in your past? Do your current beliefs propel yous towards greatness or practice they keep y'all trapped in mediocrity, monotony and misery? Practise they serve yous, or practice yous serve them? Who's really running the prove?

Under-Achievement Key

Do they help you achieve your dreams and goals, or exercise they go on you in your ain private mental and emotional prison? Do they enable you to explore your potential and practise amazing, or practice they keep you in your safe, familiar, anticipated little box (Under-Achievement Central)? Do they help you see things clearly and objectively, or practice they predispose you to looking at the globe through a very (very) pocket-sized window? Are your behavior flexible and discipline to modify depending on your experiences and your life lessons? Or are they ready in stone? Practise yous determine them, or practise they determine yous?

But What if it Ain't True?

Accept you ever thought well-nigh living your life with a different gear up of beliefs? Have you e'er considered the possibility that mayhap some of your life-long, firmly-entrenched, non-negotiable behavior… could be completely wrong? May fifty-fifty exist the very things that accept caused you to inhabit an existence that you lot don't savour? Does it make y'all uncomfortable to consider the possibility of having to completely alter the way you think and believe about certain things in your earth?

"Our ability to effectively change a belief, volition be largely adamant by our level of emotional investment in that detail belief."

In other words, there are sure behavior that we desperately want to exist true and when we're presented with information, ideas and/or situations which challenge or contradict those beliefs, then nosotros will typically react negatively and maybe, irrationally. Of form y'all don't desire to believe that Honey Sometime Dad has been having an affair for the concluding five years, after all he's Your Dad; the affiche boy for morality, stability, integrity and family values. You know (believe) he would never practise anything like that, all the same at present you're presented with a situation that throws your stable, predictable and comfortable internal world (your mind) into turmoil. It completely messes with your belief system. You've just walked in on Beloved Old Dad kissing Mrs Granger from over the fence in a non-neighbourly fashion. Your not-negotiable belief (that Dad is the high-watermark for moral behaviour) has been smashed in the face with reality. You lot feel sick, repulsed, injure and betrayed because something you've believed for then long has but been ripped out from under your feet. One of your core beliefs (that Dad is an honest, reliable and moral man) has been shattered. Even though you meet it with your ain eyes, on some level you lot tin can't believe it. It doesn't match the reality in your head. You aimlessly try and reconcile what you're seeing with your belief about your Father. You desperately attempt to create a scenario in your head which will go on your core belief in tact and allow you lot to stay in your delusion. "I'm hallucinating. I'm drunk. I'm imagining things. I must take mis-interpreted the state of affairs." Yeah, that's right Junior; Mrs. Granger has hijacked your Male parent's lips against his will.

Is Religion an Emotional or a Spiritual Thing?

Faith is a great example of being emotionally invested in a set up of beliefs. While virtually people would consider religion to be an substantially spiritual thing, I would suggest that more frequently than non it's also largely an emotional affair. For some, it'south an entirely emotional thing. You and I both know people who take been going to church building (synagogue, temple, etc.) for years, with little or no spiritual understanding or awareness. Their 'organized religion' is based on a bunch of emotions (guilt, fear, acrimony) and rules that need to exist complied with (that'southward what their beliefs tell them anyway). People who have life-long religious beliefs typically won't even consider that perhaps there's something else. Selection B. They have too many years and too much emotion invested, to even entertain the notion that they could possibly be misguided, misinformed or even completely wrong in their thinking.

What do You Believe about that Whole Messiah Affair?

Let's take Jesus for example; either he was the Son of God… or he wasn't. I tin can't actually come across the Jewish and the Christian communities getting together whatsoever time soon for an informal, open up-minded conversation on the matter. "Hey what do you guys think about that whole Messiah thing?" Nup, not gonna happen. Both religions know that they're right, so information technology's not up for discussion. Their behavior are not-negotiable. Allow's be honest, I wasn't there, you weren't there, none of united states of america were. We don't actually know, we merely believe. If we categorically knew that Jesus was the son of God, and so we wouldn't need faith considering nosotros would have indisputable noesis, and faith is all about believing in something that we can't show. With me?

A Different Truth

He may have been the Messiah, he may accept been a gifted prophet, or he may have but been a corking gars. I don't know, just I exercise know that simply by writing this paragraph I will amerce and offend some people because their level of emotional investment in their religious beliefs won't even allow them to consider something different. Some people will become angry, disappointed, resentful and even hurt; all emotional reactions to a logical discussion and some reasonable questions. But nosotros feel similar guilty betrayers (more emotion) if we even dare to consider some other truth, or sneak a peek over the spiritual contend. So nosotros cutting ourselves off to the possibility of learning something dissimilar or new. Past the way, this is not an article about spiritual exploration, I'm merely using the religious case because nigh of us tin can relate in some way.

There are things we know to be true (the sky is blue) and there are things nosotros want to be true (my partner would never cheat on me). When nosotros've believed something for a long time, nosotros have (knowingly or non) an emotional attachment to that belief. That belief is familiar, comfy and safety for us; three things we enjoy. Information technology gives us a level of predictability and certainty. It could exist said that "who and what nosotros are, is because of what we believe"; our beliefs shape united states of america. For some anyway. For others information technology could be said that "who and what nosotros believe is because of who we are"; we shape our beliefs. For far too many people, their life just becomes a process of conforming to pre-existing (often negative and destructive) beliefs. Kind of like living out a pre-adamant script for our life. Which is why many people become clones of their parents.

Then Where do our Beliefs Come From?

1. Our influences. From the moment we're born, nosotros are constantly beingness bombarded with data from a myriad of sources. Our beliefs are oftentimes heavily influenced, if not shaped, past the people in our world – particularly those closest to usa. Those we love and respect the most. Or peradventure but those nosotros spend the almost time with. Both our conscious and our unconscious minds are continually absorbing, interpreting, filtering and processing information. Much of what you and I absorb in a typical day happens without our conscious sensation; information technology happens despite us. From infancy, our parents, our siblings, our friends, our teachers, our heroes, the TV we watch, the music nosotros listen to, the books we read, the places of worship we attend and in 2008, even the websites nosotros frequent, have been influencing us to think, conduct and believe a certain way. If you grew upward in a state of affairs or environment which taught you lot that education and academic excellence is paramount, then at that place's a off-white gamble you'll need that your kids cease school and go to higher.

two. Our experiences. What happens to the states, teaches u.s.. Some of the states run across ourselves every bit poor students when nosotros're actually not. We all have an astonishing chapters to learn (we exercise it constantly) just nigh of our learning happens unconsciously and unintentionally. Sadly, not all of our 'lessons' empower us or put us in a better identify. Some of our lessons teach us that we're stupid, ugly, undesirable and incapable. Some experiences are the ground for many of our disempowering (or totally debilitating) beliefs. For many of u.s.a. to move forward and into a improve place (mentally, emotionally, physically, practically), nosotros need to unlearn much of what we've made 'truth' in our earth. That is, nosotros need to change our behavior. Nosotros'll talk about how to do that in part ii.

Different Types of Beliefs

Types of beliefs have been classified in various ways by diverse people over the years, simply I'm going to dumb information technology down and lose the psycho-blubbering because I'm not nearly as clever equally them. For practical reasons I will intermission beliefs down to three unproblematic categories:

1. Positive Beliefs. These are Beliefs that enable united states to stay in a positive, productive, creative and empowered headspace. Beliefs that allow united states to explore and fulfil our potential. Beliefs that push us through the discomfort of life, allow us to deal with our fears and to come out the other side stronger, wiser and improve equipped. Beliefs that give us the confidence to do what we demand to do to create our all-time life.

ii. Negative Beliefs. Plain, the polar opposite of the positive kind! They volition destroy your potential, your happiness, your relationships, your career, your confidence, your mental health and your life… if y'all allow them.

3. Incidental Behavior. Exactly as they sound; not typically life-shaping or changing, just at that place. I believe Tasmania is a cute place. I believe a Lexus is a meliorate product than a BMW. I believe the dominicus will come up up tomorrow. I believe battle is one of the most effective cardio workouts. We have thousands (millions perhaps?) of beliefs that just exist somewhere in the recesses of our encephalon. Mostly they don't alive in the witting realm unless nosotros are required to wheel them out for a particular chat or situation.

That'due south enough for now… my head hurts!

See you next time with Role Two.

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Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/do-you-determine-your-beliefs-or-do-your-beliefs-determine-you-part-one.html