Our beliefs can come from a variety of sources. They can come from the way we were brought up, from observing and copying significant people in our lives (such as our parents), from past events that have scared or traumatised us, or from repetitive experiences.
We build our beliefs by having an experience of the world and other people and generalising it.
We may currently believe some things as a result of what we were told when we were growing up. When you were young you had no way of knowing if these things were true or not. The expectations that that people around us had during our childhood can instil beliefs. Some of these beliefs may persist and influence you to this day.
When we believe something, we act as if it is true. This makes it very difficult to disprove.
Our beliefs act as very powerful filters on what we perceive.
What The Thinker Thinks…The Prover Proves
Leonard Orr models the human mind as having two main parts, a “thinker” and a “prover”. The thinker is very flexible, and can think any number of things. The thinker can think the earth is flat, the thinker can think the earth is round. The thinker can think pretty much anything!
The prover, however, is far more predictable. Whatever the thinker is thinking, the prover will search and sort for evidence to support the belief. If someone believes that they lack intelligence (perhaps from comments made to them by their parents or teachers at an earlier stage of their life) then the prover will show that to be true. Evidence to support the belief will be noted and evidence that contradicts the belief may be ignored or deleted. In this way beliefs can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Beliefs are very powerful and help us to get a sense of certainty and direction in a world that can be anything but predictable.
Beliefs can become so powerful that we don’t remember that they are not necessarily true – but we behave as if they are.
Beliefs are not just “maps” of what happened in the past – we also use them as “blueprints” for our future actions.
Perhaps the point to reflect upon is not if your beliefs are true or not. The question is: Are they useful or not?
Powerful Subliminal Programming Software
Sunday 18 March 2012
Sunday 11 March 2012
The Power of Belief
The Power of Belief
By
Simon Hazeldine MSc
“Man is what he believes” - Anton Chekov
The beliefs that we have about ourselves, about other people, and the world around us, will exert a powerful influence over our performance in every single area of our lives.
They can power us to success and achievement or, like prison chains, shackle us to mediocrity and limitation. So let us examine beliefs and the effect they can have upon us.
What are beliefs?
Beliefs are essentially judgements and evaluations about ourselves as individuals, other people and the world that we live in. Beliefs are our guiding principles, the inner “maps” we use to make sense of the world. They can give us stability and continuity in a constantly changing world.
Most of us share some basic beliefs about the world we live in. The majority of people on the planet believe that our earth is round, for example. However, I am reliably informed that there exists a society for people who still think that the earth is flat!
As amusing as this may seem, you do not have to go very far back in history to find a time when most people believed that the earth was flat and that the sun and planets revolved around the earth.
Many of our beliefs are very helpful and useful. We believe that fire burns and that broken glass is sharp. Therefore we avoid exposing our bodies to hot flames and don’t step onto broken glass in our bare feet.
Beliefs can be thought of as generalisations about what causes certain things to happen, what things mean and the boundaries in the world around us, in our behaviour and our capabilities.
Beliefs can affect our behaviour. For example, depending upon which belief you have:
1. “Success requires hard work” or
2. “Success is mainly a matter of luck”
…will affect your approach to attempting to reach success!
Next time we will look at where our beliefs some from.
By
Simon Hazeldine MSc
“Man is what he believes” - Anton Chekov
The beliefs that we have about ourselves, about other people, and the world around us, will exert a powerful influence over our performance in every single area of our lives.
They can power us to success and achievement or, like prison chains, shackle us to mediocrity and limitation. So let us examine beliefs and the effect they can have upon us.
What are beliefs?
Beliefs are essentially judgements and evaluations about ourselves as individuals, other people and the world that we live in. Beliefs are our guiding principles, the inner “maps” we use to make sense of the world. They can give us stability and continuity in a constantly changing world.
Most of us share some basic beliefs about the world we live in. The majority of people on the planet believe that our earth is round, for example. However, I am reliably informed that there exists a society for people who still think that the earth is flat!
As amusing as this may seem, you do not have to go very far back in history to find a time when most people believed that the earth was flat and that the sun and planets revolved around the earth.
Many of our beliefs are very helpful and useful. We believe that fire burns and that broken glass is sharp. Therefore we avoid exposing our bodies to hot flames and don’t step onto broken glass in our bare feet.
Beliefs can be thought of as generalisations about what causes certain things to happen, what things mean and the boundaries in the world around us, in our behaviour and our capabilities.
Beliefs can affect our behaviour. For example, depending upon which belief you have:
1. “Success requires hard work” or
2. “Success is mainly a matter of luck”
…will affect your approach to attempting to reach success!
Next time we will look at where our beliefs some from.
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