Develop A Belief System That Works For You
A belief system is a set of beliefs that influences the way you think, act and feel. It's not unusual for people to change their beliefs as they grow up and their experiences change. But when you have an unsupportive belief system or one that conflicts with your life, it can lead to difficulties like anxiety, addiction, depression or anger management problems.
Fortunately you don't need to be stuck with just the belief system you were born into! Today I want to discuss how we create new belief systems so they work better for us - and help us live more satisfying lives.
As we discussed in detail in the last article ( Healing Beliefs ), our subconscious mind is programmed to accept what we believe. We may not realize how our beliefs are affecting us but they're influencing how we think, act and feel. By creating new belief systems that match your needs, we can free ourselves from old belief patterns that are no longer working for us.
Creating New Belief Systems That Work For You
There are a number of ways that our subconscious mind accepts beliefs. These include:
1) By accepting the input of others through our parents, teachers and other role models in our lives. Our beliefs are molded by the beliefs we hold in common with other people - including our parents and friends. Some people get into trouble because they chose to live according to another person's belief system instead of their own. In fact, some believe that the way to learn about life is to study the beliefs of other people. That's not necessarily so.
2) By accepting the input of our own subconscious mind - without even realizing we're doing it. Our subconscious mind is made up of unhealed parts. It doesn't want to change and will accept anything we tell it to accept as true - good or bad! This includes negative thoughts, urges, habits and behaviors. It's even been shown to be willing to accept information from "negative" sources like friends and the media that confirms its old beliefs instead of new ideas that challenge them.
3) By accepting our own thoughts and feelings as true. The more we believe something, the more our subconscious mind accepts it and it becomes a part of who we are. Our beliefs also become a part of who we are - and can influence how others see us. This is especially true when there's a conflict between our belief system and something else in our life (for example, an addiction or depression).
4) By accepting what the five physical senses tell us about the world around us. We can tell our subconscious mind that everything we see and hear is true - and then our entire perception of reality is at risk. The five senses can provide us with useful information but they are unreliable when it comes to discerning absolute truth. Very often our brain attempts to interpret sensory input in a way that it can understand. That's why we sometimes experience things like hallucinations or illusions. There is no such thing as an "objective" view of the world because what we see and hear is always a product of the mind interpreting raw data.
5) By accepting what our intuition tells us about people, events and experiences - or what it doesn't tell us! Our intuition has access to higher levels of consciousness (especially original consciousness). It can perceive things about people and the world that our conscious mind is not aware of. This includes the true motivations behind people's behaviors and a host of other subtle aspects that our conscious perspective cannot see. Unfortunately we don't always trust our intuition because it doesn't always agree with what we think in terms of how things really are. (For example, we may have "positive" feelings about someone who seems to be making false promises.) Our intuitive perceptions are often triggered by beliefs and emotions. Try trusting your intuition more often and you'll experience an abundance of insights into other people's intentions - as well as your own!
6) By accepting what we see in our dreams. Dreaming while we sleep is a natural part of the learning process as our subconscious mind sorts through what we learned during the day. It also provides us with a non-judgmental space where we can experience anything that comes up - be it pleasurable or unpleasant. Dreams are often filled with symbolic representations of the material our subconscious mind is processing. At times these symbols may have meaning for us but at other times they may not - and symbol meanings can vary from person to person.
7) By accepting what insights and inspirations come from meditation and contemplation. When we take time to reflect on our lives, there's room for everything to come up...even the most unusual and uncomfortable experiences and memories. These insights may include insights into our past, present and future. We may even gain access to new abilities such as clairvoyance or telepathy.
8) By accepting our intuition, dreams, meditation and contemplation as valid sources of information but not necessarily the absolute truth. We can accept the information that comes to us in any way that we see fit - whether it agrees with what we learned or not. In this way we can avoid limiting ourselves to a particular belief system. Our intuition may be right in some things and wrong in others. It's not always perfect but it's a valuable tool to help us make better decisions.
9) By creating new belief systems that are more consistent with the needs of our human spirit. We need to grow beyond our old self-limiting belief patterns that put limits on us and limit us from growth and fulfillment.
10) By creating new belief systems that work for you! The best way to do this is by developing your own unique system - one which aligns with your true needs and what makes life most meaningful for you as an individual human being. This is the ultimate process of wholeness and fulfillment.
More on Belief Systems and their Sources
If you're interested in learning more about how beliefs work, it's well worth the investment in time to read books like "The Law of Attraction" by Esther Hicks or "Creating Affirmations" by Dr. Wayne Dyer. These books provide a wealth of information that can really change your life.
The thought system that is holding us back from living our lives to their fullest potential is beliefs - whether they're rooted in negative thinking or not! It's just one more thing we must learn to master if we want to be happy, fulfilled and successful.
Conclusion
Beliefs have the power to either keep us stuck in our circumstances or to open us up to a new way of thinking.
Riding a belief system that does not serve us - and believing we're entitled to certain conditions and outcomes - is like having a car that runs based on its doing what it's programmed to do.
We all want freedom from struggle, limitation and stress...a desire that we share with others who are also struggling! We long for happiness and fulfillment as human beings but many of us don't know how to achieve it.