Chapter 6 What do you believe??

What do you believe? This is extremely important, because ultimately your beliefs create your reality! You create what you believe and your world is only your interpretation of the reality. In other words, we don’t see the world how it is, but how we were conditioned to see it. Our perception is only an approximation of reality. Our maps of reality determine the way we act more than reality itself. Each one of us sees the world through the lenses of their own beliefs. Does this sound like hocus-pocus to you? It did to me too until I studied two semesters of Psychology at my High School and learned about the Placebo Effect, The Pygmalion Effect, and Self-Fulfilling prophecies. Studies on these subjects out there show how powerful our thoughts and beliefs really are! But what is a belief? It’s the conscious and unconscious information that we accept as true. Robert Dilts defines beliefs as judgments and assessments about ourselves, others, and the world around us. A belief is a habitual thought pattern. Once a person believes something is true (whether it’s true or not) he or she acts as if it were - collecting facts to prove the belief even if it’s false. Beliefs are like a self-fulfilling prophecy. They work like this: your beliefs influence your emotions, your emotions influence your actions and your actions influence your RESULTS! Depending on your belief-system you live your life one way or another. I want you to realize that life doesn’t just happen to you! It’s a reflection of your beliefs, thoughts, and expectations. If you want to change your life you have to first change your patterns of thinking. Even if beliefs come from early childhood programming for most of us, we are able to change them. Nobody can impose your beliefs on you. It’s always you who in the last instance can permit a belief to be true for you or not! L