The Power of the Mind: Are Your Beliefs Supporting or Hurting You?
It is common knowledge that what we believe and hold in mind tends to manifest. There is a lot of investigation about the self-fulfilling prophecy. It shows numerous times that a belief we have about reality tends to become true. So if we hold a belief like “nobody loves me” it is more likely that we experience rejection and the lack of connection with others, than if we believe something like “it’s easy for people to love me”.
Beliefs that are connected with negative emotions such as regret, guilt, shame, or anger can be limiting us and keeping us from growing or having positive experiences. It is not the belief itself, nor the words, that are the problem, but the underlying negative emotions. They influence the way we perceive and filter our perceptions, and they actually keep us from letting go of those beliefs. We may reason and rationally know that they are not true, that some people do love us. But emotionally, we don’t get to feel it. So, deep in ourselves, we would feel that nobody loves us, even though people show or tell us the opposite. And when we don’t feel the love we receive, we may behave in a way that will actually push others away. And that, in return, will minimize the situations in which we could experience love.
That is why, with our clients, we put a big emphasis on finding and completely canceling out negative belief systems: Instead of trying to change the behavior with a lot of effort, and trying to change our outside experiences, or just correcting the way we think, we focus on thoroughly changing our inner world of possibilities. And then, when our inner beliefs and attitude are positive, it is much easier for us to actually perceive that same positivity in our lives, and to behave accordingly. So when I believe that I am lovable, I may perceive somebody flirting with me and make a witty remark in return, or just react with a smile… whereas, when I don’t believe it, I may not perceive the flirt, or react with insecurity, and the outcome would be very different.
It is amazing how much a person can change when he or she “simply” lets go of and cancels the 10 most negative beliefs about themselves they hold. All the negativity connected with those beliefs takes up a lot of personal energy, and when they are gone all that energy can be used for creating a different experience and life. So exciting!
You can apply the knowledge about the self-fulfilling prophecy: Change what you think, so you’ll change your experiences!
Interested? Check out Blog 2 and 3 of this series…
The Power of the Mind (2): Emotions Give Meaning to What We Think.
The Power of the Mind (3): How positive thoughts can be negative.
