what's a belief, when it's at home?
I so love this. When I started looking at things like beliefs I was like “What?” How is a belief affecting me? Then I got closer and saw that beliefs are sort of what I am, or at least they seem to define how I act in this world.
So, my thrust is that beliefs should be supportive. All other beliefs can piss off.
So, what is a belief? At the moment I would define a belief as a habit that has solidified, a habit being something that happens automatically through repetition. It’s like a callous. If we keep bumping into the same thing again and again it, we believe it!
A belief has an attribute, which we often don’t question. Truth.
Truth, is like a calcified belief, it’s something we don’t question. I know I said that already but that’s a key point, right there, because it generally means that this ‘truth’ will be something which is running in the background. When something hits that belief, we will likely respond from a place of unparalleled certainty.
For example, if a person has always been put down and criticised, they may believe they are worthless. Equally, they may see that that is bullshit and believe they are worth he same as anyone else. Both are ‘true’ but we would generally agree with only one.
Then we get into more contentious beliefs, the kinds of belief that feel uncomfortable to mess with, in subjects like abortion, euthanasia, politics, human rights, etc. There, our beliefs can cause friction.
So, beliefs are based upon personal experience and are often unquestioned truths about oneself and the world. They can allow us to live our lives in an empowered way and they can destroy our own and others lives too.
I challenge you to look at the beliefs that are not serving you or others and see through them. They are of no use to you. I love to question my own non-serving beliefs, see that they are not actually true, just a reflection of some past events, which have little bearing on what’s happening, and then see if I can make choices from where that belief has no power over me.
Good friends will question your useless beliefs - listen to them!
Remember that a belief can be made of anything and we only need to reflect upon the ones that affect our lives and the lives of others in a useless way. A belief is an absolutely illogical brain habit, often based upon what others have said and worse than useless. We don’t work things out like scientists, more often we work things out like toddlers, emotionally!
Have a go! Let me know!