What are beliefs? If you start observing yourself, especially all that is going on in your head(i.e. your thoughts), you’ll see that you have so many preconceived notions about yourself, about others, about life in general, about men, about women, about money etc., you name it and some kind of opinion is there. What are these thoughts that drive our lives, whether we are conscious of them or not. How we behave and react depends on them.
“Belief: The acceptance by the mind that something is true or real, often underpinned by an emotional or spiritual sense of certainity.” Vienna Stibal
We might say that a belief system is a strong, conditioned, maybe recurrent thought, which has been totally accepted both by the conscious as well as the subconscious mind.
The conscious mind has the ability of discernment, of judging what is right and what is wrong. Of course it wants to do the right things, take the right decisions throughout life, but does it happen like this? No one wants to have limitations on abundance e.g., but then why only a miniscule percentage of people are rich? The problem is the conscious mind knows what is right, but it only 10-12%. How far can we go if 88-90% of our being is pulling us in one direction while the 10-12% in another? This is the reason why conscious efforts like positive thoughts, affirmations etc remain on the superficial level without having a long lasting effect.
Basically beliefs are of 4 different types and levels:
- Core
- Genetic
- History and
- Soul level
Of all these, core beliefs which have become a part of us, are what we have been taught and accepted from childhood in this lifetime. They are our ‘internal guide to life’, telling us how to behave and react in a given situation. As children, we had drawn certain conclusions as to how to deal with certain set of situations. Seen from an adult point of view, these might seem a bit skewed and inappropriate. But if we think that it was the point of view of a small child, who was blaming himself for every little problem his parents were having. The child does not understand that it is not his/her ‘fault’. Abuse, neglect, financial or relationship problems of parents, a child thinks that its all because of him or her. These conclusions drawn by the child were supposed to be temporary, but unfortunately it does not happen like this. Instead of living our lives by new supporting rules, we keep on living the drama of life by the rules set by a child.
COMMON CORE BELIEFS
We create our own reality by virtue of thoughts that we hold and the beliefs that we keep. Our external environment is therefore a reflection of our thoughts and beliefs. The following are common fears that almost each of us have had to encounter at one or the other point in our lives:
- Poor Self Image: Low self esteem, lack of self confidence, general feelings of inadequacy, hence shame and the need for masking.
- Guilt: Fear of causing pain to others, fear of making mistakes. We fear that we have done something wrong and that our actions may hurt others, especially our loved ones.
- Loss: Fear of losing, fear of failure. Fear of being judged and subsequently declared a failure and inadequate.
- Lack: Fear of not having enough. The belief that there is not enough in the world for everyone. One person’s gain has to be another’s loss.
- Mistrust: Fear of being betrayed, revealing a lack of trust.
- Victim consciousness: Fear of being victimised. The ‘poor-me’ attitude.
- Separation: This is very subtle fear and it might camouflaged under the guise of loyalty, patriotism etc. Actually this is fear of getting uprooted from the tribal consciousness.
Apart from these there are core beliefs that people might have the fear that
- They may be evil, corrupt or defective in some way (not being good enough)
- They are unwanted and unloved
- They are worthless and without value in themselves
- They do not have an identity or any personal significance of their own
- They are helpless, incapable and incompetent
- They are without and guidance
- They are trapped in pain or deprivation of some sort
- They will be harmed or controlled by others
- They will suffer loss, or connection with others
Once you identify your core beliefs, you become aware of the price which you have paying for having them. Each and every belief, that we have, either consciously or unconsciously, serves us, benefits us in one way or another. But now that we know that the benefits far outweigh the consequences, we can make up our mind to keep only supporting and empowering beliefs.