You can change your beliefs
Some time ago I promised I would give you a method whereby you can change some of the beliefs that you have that are not very helpful to you. You know there are many – the common one being ‘I am not very good at this’ when you forget that if you are new to an activity, it will take practice to achieve expertise.
There are methods whereby you can make changes to reduce those limiting beliefs. Some are more obvious than others.
Obviously the first thing to do is to identify a NOT useful belief. I will use for me ‘I just can’t do DIY repairs’.
What do I want to believe? Now this must be personal to you and relevant to what you have identified. So for me it is a rather generalised belief. I want to believe ‘I can do anything if I choose to’.
What is worthwhile here is to remember a time when you were much younger, when you didn’t believe a desired belief but that you have subsequently succeeded in changing that. I have one from when I was a homeowner around 50 years ago: I had to replace a leaking window in the roof of my house- a job that I associated with ‘work for men’ (!) but I couldn’t afford to get someone to do it and didn’t have a friend who could either. So I decided I had no option but to attempt it myself. I did my research, ordered the components, chatted to the component supplier, and replace the skylight window! I then knew I could do it – because I did it!
This is a simple, but effective, method of changing some of your beliefs.
Now to relate a more subtle (and surely some may consider it to be weird!) method of changing beliefs. This you might find time consuming but it works if you stick with it!
Think of a belief you have that is a strong belief (again, not necessarily to do with crafting and it could be something that is an established fact) i.e “night follows day in Europe”
Think of this belief now and with your eyes shut notice where the ‘image’ of the belief has manifest itself. It might not be an image per se for you but nevertheless the manifestation will be noticeable. Notice if it is clear and notice what colour it is. Notice what size it is. Do you see it close to your head or far away in the distance? Is it in front, or to the left or to the right? (it could even be behind you!) Are there any feelings associated with you having created that image? Again, you may, or may not see a picture, but will just ‘know’ where the thought resides. This takes concentration but it is worth learning.
Now think of another strong belief (ie when there are no clouds in the sky, the sky is blue (or if you are colour blind what every colour it is!). Do the same – with your eyes shut create an ‘image’ of that thought and notice where that is, asking yourself the same questions: Notice if it is clear (a reminder that it is the thought about that belief, not the ‘reality of your belief’ you are questioning) and notice what colour it is. Notice what size it is. Is it close to you or far away in the distance? Is it in front, or to the left or to the right? (remember it could even be behind you!) Are there any feelings associated with you having created that image?
Think, now, one or more strong beliefs that you have (you might have a belief in God) and do the same. Do this as many times as you feel is of use to you whilst each time noticing if there are similarities and/or differences between the images. If there are similarities or differences is important.
If there are differences, then notice which of the beliefs created have resulted in the differences.
Keep this knowledge safe for next month, for using this, I will give you one of the methods whereby you may choose to change your less helpful beliefs and get a fascinating insight into how your mind works.
Last month I started talking about how you can change your beliefs. In particular I asked you to think of some solid beliefs that you already have (like night follows day in Europe). I asked you, with your eyes shut, to imagine that belief and notice how it manifests itself in your head. You will notice that there are similarities and differences between the different solid beliefs you applied yourself to. I pointed out too that you may not see an image – you may just ‘know’ where that thought has manifest itself in your head.
This month I would like you to think of a belief that you have that is not very useful “I am useless at this….” Being a common one. Or “I will never learn to do this….” – or similar types of beliefs. Having chosen one of these beliefs do the same as you did with the solid beliefs: notice where it manifests itself. Notice that they are almost certainly manifesting themselves in a different position. If, for instance your solid beliefs were consistently near to you and in the middle, the new not so helpful belief may manifest to the right (or left) or elsewhere. It will be different for everyone. Spend time really establishing where that new belief is sitting.
Once you have established that, the clever bit is to, in your head, move that image (thought) to the same position as your solid beliefs, and notice as you do that that it almost certainly will change to something like “of course I can learn to do this” or some other more helpful belief.
I am quite sure that many of you will find this just too strange to attempt to do, but much research has shown that we ‘codify’ or ‘file’ our thoughts and they are in different areas of our heads. If you persevere with this you will find that it by moving thoughts to different places in your head you can make changes.
Once you have established in your head (and it is in your head only) where your positive and fundamentally solid beliefs are ‘filed’ then you can choose to put less than useful beliefs into that space to watch them change for the better.
Persevere, for next month I can tell you something else useful you can do with this knowledge: it is a fascinating pursuit, and you might find what I am suggesting next week may be much easier to achieve having chosen to play with this idea up until now.
Last month, if you read my newsletter, you may have spent some time moving thoughts around in your head! If you have then I can offer new information that may help you to change how you act in relationships if you so wish.
This month I would like you to think of a person who is very close to you and means a lot to you. Create an image (and it is more likely to be an image this month) of that person in your head and notice where s/he places her/his self. Again notice the size of the image, the colour, the clarity and in particular the feelings you get when you think of her or him.
Having done that, this time think of someone who may have been in your life but who you have rejected for what ever reason (I have chosen Trump for this purpose!) and notice where the image of that person manifests itself – notice the colours, size, clarity (these are called submodalities) and the feelings associated.
Notice in particular that those two people show themselves in very different places in your head.
Now choose to think of someone who is a colleague – someone you work with regularly. Notice, again, where that person’s image resides in your head, and notice, again that it will be in a different place.
Do you have another colleague that you could think of? A colleague that you would like to be able to get on with better. If so, think of that colleague and notice if she/he is placed in a different place from the first person, and if so, then move him or her to where your first person ‘resides’ – notice when you do that that your feeling about that person changes.
You can of course do this with any of the people in your life and change your response to them if it is something that matters to you. However, this is very powerful and there can be times when your mind doesn’t let you change the position of someone that you have imagined. That usually means that there is some other fundamental work that might need to be done with that person!
Have fun with this for it is quite fascinating to discover and understanding what your mind is capable of.