You don’t believe what you see, you rather see what you have already decided to believe. – Unknown
This article is part of a series of four articles that explore fundamental universal laws that govern our lives. Here are links to all articles within this series:
- The Universal Law of Cause and Effect
- The Universal Law of Belief
- The Universal Law of Attraction
- The Universal Law of Control
Understanding the Law of Belief
The universal law of belief states that we do not believe what we see, we rather see what we have already decided to believe.
This universal law is a foundational law of life to the extent that without wholeheartedly believing that something can become a part of your reality, then consequently it will always remain out of your reach — no matter how desperately you may want it. Unfortunately, life doesn’t give us what we want, but rather what we intend with feeling — whether that intention lies at a conscious or unconscious level of awareness.
Today’s discussion will focus on the immutable universal law of belief and try to represent it in such a way that will enable you to take advantage of its principles and use them to improve the quality of your life.
We will begin our discussion by describing the universal law of belief and identify the intricacies of how our beliefs influence and determine the course of our life’s destiny. We will also delve into the world of self-limiting beliefs and the paralyzing impact and influence they can have on our lives. In addition to this, we will break down some simple mindset altering strategies that will enable you to take control of the beliefs that are directing your daily decisions and actions. And we will conclude our discussion by presenting you a few transformational analysis questions that can help you take advantage of the universal law of belief and use it to improve the circumstances of your life.
What Are Beliefs?
Beliefs are built upon a mix of fact and fictitious perspectives we have about life, ourselves and others.
Beliefs are built upon prejudice. When we prejudge something, we are ineffectively reaching premature conclusions about the events and circumstances that are directing our attention. In many instances, we reach conclusions despite evidence to the contrary, or despite our best efforts to make logical sense of the situation at hand.
Beliefs are filters of reality and experience. They filter-out from our sensory perspective anything that doesn’t align with our psychological programming. And consequently, we don’t see reality as it is, but rather how we perceive it to be.
Beliefs are based on incomplete and biased sensory perspectives that have been conditioned and programmed over time through our memories of past events, circumstances, and experience. These memories that we believe are real, are in fact only interpretations we made about reality at the time. Likewise, these interpretations of reality have been filtered over-and-over again through our belief systems over the years, and have taken on a life of their own — reinterpreting our life experiences in a multitude of unique and creative ways that have nothing to do with the reality of those events.
Beliefs are nothing more than interpretations of events, circumstances and life experience. Our emotional state, frame-of-mind, social condition, and other factors all affect how we interpret the events and circumstances of our lives. If for instance, we are to experience an emotional breakdown while certain events and circumstances take place around us, then our beliefs of those events and circumstances would be very different than if we were to be in a positive frame-of-mind at the time.
Beliefs consistently reject any information that is inconsistent or contradictory in nature. For this very reason, it is extremely difficult to convince someone of your opinion or perspectives if they have already developed a strong alternate belief about the information you are providing them with. The more emotional involvement is associated with a belief, then the stronger the conviction, and the more steadfast this person’s perspective is going to be. As a result, they will reject any and all information, no matter how logical it may seem, if it isn’t consistently aligned with their conditioned patterns of believing.
Beliefs determine the intensity of our emotional experiences in relation to people, events, and circumstances. In other words, your beliefs provide you with a set of pre-programmed fundamental rules and emotional responses that you launch when certain anchors are activated within your environment (such as people and circumstances) triggering specific and conditioned emotional responses.
Beliefs determine how we behave on a daily basis. We consistently act in accordance with the beliefs we have about the world, ourselves, others, events, and circumstances. These are pre-programmed responses and reactions that we have conditioned ourselves to accept without question. And the longer we allow these conditioned responses to perpetuate within our psyche, then the greater difficulty we will have in transforming these patterns for the better.
Finally, beliefs are nothing more than just illusions of reality.
You do not believe what you see, you rather see what you have already decided to believe.
Self-Limiting Beliefs
Self-limiting beliefs are simply beliefs that you have about yourself, others, circumstances and the world around you that limit your life in some way. In most instances, these beliefs are just interpretations you have made about reality that work against the goals and objectives you desire to achieve.
Our self-limiting beliefs make up the fundamental flaws of our psychology. They limit our opportunities, behaviors, and actions in so many ways at an unconscious level of awareness, that it is frightening to think about the possible long-term impact they are having upon our lives.
Your self-limiting beliefs undermine your ability to grow as a psychologically healthy human being. They essentially paralyze your ability to think effectively, to make sensible decisions and to take proactive actions. If you are finding yourself fighting through procrastination, stress, worry, anxiety or fear, then these are sure signs that your self-limiting beliefs are controlling your life’s reality and ultimate destiny.
Your self-limiting beliefs will hold you back from living the life you desire to experience, and will dramatically limit your potential as a human being in so many ways that it is very difficult to fathom the true extent of their impact on your life.
Your self-limiting beliefs consistently encourage the development fear, self-doubt and lead to patterns of emotional self-sabotage.
Are my current belief patterns working for me or against me?
Mindset Strategies
Within this section, we will discuss some effective mindset altering strategies and techniques you can immediately use to help you overcome the self-limiting beliefs that are currently controlling your life and shaping your destiny.
What to DO
Do reject your limiting beliefs by no longer accepting the control that they have over your life.
Do believe with feeling. Your feelings and emotions will give life to your beliefs. Therefore cultivate your empowering beliefs by sprinkling them with intense feeling and you will progressively transform these beliefs into unshakable convictions that will move you towards the attainment of your goals and objectives.
Do model the beliefs of successful people. They have attained their current level of success because of the beliefs that are driving and dictating their patterns of behavior. Your objective is to find out what drives these people, what beliefs and convictions they cultivate within their psyche, and model these patterns within your own mind.
Do challenge the self-limiting beliefs that are currently holding you back from the life you want to experience. Simply begin by questioning their validity and existence, and make a resolution that you will no longer accept them in your life.
Do develop your natural talents and abilities by involving yourself in activities that will help instill new empowering belief patterns within your psyche. These new belief patterns will spread like wildfire and affect all other aspects of your life.
What NOT to DO
Don’t jump to rash conclusions as a result of predetermined patterns of thinking and believing. Consider that you may probably not yet have the full picture of the events and circumstances under question.
Don’t accept the self-limiting beliefs that are currently dictating your life’s decisions and actions.
Don’t settle for less than your best. If you are taking shortcuts or not giving your best at any moment in time, then this is a sure sign that you have a set of limiting beliefs that are currently shaping your life’s decisions and actions.
Don’t prejudge possible problems. Consider the possibility that problems can at times be opportunities in disguise. However, they will always be problems if you see them in the light of your own limiting patterns of believing.
Don’t prejudge your potential and ability, which could be lying dormant within the recesses of your mind. Unless you push your limits and think beyond what you believe you are capable of, then you will never really know how far you can possibly go.
Don’t prejudge other people or circumstances because life’s too short to jump to rash conclusions about things you don’t really know.
Don’t prejudge until you have obtained all relevant knowledge, perspectives, understandings, and information about other people, events, and circumstances. Until you know all there is to know that is relevant to the present person or situation, then you really don’t know much at all.
Don’t underestimate available solutions and opportunities that may be hiding just out of view or just outside the invisible boundary of your limiting patterns of believing.
Transformation Analysis
Within this section, we will present a few transformational analysis questions that can help you take advantage of the universal law of belief and use it to improve your personal life experience.
Ask yourself the following set of questions to help you overcome your self-limiting belief patterns:
What self-limiting beliefs are currently holding me back from the life I want to live?
How do others view these self-limiting beliefs? What other perspectives are there?
What would I do if there were no limits to my money, talent, time, potential and ability?
What would I do if I knew I could not fail?
What must I now believe to achieve my ambitions, dreams, goals and objectives?
Concluding Thoughts
The universal law of belief is no doubt a transforming principle of life that — if used correctly — will allow you to attract what you want most into your life. If on the other hand it is used to promote your self-limiting beliefs, then it will consequently hold you back from the attainment of the reality you desire to experience on a daily basis.
Time to Assimilate these Concepts
Did you gain value from this article? Is it important that you know and understand this topic? Would you like to optimize how you think about this topic? Would you like a method for applying these ideas to your life?
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