“Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.”
Rumi
How would you be without your Story?
Our experience is the product of our beliefs.
“Perception is always an act of creation and choice.”
Ron Kurt
This is an invitation to identify the beliefs you have and move into inquiry of the truth of beliefs that have been held as a given premise and that have never been questioned.
Do you find yourself doing the same ‘old; thing, even though you ‘know better.’ We try like crazy to ‘do something different’, largely unaware that our powerful belief systems are really running the show.
So what exactly is a belief system?
Beliefs are definitions we hold in our minds about reality, ourselves and everything in between . A belief is something one perceives to be true.
Our knowledge is molded and limited by our means and ways of perceiving things. Many of the limiting beliefs we hold about ourselves and our surroundings result from the conditioning we have received from our parents and the environment we were brought into as children.
So much of what we believe has been inherited from our ancestors in the form of religious and philosophical belief systems. Together these systems have shaped our institutions and our cultures.
Understanding where beliefs can stem from will help to understand why we believe what we believe.
Our belief system is a powerful part of our being. It decides who we are and what we become, both mentally and physically. The belief system is formed by perceptions and acceptance.
When these perceptions of ourselves, whether false or true, negative or positive, are accepted as truth by our subconscious mind, they. become reality.
Most of these beliefs are stored in the subconscious mind, which means we are seldom consciously aware of them. Here are some examples of common limiting beliefs:
I am…
• not good enough (incompetent)
• not good enough (unlovable)
• unwanted, different
• defective, imperfect, bad
• powerless, one-below
• in danger, not safe, alone
• don’t know, wrong, not trustworthy
• Money is the root of all evil
• I’ll never amount to anything
• Success is difficult
• Live is difficult
Within that broad belief pattern, however, are many different variations.
Your belief system is the actual set of precepts from which you live your daily life, those which govern your thoughts, words, and actions. Without these precepts you could not function. In the brain, belief systems are reflected in the formation of neural connections & pathways. In other words, they are ‘wired’ in the brain and keep their structure through reinforcement. Beliefs give rise to emotions and emotions arise from beliefs: your most intense feelings reflect to you your most strongly held beliefs.
Is your personal belief system working for you or against you?
Did you make a conscious decision to believe how you perceive yourself and others?
“A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It’s not our thoughts, but our attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought means believing that it’s true, without inquiring. A is a thought that we’ve been attaching to, often for years.”
Byron Katie
Lao Tzu once said, “if you correct your mind, the rest of life will fall into place.” Happiness truly is a state of mind, and each individual has the power within them to change his or her brain patterns to operate accordingly.
Can we really change the way we are in the world?
Here are some research discoveries.
One of the most magnificent attributes of the brain is what’s called neuroplasticity-the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections.
When we change the way we think, when we change a belief or thought pattern from a self-sabotaging one to a self-empowering one, we change the wiring of the neural pathways of the brain, the chemistry of the body and finally, our emotional states.
All of the scientific discoveries have proven that we no longer have to be trapped by our old beliefs. This means that if you have found yourself coming up against the same issues time and time again – you now have the chance to change things up. You have control over what you believe in – it’s your life after-all.
Perhaps it’s time to take your old beliefs to Inquiry today?
Are you ready to investigate into the belief systems who don’t serve you anymore? Ready to change how you see the world? We will use “The Work of Byron Katie”
The Work of Byron Katie is a simple yet powerful process of inquiry that teaches you to identify and question the thoughts that cause all the anger, fear, depression, addiction, and violence in the world. It’s a way to understand what’s hurting you, and to address the cause of your problems with clarity.
‘I don’t let go of concepts, I question them. Then they let go of me’
Byron Katie
Let’s do the Work together. The Work is meditation. It’s about awareness; it’s not about trying to change your mind. Let the mind ask the questions, and then contemplate. Take your time, go inside, and wait for the deeper answers to surface.
Instead of trying to suppress our judgments we have about others or life experiences we will use them as a starting point for self-realization.
Doing so allows us to discover the real source of distress in life. As we cease trying desperately to get reality to match our stories of how it “should be” we start to experience the peace and happiness that comes when we stop wanting everything to be different than it is.
Welcome to reality!!
Through my studies of the Gestalt Therapy my understanding and working with beliefs and thoughts has stressed that experience is more trustworthy than interpretation.
We learn the discrepancy between talking about what, happened 5 minutes ago (or previous night or 20 years before that) and experiencing what is taking place at the moment.
The here and now experience (Gestalt principles) in directed awareness leads to self realisation.
I will guide you gently true the “The Work” process to find peace and freedom from beliefs that causes pain and suffering in your live. We will embark on the journey of experiencing the change and freedom from stressful thoughts.