« Unemployed and thinking outside the box | Main | Everything is connected »
July 18, 2005
The quality of the mind
We all talk, think, communicate, take in messages, have opinions about others and ourselves.
In the process of communicating, we delete messages, generalise, or distort - this relates to my recent entry about perceptions.
Basically, we believe that what we see is true. It is not true - it is how your mind perceives it how it happened - it is our reality only.
If you would ask someone else about the same accident, you will get a different version.
Isn't it true that if we are able to "manipulate" our mind, we can create our own personal experience? But how often are we handicapped by our own history or belief systems?
It is because we are educated in a way that forms our beliefs. How often have we been exposed to such sentences "you are too stupid to do this", "your brain is too timy", "don't even try it, you will fail" and so on?
I wrote about this earlier already.
Surely, over time, we start to believe that we are dump, stupid, unable. And sooner or later, we will fail in what we set out to do, when we try. It might be a different place, a different time, a different settings. Our mind, however, remembers, and sets us up for failure. So we prove to ourselve that we failed.
A vicious cycle has been initiated.
I have such thing in me as well. I always believed that I am not able to use screwdrivers, that I am an idiot in reparing a car, installing electronic items and so on. And of course it is true - I found out that my parents were pretty much breathing down my neck when I wanted to do something. So now, here I am - struggling with things, that need to be done. Be it changing Movable Type, or setting up something electronic - hey, I can change a bulb now, okay.
It is changeable, so - there are ways to develop your mind, change beliefs and that is great. I am working my way through my computer, through a manual, and carefully proceed to make changes. And feel good about changes and realise the potential in me.
And in this way, I am changing my personal history! Marking my future path. Because things won't be the same anymore.
Share with me, please, what ways have you discovered to change your beliefs? Is there anything that was successful and fast?
Posted by Andreas at July 18, 2005 05:03 PM
Comments
The most hampering belief of all is the idea that the clues to current behavior are buried and inaccessible. The answers are always there in our conscious minds.
Examine your invincible and core beliefs – strong ideas about your existence; the way you build your life. Examples,” human nature is inherently evil”, “my life is worthless”; “relationships are pointless”. The first example at its worst will make a person not trust a mate, family, friends, colleagues, country or the world in general.
Once understood to be false, the other subsidiary and offshoots will fall away. Distinguish between the facts of life and the beliefs of life - a daunting task for many.
You form your reality directly. You react consciously and unconsciously to your beliefs. You collect from the physical universe, and the interior one, data that seems to correlate with your beliefs.
To change, use your imaginations to move ideas in and out of your mind and propel them in the directions you desire. Your imaginations follow your beliefs, as do your emotions.
If you feel your relationships are pointless and fruitless, then imagine them filled and joyful. This may sound impractical, but in our daily life, we have used our imaginations and emotions often at the service of far less worthy cause. It may be a time before you see physical results but new ideas will take growth and change your experience.
The process of imagining will also bring you face to face with other subsidiary ideas that momentarily bring you short. You may see where you held two conflicting ideas
SIMULTANEOUSLY and with equal vigor; then you stalemated yourself.
For example, you believe you have a right to health and yet with equal intensity you believe the human condition is frail and tainted. Then you will try to be healthy and NOT healthy at the SAME time, or successful and NOT successful or loved or NOT loved according to your system of beliefs.
Always remember, believe, then, you are a being unlimited by nature, born into flesh to materialize as best as you can the great joy and spontaneity of your nature.
Other examples:-
Many of your own beliefs work for you for a certain period of your life. Many children at one time or another believe that their parents are omnipotent giving them a sense of security. Then in later adolescent years the same offspring are shocked to discover their parents to be quite human and fallible; the inadequacy and inferiority the older generations and the callousness of those in control of them.
The rebellious streak in them surface in their adulthood and they would believe that the older generations have “done everything wrong”. This is good for them as it frees them of their “childish concepts” and gives them the challenge to tackle personal and world problems.
If by forty, you still believe in the infallibility of your parents, then you hold that idea way beyond its advantages state for you. And by fifty you are still convinced that old people are rigid, growing senile, mentally incompetent and physically deteriorating then you are holding the “old belief” in the ineffectiveness the older generations and giving negative suggestions to yourself to FALL into the same mould.
Similarly, a young mother may believe that her child is even more important than her husband. Initially this is positive as it would help her to pay more attention and protect the child. But if this concept is held on FAR too long as the child grows older it becomes highly restrictive and eventually structured the woman’s entire adult life and make the husband becomes more wayward when he gets less attention.
Posted by: multidimid at July 18, 2005 11:38 PM
Normally...it took me extreme shock to change my beliefs. Close shave with death, traumatic breakup...that sort of thing.
But it takes time to put it all together to make some sense and during that time it can be a little overwhelming to begin with.
At this point...I still can't shake my insecure need to shed the "you're stupid" perception my parents drilled into me a long time ago. So I still push myself over and over againt to try and prove that I'm not stupid.
Sad thing indeed.
Somehow this post reminds me of Scott Adams of Dilbert. Come to think of it, I can somehow picture you as Scott Adams of Dilbert. I wonder if that would change you into a successful comic strip artist...:)
Posted by: Edrei at July 18, 2005 07:31 PM