Notes
Beliefs are an incredibly important part of personal growth. Changing our beliefs is a natural part of our transition from childhood to adulthood (otherwise we’d all still believe in Santa). So why should our beliefs about life, about ourselves, and others be cemented just because we’ve moved into a new decade? Revisiting what we believe allows us to keep improving and accomplish our goals.
Like a tree is once a seed, our beliefs start small. The reality of our worlds is a product of our beliefs; what we choose to water will grow. This is especially important when it comes to what we want to accomplish in life. In Good Vibes Good Life, Vex King writes about how beliefs are crucial when it comes to manifesting your goals. He refers to this as “mind work”.
The seeds of our beliefs
Imagine a little garden of thought seeds… The thoughts we continually water will flourish, becoming part of our belief system. Vex King writes how the subconscious mind will naturally have good and bad seeds planted, and it’s up to the gardener (aka the conscious mind) to decide what gets nurtured. How we behave and deal with situations in life depends on our perception of the world. Our perceptions are what we have decided to accept as true in our subconscious gardens, and are the basis for our beliefs.
What we water will grow
Some of our limiting beliefs will inevitably get watered as well (think about how we continually tell ourselves that we “just aren’t good at public speaking” even if there’s no real basis behind that). The good news is that we can work to change the thoughts that hold us back. It’s not easy; our brains are constantly trying to rationalize the world around us. We accept beliefs that others have instilled in us as truth, as a way of validating our feelings. But someone’s experience of life is most certainly not going to be our exact experience, and neither should their beliefs.
The ability to see other perspectives means remembering that our beliefs are our truth, but they are not necessarily the truth.
Pruning the garden
To sustain personal growth, we need to entertain new beliefs that give a different perspective. This is especially important for beliefs that provide a more empowering view. Ask yourself… How many of your beliefs help you live your best life? How many of your beliefs are your own? Vex King writes, “Our beliefs are like a lens we use to view life, we see what we convince ourselves is true.” The first step in changing our beliefs (and ultimately changing our life) is finding enough evidence to disprove whatever notion you believed to be true.
In her book I’ve Been Thinking, Maria Shriver also mentions the benefit of reevaluating which beliefs are actually serving you. Doing a self-inventory check helps to source which beliefs are doing subconscious damage and creates space for new beliefs. Performing this sort of personal deep dive allows us to think about how we previously defined a belief and how it’s changed with our growth. Maria wraps this section up by writing, “There comes a time in all of our lives when it’s time to take stock of what was, what is, and what can be. Don’t hold on to stuff that prevents you from becoming who you can be.”
Reflections
Beliefs are something I used to solely associate with things like religion, Santa Claus, and global warming. Outside of science, I never really pondered what else I believed in. I came to the short-sighted conclusion that I don’t have very many beliefs and that maybe that’s because I’m not a religious person.
Then I read the last section of Maria Shriver’s book titled “The power of reevaluating”. It wasn’t her tradition of reevaluating her life every New Year’s that intrigued me, it was the idea that what she was reevaluating was her beliefs. I never imagined that beliefs were a thing you could rewrite. I thought we were always locked into the opinions and postulations we formed in our adult years and we weren’t allowed to change them. If we did, wouldn’t that make us weak? A liar? Wishy-washy?
The truth is that it doesn’t make us any of those things. Our experiences in life are always shifting because life itself is always shifting. And the conclusions we come to about ourselves, other people, and life in general are ours to shift as we change and grow. This is especially beneficial when we recognize that we’re holding onto beliefs that no longer serve us. In my case, a lot of these “limiting beliefs” were about myself, but many were about other people as well. So I didn’t wait until New Year’s; I took Maria’s advice now. I thought about the beliefs I held that make me who I am, which beliefs have changed, and which were no longer serving me.
Beliefs can be based around karma or faith, but more simply: they’re the notions that drive us. They cause us to think, behave, and live the way that we do. If this is true, we must strive to have empowering beliefs. Ones that allow you the potential to be better, recognize your worth and your humanness, and limit your suffering. I’m aware that a limiting belief will creep its way into my consciousness from time to time, but when it does, I’ll take Maria’s advice. I’ll listen to how I feel and rewrite them.
