As you become more aware of your beliefs, you will see how important they are to you. Even minor beliefs can be important when we are faced with conflicting information or other beliefs. At these times it comes to our attention that we disagree and we feel the need to express our opinion. Expressing our opinions is one way we present who we are to others. We consider our beliefs to be an aspect of our identity and we express that aspect to others with opinions. Some people feel the need to express their opinion at every chance they get and others may be too timid to express theirs but they still have those opinions going on inside their mind when faced with differing beliefs or contradicting information. Our beliefs are so important to us and so tightly held and rigid because we consider them a major aspect of our identity.
We identify with our beliefs. The act of believing is attaching an idea, thought or concept to our identity by making it a part of what we personally believe to be true or correct. The belief becomes a belief about ourselves. It defines us by what we believe we personally think is true or correct. Beliefs are a major portion of our perceived identity.
Not only are beliefs themselves a part of our identity, but then we use them to identify with other things to define us. These are all beliefs about ourselves. We don’t just identify ourselves by our body and mind, we identify with 100’s or even 1000's of other things. These are what I call identifiers. Our likes and dislikes are major identifiers of ourselves and very often take the form of opinions, judgments and beliefs. Our roles in life are major identifiers. Our possessions and wealth are often identifiers. Personal interests can be identifiers. Political and religious beliefs are frequently major identifiers. Our past is a very big part of our perceived identity as well. All of these identifications are in reality only beliefs of things that we consider to be aspects of ourselves. We have attached these things to our identity with belief. We have defined our identity with beliefs. Our identity is comprised of beliefs.
Our story and the life we have lived defines us in so many ways. We consider our memories a significant aspect of our identity. All of the identifiers from the past are in our memories and we hold on to them by believing they still define us. Our accomplishments, experiences, mistakes, behavior, circumstances, failures, etc. have been used by us to form our identity and our attachment to the past is a belief of who we perceive ourselves to be. Clearly if we had had an entirely different past then we would have an entirely different identity. There are many cultural and societal influences that have conditioned our identity into what we perceive it to be. If we had grown up and lived our lives in another country with an entirely different culture we would have an entirely different identity. That means that our identity is something that is formed and not predetermined. There are endless other possibilities for our identity. The fact that there are different possibilities means that our identity isn’t locked in stone and can change.
If our identity can change then what is it that changes if it does change? Does our mind change? No, just our beliefs in our mind and the perception of ourselves formed by our beliefs. Any aspect of ourselves that we would like to change can change by not believing it is a part of our identity. If we can effectively remove old beliefs, we can be anything we want when it comes to our behavior, thoughts or beliefs. We can change our perception of ourselves and remove limiting negative aspects of ourselves because the only thing that maintains them is our belief in them. This means that all identity is, with the exception of your mind and body, is a compilation of beliefs. Even the belief in the mind and body is an identifier and isn’t necessary. Identifying is a belief system that limits us to our beliefs about ourselves and also limits our awareness.
By becoming aware of our beliefs about our identity enables us to free ourselves from the limiting aspects of many of those beliefs. Freeing ourselves from those beliefs opens us up to countless possibilities of success, happiness and freedom. It enables us to be free of the negative effects of those beliefs and the emotional suffering, anxiety, fear and distress caused by those beliefs. It enables us to remove or change those beliefs that block happiness, contentment and fulfillment which are naturally occurring conditions if they aren’t blocked or overrun by beliefs. By removing certain beliefs about our identity can remove obstacles to achieving goals and success. It can change our entire perception of ourselves and life in general. By becoming aware of our limiting beliefs about ourselves can dramatically change our life and our perception of ourselves by simply removing those beliefs or honestly and sincerely believing something else.
What I’m sharing with you is experiential and not conceptual. My entire life changed immediately almost over night by changing one single belief I had about myself. I had the belief that I couldn’t be happy in the situation I was in. I had been chronically unhappy and depressed for decades. I finally realized I could be happy in just about any situation because happiness comes from within you. The awareness of that made me remove the belief that I couldn’t be happy and to believe I can be happy in my situation. I not only believed it, I instinctually and intuitively knew it. Now I can clearly see that single belief was blocking my happiness. All I had to do was remove that one belief from my psyche and my life had changed. It was that simple with hardly no effort what so ever. Along with that change in one belief I had to let go of other beliefs as well, but that was easy as well because I was aware they were no longer true and so they ceased to be beliefs. I simply no longer believed in them and they vanished.
The power of letting go of a single belief that had had such a negative impact on my life has made me aware of the incredible power of beliefs and how they can block our awareness and limit us within the confines of the boundaries of a belief. Just that one simple change led to awareness of so much more about beliefs and how they affect our well being. It also brought about a great deal of awareness and understanding of the nature of happiness that I will write about later.
Beliefs have unbelievable power even though they are always something that we don't know. We just believe we know. That belief in knowing shapes our perception of reality and is self fulfilling. That perception conforms life to the beliefs in our mind. It is so powerful that perfectly otherwise reasonable people that function well in society can actually believe the Earth is flat. The power of belief can make people believe in what is by all facts, information, evidence and data to be absolutely unbelievable.
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