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The Power Of Belief
Filed under Self GrowthFeb 12“Man is what he believes.” – Anton Chekhov
Think of the story of Pablo Casals at 90-frail and arthritic, the very thought of playing the piano totally changed his state and thus the effectiveness of his body he believed in the transcendent power of his art, his music.
Beliefs deliver direct commands to your nervous system. Handled effectively, they can be the most powerful forces for creating good in your life. On the other hand, beliefs that limit your actions and thoughts can be as devastating as resourceful beliefs can be empowering. Beliefs are the compass and maps that guide us toward our goals and give us the certainty to know we’ll get there. Without beliefs or the ability to tap into them, people can be totally dis-empowered; with powerful guiding beliefs, you can see what you want and be energized to get it.
The more we learn about human behavior, the more we learn about the extraordinary power that beliefs have over our lives. There have been numerous studies in which a person in a hypnotic trance is touched with a piece of ice represented to him/her as a piece of hot metal. Invariably a blister will develop at the point of contact. What counted was not reality but belief-the direct, unquestioned communication to the nervous system. The brain simply does what it’s told through our beliefs.
Norman Cousins talks about the placebo effect, and from his own illness and studying many others, concludes, “Drugs are not always necessary. Belief in recovery always is.”
Belief is nothing but a state-a feeling of certainty-that governs behavior. The birth of excellence begins with our awareness that our beliefs are a choice. You can choose beliefs that limit you, or you can choose beliefs that support you. The biggest misconception people often have of belief is that it’s a static, intellectual concept, an understanding that’s divorced from action and results. Nothing could be further from the truth. Belief is the doorway to excellence precisely because there’s nothing divorced or static about it.
Beliefs come from a variety of sources:
1) ENVIRONMENT may be the single most potent generator of belief-ghettos, on the one hand, supporting environments that help foster beliefs about being “special” on the other.
2) EVENTS, SMALL OR LARGE-like Kennedy’s assassination, and personal events we’ll never forget.
3) KNOWLEDGE is one of the ways to break the shackles of a limiting environment.
4) OUR PAST RESULTS-knowing you’ve already achieved the result you want before-just once is usually enough.
5) CREATE IN YOUR MIND THE EXPERIENCE YOU DESIRE IN THE FUTURE AS IF IT WERE HERE NOW-experiencing results “in advance.”
It is important to remember that the potentials we tap, the results we get, are all part of a dynamic process that begins with belief.
If you start with a belief system that stresses what you can’t do, you tap a limited amount of your potential, and you take half-hearted action, tentative actions, which will probably lead to dismal results, and then what will these results do to your beliefs about subsequent endeavors? This is a classic downward spiral: failure breeds failure.
On the positive side, however, if you begin by believing with every fiber of your being that you will succeed, you’ll tap lots of your potential, take massive action, and your belief in your ability to produce even better results in the future will be affirmed. In this case, success feeds on success and each success creates more belief and momentum to success on an even higher scale.
Amazingly, sometimes just not having a limiting belief is enough to ensure success, or to have an experience that disproves a particular limitation.
YOUR REALITY IS THE REALITY YOU CREATE THROUGH YOUR BELIEFS. CHOOSE THEM WELL!Tagged as: power of beliefComments Off
