During our life, every day various events happen to us. They might be joyful when we feel happiness, love, fun, or they might be sad when we cry, get upset, get angry. The emotions we experience are just one side of the coin that we get from the events taking place around us. When emotions are strong enough, they leave a deep mark on us and form beliefs. Strong positive emotions create positive beliefs, and negative emotions create negative ones.
Negative beliefs can include, for example, “I find it difficult to acquire new knowledge” if the experience of studying at school was negative. Or “I’m not beautiful/handsome enough,” if in childhood someone criticized appearance.
Our brain creates negative beliefs to protect us so that in the future we do not experience negative emotions that we experienced earlier. However, they greatly limit us in our personal development and growth and create difficulties on our life path. The well-known biblical words “According to your faith be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29) reflect the essence of our life. Our life and its events accurately reflect our inner world and our beliefs, both positive and negative.
Take a piece of paper and a pen and draw a line to divide the sheet into two parts. On the left side of the sheet, write down the negative beliefs that you currently have and would like to change. When the list is ready, on the second side of the sheet, describe the situation that caused the formation of the negative belief, as well as the approximate date (year, month) when this happened. This exercise will help you see which beliefs you need to work on first and will also allow you to effectively work on them by rewriting them.
It is important to remember that our reaction to certain events or other people’s words is just our interpretation of the facts. We are all different and perceive the same situations and facts in different ways, depending on our emotional states and past life experiences. Perhaps the situation that happened to you in childhood was not dangerous for you, but you interpreted it as a danger, and you formed a negative belief. Perhaps what happened earlier was necessary for your inner growth and development, and now you need to thank that situation, take the necessary lessons, and rewrite the negative beliefs formed earlier.
We are adults and it is in our hands to change both our beliefs and our reality. Any changes that we strive for in the outside world, we need to start within ourselves: with a change in our beliefs. We can rewrite negative events of the past and change previously formed negative beliefs so that they no longer affect us and our lives. There are various effective techniques that I am happy to share with you in my future posts.
Be happy!
Stay safe.
