Power of Belief by thomas Blog entry

Blog: Journey of Light
by thomas

Power of Belief

Now that We Have Learned the Power Our Beliefs Have Upon Our Body and Our Life, What Can We Do?

Date: 10/11/2005 11:51:28 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 3739 times

When you finish reading Bruce Lipton’s book, Biology of Belief, you have a fundamental understanding of how negative thoughts, emotions, beliefs and experiences can have a major impact on your body and your life. He clearly points out the scientific evidence that neatly links everything together.

Alright, we now know that our thoughts and beliefs are having a negative impact on our health and on our lives but what do we do about it. Well there is a tremendous amount of information out there and different approaches that are geared to help you shed the old stressed out you and replace it with the refreshed joy filled flourishing you. And who wouldn’t want that? But, along with the good comes the bad. There are techniques being popularized that may not work for you or just don’t work at all. Additionally, there are people out there who are just looking to get your money. So the most important caution I can give is to use your own judgment and discernment. Your intuition is your greatest guide. Be open and trust yourself. And don’t forget that a little research can go a long way.

One of the techniques often suggested is the use of daily affirmations or positive thinking. Well you may find that no matter how much time and energy you spend reciting that you love yourself or that you are worthy there is no real difference made in your daily life. Lipton speaks to this challenge briefly in the epilogue and in the addendum of his book. He writes:

“In those days I didn’t fully realize the crucial role the subconscious mind plays in the change process. Instead, I relied mostly on trying to power through negative behavior using positive thinking and willpower. I knew, though, that I had only limited success in making personal changes in my own life. I also knew that when I offered this solution, the energy in the room dropped like a lead balloon. It seems my sophisticated audiences had, like me, already tried willpower and positive thinking with limited success!” (Lipton, pg. 203)

My own experiences have taught me the same thing. I have tried positive thinking and the reciting of daily affirmations with some success. However, this success was usually limited to the short term. After some time, which could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of minutes, the old patterns and thoughts came streaming back. Well I now have a greater understanding of why this is. As most of us know, we have our conscious and our subconscious minds operating at all times. The positive thinking and affirmations that we have tried are creations of our conscious minds. They are created there and reside there. However, there are ingrained beliefs and behavioral patterns that have been created and stored within our subconscious minds through a lifetime of experiences and observations. It is these ingrained beliefs that often override our conscious mind’s attempts at positive thinking. Lipton says:

“The two minds are truly a phenomenal mechanism, but here is how it can go awry. The conscious mind is the “self,” the voice of our own thoughts. It can have great visions and plans for a future filled with love, health, happiness and prosperity. While we focus our consciousness on happy thoughts, who is running the show? The subconscious. How is the subconscious going to manage our affairs? Precisely the way it was programmed. The subconscious mind’s behaviors when we are not paying attention may not be of our own creation because most of our fundamental behaviors were downloaded without question from observing other people… The futility of battling with the subconscious is a hard message to get across because one of the programs most of us downloaded when we were young is that “will power is admirable.” So we try over and over again to override the subconscious program. Usually such efforts are met with varying degrees of resistance because the cells are obligated to adhere to the subconscious program.” (Lipton, pg. 169 and 171)

So we have learned that thinking positive thoughts and repeating affirmations are only part of the puzzle. They allow the positive energy to begin to flow through our conscious minds, but we have our unconscious minds to deal with where our negative thought patterns reside. So in a way we need to download new thought patterns, behaviors and beliefs into our subconscious minds. Lipton suggests one technique he has personally used which was created by a friend of his, Rob Williams, called PSYCH-KTM. I have not personally used this technique so I could not say whether it works or not, but Lipton says it has had an extremely beneficial impact on his life.

Personally, I think that each of us can develop ways of retraining our subconscious minds. I don’t think you necessarily need a technique, but hey if it works go for it. I am definitely of the frame of mind that you should use whatever works. For myself, I think the first step in this process is to discover and identify the negative beliefs, thoughts and patterns stored within our unconscious. Well how do you go about doing that you may ask? Well, look at your life and find out what stresses you out, what are you afraid of, what makes you mad, what pushes your buttons. Once you have found that out, ask yourself why. If for example, work is stressing you out then look for the cause. Is it because you are taking on too much, too much is being expected of you, you’re too much of a perfectionist or you’re too much of a procrastinator. The reasons could be endless, but they are specific to you.

Once you acknowledge you have stress in your life and have identified some if not all of the triggers of that stress keep looking further and further until you get to the core of the issue. If we go back to the stress at work example and pick the stressed by work because we are a perfectionist scenario, let’s look at why you have to be a perfectionist. Is it because you feel insecure inside and so you have to outwardly overcompensate for an inward feeling of inadequacy? If so, then this takes us down another step. Then we move on to why do you feel inadequate? Is it because your parents called you stupid or said you were worthless? Or did you simple misjudge certain experiences in your life and determine that you were inadequate. Again, the possibilities are endless.

By continually digging down into your own inner workings you can discover the lies you told yourself, the judgments you made and the negative patterns that have controlled your life. When you shed the light of truth on all of these, you give yourself the opportunity to release them. It is as if you are deleting them from your mind which in turn deletes them from your experiences. But this is only half the equation. Now that you have deleted the former programming you must now download new programming to be completely successful. The way you do that is by living. That’s right. Live a happy, loving, joy filled life. Surround yourself with loving friends and family. It is as simple as that. If there are experiences or people in your life that don’t bring joy, then it is time to get rid of them. If the television, newspaper or movies are bringing you down then read a book. Be mindful of how you react to things and make sure that you always come from a loving and positive place. If you see the world through love, then that is exactly what you will see. Wayne Dyer said in one of his books, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” That is a very powerful suggestion.

If you come to a point where you don’t know if you can do this self-discovery alone, guess what you don’t have to. There are plenty of professionals out there today that would be more than happy to help you. But I would also suggest talking with a friend or a family member that you trust and love. If they share that same love for you, then I have no doubt they would jump at the chance to help turn your life around. Allow them to ask the questions you are unwilling to ask yourself. I have found more than not that when I get to a point where I say, I just don’t know why I think this way or why I believe this about myself there is apart of me that does know why but doesn’t want to admit it. A lot of times another person’s perspective can lead you down roads you never thought of before. It can be difficult at times when you are alone in your own head. Sometimes it is good to have a friend that can bring you back down into your heart and there are other times we all just need a good swift kick in the ass to get us going. A good friend or loved one will know what you need and when you need it.

If you are unsure if you’re making progress there are several ways I would suggest in order to tap into the old subconscious. One way would be to monitor your dreams. During the dream state a lot of the images and experiences we have come from our subconscious. If your dreams are filled with harsh images, fears or anxieties then you know there is still work to be done. Analyze the images and try and find the messages lying in wait for you there. I believe there is a tremendous amount of information in our dreams if we are willing to take the time to pay attention to them. Keep a dream journal and make the effort to record your dreams everyday.

I would also suggest meditation. Go within yourself and be mindful of your thoughts, feelings and emotions. If your mind is racing a mile a minute and jumping from one worry to another, there’s a problem. If on the other hand you are able to quit your mind and enjoy the stillness, you’re making good progress. There is a tremendous amount of information on the web and in bookstores on meditation that it is very easy to develop a basic program for yourself.

Another interesting method mentioned in Lipton’s book is kinesiology or muscle testing. This is predicated on the belief that “when your conscious mind has a belief that is in conflict with a formerly learned “truth” stored in the subconscious mind, the intellectual conflict expresses itself as a weakening of the body’s muscles.” (Lipton, pg. 159)

I was also taught this method while I was out in Sedona, Arizona. If I hold my arm out and you put downward pressure on it, I should be able to resist and keep my arm straight. When I make a statement such as I am 30 years old while you put pressure on my arm, I should also be able to resist. However, if I make the statement I am 40 years old when my subconscious knows very well that I am not then no level of resistance on my part can keep my arm straight. It will give way to your downward pressure. Its one thing to read about it, but much more amazing when you actually experience it for yourself. If you have two people you can try out the above method, but I did find a website that provides instructions on how to try it out on your own. You can reach it here:

http://www.answerswithin.net/beliefs.htm
(this is for information purposes only. I don’t actually know whose web site it is. It just sounded like good information to me)

Here is another site which pretty much reiterates the previous one:

http://bethcoleman.net/kin.html

And lastly a surefire way to determine your success or not is to monitor yourself. Do you feel any happier? Are you experiencing more joy? Are you less stressed out? How you feel and what you are continuing to experience will be your greatest litmus test. If the answers to the above questions are no, then again there is still work to be done. You need to dig deeper and search for the truth.

No matter what you try and how hard you work none of it will matter if you are not being truthful with yourself. There’s the old adage: don’t ask a question you don’t want the answer to. That’s true. If you’re not ready to see the truth, than no matter how anyone packages it you’re not going to be willing to accept it. And along with being truthful comes being open and expressing yourself. Speak your truth and let everyone know your story. Through expression you will not only be able to free yourself from the past but you will also be able to connect with others. It’s the recognition that what you have experienced, the pain, suffering or fears are really no different than anyone else. The circumstances may vary but the feelings and experiencing of those feelings aren’t. My pain isn’t worse than your pain or yours worse than mine. Those are judgments. In my view, pain is pain and suffering is suffering. They all feel the same.

I don’t know about you but this leaves me with a lot of hope. I think that Lipton’s book and the insights I have gathered from reading it offer all of us a hope for the future. We have learned that our negative thoughts and beliefs can have a detrimental affect on our health and our lives, but in the same regard we have also learned that positive thoughts and beliefs can add untold amounts of joy and happiness into our lives. The mechanisms are there within our very cells to make this happen. It really becomes a matter of whether we are willing to do the work to clear out the old and bring in the new. I truly believe that no matter how hard that work may be (trust me I know how hard it can be from my own ongoing experiences) the joy at the end of the road is well worth it.

But the real hope lies in the recognition that you and I have the power to create a happy life for ourselves.

Well this is my fifth and last message on this terrific book so I extend my many thanks to Dr. Bruce Lipton for writing “The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles”. He gave me a lot to think about and apparently a lot to write about as well.