We have lots of beliefs about ourselves, about the world and everything around us. Belief plays a very vital role in our life. We are not aware but belief influences our behaviour and decisions. What is a belief? why it is important? How it is linked to our success in life? How it is formed? How it can be changed? In this article, I am going to focus on these relevant questions.
What is a belief?
As mentioned in a book named "Awaken the giant within" written by Tony Robbins, "Belief is a generalization about our past, based on our interpretation of painful and pleasurable experiences. It has the power to create and the power to destroy."
According to Dr Robert P. Abelson, "Beliefs are like possession, and convictions are simply more valued possessions which allow an individual to passionately work toward either large-scale or individual completion of goals, projects, wishes, and desires."
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| Belief determines thought and feeling. |
Why belief is important?
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”
-Napoleon Hill
Belief is a very powerful tool to guide our life. Our success or achievement are directly linked with belief. We cannot be successful if we don't believe in success. To direct our life, it is necessary to control our beliefs. Our belief is navigating us whether we are aware of it or not. So, we should know what we are believing and why we believe it.
Everything that we do in our life is influenced by our beliefs. To know yourself, you should know your beliefs. It can create or destroy life. To handle life in a way we want, it is necessary to know about belief. Belief plays a very vital role because it creates meaning, thought and feeling.
How belief is formed?
Everything has a reference to something else. There are a cause and effect relationship. Our brain needs enough reference to believe something. With enough repetition and feeling, our brain perceives something as real even if it doesn't exist. The more we think and feel, the more we believe. This creates a sense of certainty which ultimately gives birth to belief.
How to change belief?
Since belief plays a very vital role in our life, it is necessary to change the old beliefs which do not work for us. There are various proven methods to change our belief. Some method is effective for someone while it may not work for others. You must know which method is best for you. Some of the methods are given below.
i. Auto-suggestion
Autosuggestion is self-suggestion. It is a technique that helps us to change our beliefs simply by enough repetition of words with feeling. If you believe you are not confident, then you can give autosuggestion like "I am confident to do any work." or "I am getting confident." It overrides over the old belief and helps to form a new belief.
ii. Question
The question helps to shift focus. If you continuously question your old belief, it loses its power and validity. For example, if you believe, you will fail; you can question yourself as "Am I really unable to success?" or "Am I really a person who always fails?" etc.
iii. Associate massive pain
Tony Robbins believes that if we associate massive pain to beliefs, we can change it quickly. We should associate massive pain whenever we want to change the unnecessary old belief. For example, if you believe drinking alcohol gives entertainment, you should associate the negative effects or massive pain to it. You should associate more pain than pleasure.
iv. Associate new meaning
Every belief has meaning. Belief is formed due to appropriate meaning. If we give new meaning, we can change the old belief. The new meaning gives the new cause-effect relationship which ultimately changes the old belief.
Reference: "Awaken the giant within" book by Tony Robbins.