September 27th, 2008 at 03:18pm
Under General
You’ll find it extremely useful and telling to understand why you believe the things that you do. You will surely be surprised to realize some of the shaky ground you have formed your beliefs on.
The blatant fact is that the major portions contributing to the building of a belief system are based on illogical input! That’s right! Only 1 out of the 5 methods of creating your beliefs is based on logic.
The 5 main information sources feeding your beliefs are:
- Evidence
- Tradition
- Authority
- Association
- Revelation
- Evidence
Evidence indicates causation of one thing for another. The ‘cut and dried’ quality of evidence appeals to the methodical and diagnostic part of your mind. Developing your belief system through this approach is very rationale and founded on the use of logical thinking.
Two ways we gather evidence:
- Scientific enquiry supplies results from critically tested hypotheses to support evidence based believing.
- Your unique life experience of cause and affect. You might often experience a consistent result from your actions. For example:
- If you drive a certain route at rush hour, you will be late.
- Cooking for appreciative friends makes you feel great.
- Tradition
The traditions perpetuated through generations and cultures are a key contributor in building your belief system. Familes are often overwhelmed with traditional ideas day in and day out when growing up. Therefore traditions can be relatively easy to adopt, without even assessing. It’s great to appreciate that traditions have served some cultures well. However it does not indicate they are essentially based in truth, nor necessarily have a legitimate place in your life.
Many people adopt their main ‘global beliefs’ and some ‘topic specific beliefs’ through societal tradition. Family biases, social culture, and societal discrimination are all major factors in the formation of personal ideas about:
- God and what spiritual understanding is correct
- political theory and which party to vote for
- ones own personal value
- which sporting team to cheer for
Reflecting on this, can you identify what role tradition has played in developing some of your beliefs?
- Authority
Numerous beliefs are learned from people in positions of authority.
It’s possible that these figures of power also fall in the category of tradition, as I’m sure you can picture. For example, parents usually stand up as a significant role of authority while growing up and they are daily passing traditions down to you.
It’s also possible that those in positions of authority stand outside of tradition. Examples of some of those who influence your beliefs, could be:
- a spiritual guide that claims to have a unique direct line to ‘God’
- a medic who claims that they absolutely sure that any ideas on health that are contrary with theirs, are rubbish
- a university professor who you have looked up to
- Association
What group are you part of?
Whether you can be found with the ‘in crowd’ or hidden away with the ‘nerds’, you will be strengthening common beliefs that you share with the group. It is kind of like ‘you rub off on one another’.
As you are regularly faced with special ways of thinking common to your crowd, you learn to ‘go with the flow’ and support the shared thinking.
- Revelation
Here, the definition of revelation referred to is “the disclosure of information to man by a divine or supernatural agency”. The experience might be described as:a gut feeling… or seeing something in your imagination.
Two main explanations offer insight on how this unseen delivery of knowledge occurs:
- Some say that the knowledge had previously been fed into your subconscious through external stimuli. It was just fizzing below the surface. When the correct trigger was hit, (likely some
vague event), the info was brought to your conscious mind.
- Others think that perhaps it is due to a sixth sense of perception that we know little about. This extra sense is revealing unlike any other, baring new info in ways not yet measurable.
Revelation can reveal itself at any time. You might be; busy in the office, in the shower, meditating on breaking waves. Where ever it may arrive, might be interesting to ponder. But, the really interesting question is, will it help to share this information?
There was definitely one outstanding man who highly valued the wild ideas his imagination threw upon him.
Albert Einstein! He intimately knew the power of imagination, and how it is interwoven with the magic of believing. A few of his words of wisdom on the subject:
“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.”
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
Have fun exploring the origin of some of your beliefs.
- With an inquisitive mind, ask, “do they have a solid basis and do they serve you well?”
- Recognizing that many or your beliefs are ‘adopted beliefs’, have another look at them in a new light. See if you can find holes in them. As you learn and grow, it is reasonable to think that you will change some of your beliefs as you progress with your personal development. Enjoy the process!
© inspired-personal-development.com
By writer
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:50am
Under General
What is it that makes us look down on someone or ‘think we are better than’… even for a minute? Have we seen life through their eyes? Do we have even an inkling of what life looks like from their perspective?
These were questions I had to ask myself, as I realized I had fallen down the slippery slope of judgment. In hindsight, I can laugh. I took my lesson, learned this fundamental personal
leadership quality and… the outcome is not one I will soon forget!
It was during my ‘hippy years’. You know those days of peace, love and rock n’ roll. My motto was ‘live and let live’ and that in itself makes my quick ability to judge that much more ironic. Undoubtedly it was time I learned a lesson.
Having just moved out of a religious commune, I headed north to visit one of my brothers. I loved him dearly and hadn’t seen him for a few years. We were to enjoy a couple of wonderful days together catching up. He was an actor and I was looking forward to seeing the theater production he was acting in.
After his performance on the Saturday night we were going to a party with his fellow actors. It was the birthday of one of the girls from the cast, and about 40 actors and crew members were meeting to celebrate with her.
It was a rather energetic group of revellers, and the Greek restaurant we descended on seemed ready for them. More prepared than I was! My life had been very low-key over the past couple of years and I was pretty much a teetotller. The refreshments of choice going around the table were definitely not tea. I chose a seat near the end of the tables, satisfied to mostly stay out of the action.
The party gained volume and energy for a number of hours… eating, drinking, and certainly being merry, and the end of the night was drawing close. It was kind of like a final party trick when this big drunken actor got up and took the center of the floor. He couldn’t be missed… weaving and wearing a blazing grin plastered beneath his big bald head, and making more than his share of noise. Really not a guy you’d take home to your parents. He was just steady enough to balance a tall stack of plates in one hand, while he held a single plate in the other. The Greek restaurant tradition of breaking plates was definitely on the program. He started smashing down through the plates… crack, crack, crack. The ceramic fell all about him and skidded across the floor from his drunken stupor.
He had broken all but a final single plate. After a dazed look of bewilderment, an even more audacious and stupid grin came upon him. He quickly thrust the plate over his head, and smash… down it came onto his naked skull. Somewhat dazed and now with a crooked smile, a little stream of blood let loose running down the side of his face.
I gazed at this performance with disgust… certainly judging him and thinking he was an idiot. Even though I obviously thought I was better than him, I didn’t feel good. I was ready to leave the party.
The following day my brother and I reviewed the party. He told me then that this drunken guy was one of his dearest friends. He had cancer and had been undergoing chemotherapy, hence the bald head. He’d been soldiering on, determined not to let it interfere with his career.
Even though he needed a daybed in the theatre for rests between his performances, he was not giving up. The party was an opportunity to let loose, knowing he was among understanding friends.
Well… he had been mostly among friends that night. I admitted that I was the one who had been the idiot, not him. The judgments fell away. My understanding opened and I sent out compassion, acceptance, and caring. This felt like a relief. I was offering something meaningful.
It was about 10 years later that I again crossed paths with this man. I had moved to the city my brother lived in, and as they were friends, we met. Over the coming weeks we found ourselves many times at the same social outings, brunches, and theatre productions. We
discovered that we actually shared a lot in common, and quite liked one another. In fact, we really liked one another.
About a year and a half later, in the style of the true gentleman I now understood him to be, he asked my father if he could take my hand in marriage.
Certainly, I could vividly recall the evening in the Greek restaurant, just as clearly as I could remember who the real idiot had been. This gentleman was an utter gift to me. One that I would have definitely overlooked if I had remained blindly in judgment. Fortunately I took a chance with the belief that he was a loving human being.
Within the year we rejoiced at our wonderful wedding in a park in the Rockies, and the reception… certainly not at a Greek restaurant!
Whenever I feel judgment glazing my view, it’s a powerful reminder for my personal development. It’s time to ask what it might be concealing. What is it blinding me to? What are the treasures, if only I can see through the haze. They’re there… waiting.
By writer
September 21st, 2008 at 11:47am
Under Uncategorized
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By writer