Are Your Beliefs Serving You??

Hi guys! Today I wanted to share something I've been learning a lot lately around beliefs; our belief systems, how they work, and how it programs our brains to react when certain beliefs are present for us! We all have an ingrained set of values and beliefs that we have picked up and accumulated over our whole lives. It starts as a kid, we take on what our parents tell us; and then we go to school, and our classmates start challenging some of those beliefs because of what their parents told them; and then we get access to the internet and start to learn values and beliefs from all over the world, and we take or leave specific points of view because of how we see them through our own lense. And our lense is determined by our beliefs! But beliefs can change! At any given point, we can decide a belief is no longer serving us, and we can leave it behind and take on a new view of the world. You literally get to decide what you believe, and reprogram your brain! Think about when you were a kid, and a classmate said something that went against what you believed to be true about the world. (For example: the 'F' word is a naughty word; swearing wasn't even a thing in my house as a kid, so I had no notion of there being bad or good words, or that the F word even existed! So then my view of the world starts to shift, there's this naughty word, so people who say it must be naughty! And then you get to high school, and swearing becomes more normalised, so it challenges that belief again... well is it still a naughty word or not!?) The fact is, our beliefs are always shifting and changing, based on how we see the world around us. And there is no such thing as a right or wrong belief, it's just what is true for each one of us in any given moment! Some beliefs can be highly problematic, such as racist, sexist or homophobic beliefs. But I am soo not qualified to dive into that, so I'm not going to go there, except to say everyone has the tools and the choice to change their toxic belief systems into ones that don't hurt other people! Some beliefs can be so deeply ingrained into our subconscious that we don't even know that's what we believe until we start to do some personal development work and uncover what's really going on! If you read my blog on financial stress last year, you'll know that I dived into a 5 day course to rewrite my money story, and hoo boy, did it uncover some rouge beliefs I didn't even know I had!! Beliefs like "money can't buy happiness" and "more money, more problems" came up for me repeatedly throughout the course, and the journalling prompts empowered me to recall specific people and places where I had heard these things repeated through my childhood and teens. These deep seated, subconscious beliefs are so hard to shift, and I'm still working on releasing them, since I'm struggling with the mindset of having an abundance of money! The course followed a 5 step process that can be applied to any belief in any area of life, not just money. The beginning of the process is to identify which beliefs aren't serving you, and then find evidence of the opposite. You have to prove to yourself that the opposite is actually true! (For example: instead of believing more money means more problems, I am starting to understand that while money may not buy happiness, it can buy solutions! There may be certain problems that arise with financial abundance, but having money also brings the means to solve certain things through outsourcing or hiring someone suited for the job, rather than just figuring it out yourself!) Once you have identified the belief and found evidence to support the opposing side, you can start to create your new belief! Step 1: Create your new identity! That next level version of yourself, that believes these new beliefs you've identified, how do they show up in the world!? Create your new identity, and then become it. Step 2: Create new behaviours! Your next level self will do things differently than how you're currently doing things - if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got! So it's time to create some new habits and be conscious of the behaviours that are no longer serving your new beliefs and identity. Step 3: Create your new story, belief and thought patterns! Part 1 of this step is to identify what you must believe to be true in order to be in your current circumstance, and part 2 of this step is to flip it into what you must believe to be true in order to create your new reality! That's when you start to hack your brain and create new thought patterns, new beliefs, and new realities. Step 4: Create your new reality by using your senses! Visualisation is such a powerful tool, because our brain doesn't know the difference between emotions brought on by internal or external sources, (e.g. if you're stressed, your body will respond with a massive hit of adrenaline, because it doesn't know the difference between stress from being chased by a tiger, or stress from modern sources, like work!). So by visualising with all your senses; see, hear, smell, taste, touch; about what your new reality will look like as a result of your new beliefs and identity, you trick your brain into believing it's already happened, and you show up accordingly. Step 5: Consistency! Repeat steps 3 & 4 everyday, and celebrate the small wins! Time x repetition = mastery of your results. Show up for yourself every day, continue to cultivate those new beliefs, and visualise your new reality, and pretty soon you won't have to visualise it any more, because you'll see it when you open your eyes and wake up in the morning!! Remember, this process can be applied to any belief pattern you want to achieve! I found it particularly powerful in relation to money beliefs, but it can be anything really; what areas do you want to uplevel in your life?? What beliefs can you find evidence against, in order to switch them and create your new reality!?