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Chapter II Continued
We Are Belief-Making and Belief-Consuming
Creatures
We learn our beliefs from others
or deduce them from our own experiences. In effect,
beliefs are interpretations and conclusions. What
others say and teach us tells us about their thought
processes and their beliefs. What we decide to "buy"
- adopt and empower - tells us about our thought processes
and our beliefs.
Despite all this belief manufacturing
and belief consuming, we do not believe all that we
are told. For instance, when told "The stock
market is a good place to invest your money,"
some of us believe it, and some of us don't. We choose
our beliefs freely; therefore, we can discard them
if we decide. Nevertheless, we might note with fascination
that our beliefs tend to be constant. We hold on to
them for a long time, usually because we don't explore
them or challenge them. However, we can question our
beliefs, not as a sign of disrespect or indictment
of ourselves or others, but to give ourselves an opportunity
to review, to reaffirm, to change and, most significantly,
to facilitate happiness.
The impact of the beliefs we hold
is profound. The ramifications can be devastating,
but, conversely, they can be empowering and liberating.
If I think something is wrong with me or that I am
unlovable, I will probably have corresponding feelings
associated with such beliefs - sadness, isolation
and impotence. My actions will follow from that vision
of myself. I might leave a relationship or bury myself
in work to find meaning or a sense of self-worth.
Ultimately, my body will reflect my mind-set with
sluggishness, a suppressed immune system, vulnerability
to disease and viruses and, perhaps, precipitate illness.
We can indict ourselves and feel guilty or, in contrast,
use the power of beliefs to determine more consciously
what happens to us. With such a realization comes
hope, strength and an opportunity to create ourselves
anew.
Why, in the past, did we rush to
judgment, rush to create interpretations or beliefs?
The answer is quite simple: we create and hold beliefs
to support what we think is best. A pertinent example
is beliefs about unhappiness. We teach the value of
discomfort as a means to growth, learning and enlightenment.
"No pain, no gain." Our scriptures offer
a vision of suffering as a method of purification.
No wonder our culture teaches unhappiness, a very
potent form of pain.
We use unhappiness to motivate ourselves
and others. We use the fear of cancer to induce others
to stop smoking, though ironically more cigarettes
are now being sold than ever before. We hate our fat
to prod ourselves to diet; yet more people are overweight
now than at any other time in our history. We spank
our children to teach them and express anger toward
lovers to induce them to change, all of which leads
usually to resistance rather than compliance. We arm
millions of soldiers with devastating weapons of destruction
in order to keep the peace, but then war becomes what
we teach and the tool readily available to resolve
conflicts.
Nevertheless, we push on! We teach
misery as a sign of caring (if I am unhappy, you should
be unhappy to show me you care) and as a sign of intelligence
(conscientious people would be rightly unhappy about
famine or disease; any opposing position would be
unthinkable). It is no accident that we use the phrase
"happy idiot" to suggest the inappropriateness
and frivolity of sustained good feelings.
Finally, if all else fails, we threaten
ourselves with the promise of future unhappiness (If
John doesn't get home on time, I'll be angry. If I
don't get that job, I will be heartbroken. If she
doesn't love me, I'll be lost and desperate.).
Once they are
articulated and itemized, our beliefs often sound
somewhat bizarre and self-defeating. This is why reviewing
them provides us with a wondrous opportunity. Change
the beliefs and we change the attitudes, thoughts,
feelings and behaviors that come from them. Even after
exploring our beliefs, if we choose to retain some
of the ones we have, we would do so with strengthened
conviction. Either position becomes a victory! The
decision is ours, as it always has been.
Chapter
2 Continued »» |
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