The Power of Beliefs

Beliefs about every aspect of life are formed by about five years of age. As an adult, you carry beliefs about your self-worth, talents, relationships, career, health, and prosperity that were developed in childhood. Some of these ideas are conscious, but many of them reside in the unconscious mind, affecting your behavior without you realizing it. They are like sunglasses, tinting your view of the world. The balance of negative and positive ideas you learned about yourself growing up results in your level of self-esteem.

Examples of negative beliefs:

• I’m not smart enough to achieve what I want.
• I’m not good enough.
• Relationships are difficult.
• Money doesn’t grow on trees.
• Rich people aren’t nice.

Changing Beliefs

The first step is becoming aware of the limiting beliefs you have. You can do this by noticing your thoughts and feelings about different areas of life and relating these to what you learned in childhood. You can take a half hour or more to sit down and write down “what I learned in childhood about myself and life…..”

The next step is to write down the new beliefs you want to have about life by developing positive statements called affirmations. For example, if you learned as a child, “there’s never enough,” the new belief could be “there’s always enough money to pay my bills, save for my future, and have money left over to play.” If you were told “you’re not smart enough,” you can affirm, “I am smart enough to achieve anything I want.” The new ideas takes repetition, repetition, repetition to truly change the old belief, but it’s worth it!

Another technique is using your imagination, along with affirmations, to change the old ideas. Each day, take a few quiet minutes to close your eyes and imagine what your life is like with the new beliefs you have about yourself and your life. This technique reinforces the change on the subconscious level, and gradually your behavior and experience changes.