Are Your Beliefs Really Your Beliefs?

Play the game of life

When I was 16 years old, the new subjects appeared in my school timetable — psychology and philosophy. An unaware little boy like me wasn’t delightful and didn’t believe in them.

“Philosophy, a bunch of old guys talking some nonsense about life? Psychology, it’s all common sense, I’m alive and I know how to live because of it, right?

Even though I’m not proud of the content of my mind back then, I can’t do anything to change the past; I can only observe it and learn from it. I conclude that I really believed that those topics are nonsense — but I also know that I didn’t consciously create those opinions by myself.

When rushing through life mindlessly, one’s not behind the wheel — autopilot is in charge.

One’s mind acts like a sponge, completely affected by the environment. No matter what its surroundings are, something will always find a way to get in and disturb the inner world.

If not observed carefully, one can easily be tricked that unconsciously picked opinions are actually its own ones. People fight for those opinions until their last breath; even though their origin was never carefully examined.

The same thing happened to me — I heard the narrow public opinions about psychology and philosophy and accepted them with any questions.

They became a part of me, and I didn’t even know that. I just absorbed them thought the paths which were unavailable to me.

Today, I can’t express how much I admire those fields of study. A scrupulous revaluation of all my beliefs was inevitably necessary to change my rotten opinions.

Examination of the Mind’s Intake

“The unexamined life is not worth living” — Socrates

Uninvestigated beliefs were all over my mind, tricking me into thinking that I’m “a person like that”. I thought that I was born with many of them, and there’s nothing I could do about it to change them.

I believed in it, and it was my reality. I can’t blame myself, it takes time for a human being to eject itself from the phase of unawareness, and jump into the magical fields of self-awareness.

Observation of the people led me to the conclusion that many of them never reach the stage of the ejection, staying in the unaware phase for their whole life.

A person in that phase is easily influenced by other people’s opinions. A visible dissatisfaction with its life occurs, and other’s successes are described as accidents.

Their wrong beliefs create an unwanted life; the unwanted life creates even worse beliefs. It’s a never-ending circle.

The only solution is to use the power of awareness — and examine the content of the mind.

Start With Your Habits

Which ones? All of them.

It’s not easy to go straight to the observation of your beliefs, they can seem so abstract at first. That’s why it’s necessary to observe something you can see— the life around you; a direct consequence of your beliefs.

Life was created by the habits, which were born in a form of actions. Repeat and nurture the actions, and your subconscious mind will convert them to habits.

In a nutshell, negative habits bring short-term pleasure and long-term devastation. Positive habits might not have that short-term pleasure at the beginning, but their astonishing long-term effects are undeniable if you stick with them.

If you’re not satisfied with some part of your life, it because there is a negative habit affecting it. There is a huge probability that the habit wasn’t consciously adopted — rather absorbed from the environment, through the invisible wall of unawareness.

Examine your usual day and write down everything you did. I’m sure that most of the stuff is something you repeated many times in your life. Thereby, those are all your habits.

Take one of the biggest at first, and examine it deeper. What has it brought into your life? If you stop doing it, how would it affect you? Inspect all the benefits as well as downsides. Try to do it without prejudices — like it’s a different person doing it.

Take a step further, and go into the past. What was the initial action that led to the development of that habit? What beliefs at that time made you do the action?

The questions are not simple, but if they were, everyone will be successful in every part of life, right? Also, you shouldn’t seek for simple tools; the only measure should be their effectiveness.

The Unlocked Beliefs

The road of self-awareness is never-ending, and it becomes more stunning the further you get. The deeper you dig, the more invaluable realms you’ll encounter.

Imagine yourself examining every habit you have right now. You will become completely aware of what are you doing, and where it will take you. Examination of beliefs will tell you why are you doing it in the first place.

Why is the fuel of life; everything starts with it. Knowing the initial “why” will get you enormous power in getting rid of the unwanted beliefs.

Beliefs you didn’t accept consciously; those which just “appeared” in you. You will now be able to explain that “appearance” and understand that you were the one who wanted to take all the actions.

The more time you examine the habits and beliefs, the better you’ll be able to know yourself. More tools will be available to you because you’re sharpening them every time you go deep.

The highest level of sharpness is infinite.

You’re constantly learning and growing, and life is much more fun. You love the character you created and enjoy playing the game of life with it.