Transform Your Belief By Recognizing Its Source

Do you own your belief system?

Alice: “This is impossible”

The Mad Hatter: “Only if you believe it is.”

Why did you open this article?

Because you “believed” there is something in it for you.

Now, if I may request you to please stop reading and have a look around you.

Notice everything.

Your laptop, books, pen, sticky notes, reading glasses, chair, electric cables, the Wifi router, smartphones, clothes, notice everything.

The realities of our current lives were once formless. But then, someone “Believed.”

Belief supersedes thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and actions.

“The ancestor of every action is a thought.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Highway

The choice of highway decides the destination.

Our belief system is just like a Highway.

Your thoughts, your behaviour, and your actions depend on which road you are on.

Choose whatever destination — The journey to be happy, to be productive, to be fit, or to be loved, is connected to the choice of Highway. You become the best version of yourself by opting for the right belief system and by walking the right path.

Look into the rear-view mirror, if it reveals that the choice of the highway is not correct, its time for a detour.

Change your Belief to change who you are.

The Origin

Before you decide to take a U-turn and change the course, there is a critical question that needs to be answered.

“How did you reached this highway?”

The day we are born, our belief system starts taking shape.

The World around us has an extraordinary responsibility on their shoulders —

To shape our belief system!

And surprisingly, we let the World do that!

Yes, that’s true. Your belief systems have a direct correlation with the external World.

“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to reflect their inner beliefs.” - James Allen

Parents

The moment your mother brings you in her arms and your father kisses you on the cheeks, till the day you are set apart, your parents are going to have a significant impact on how you think and believe.

All the “Yes’s,” all the “No’s,” their religion, their habits, their belief system, their education, they all become part of you. Our parents are our first teachers, and so we tend to accept what they have to say.

It’s not about right or wrong, good or bad; instead, it’s about the fact that your belief system links back to them.

A lot of you may differ, and you should. But, I just want you to keep aside this disagreement for half-a-second and see yourself as someone with no shadow of your parents.

Do you see a person who has a belief system different than theirs?

What are those belief systems that make you a different person?

Growth comes when we start seeing beyond the normal.

Education system

After our parents, there comes the education system.

Those initial years sets the base. The kind of school we were into.

Whether it was boarding or a day school, do they had a prayer hall? Was that a co-ed school? What language do teachers speak? What belief system did they follow, and that impacted the belief system that we developed.

We followed what our teachers said. Our notebooks and textbooks had a specific language, and that became the rule book.

Rules?

Why rules?

When I see my current life in light of my education system, I see many reflections from my school days. I am proud of a lot of them, and I wish to change a few.

Again, whether its good or bad, its right or wrong, that doesn’t matter, the point here is that they left something inside my head. It’s essential to notice the source.

Whatever my belief systems are is a direct reflection of those first 20-years with my parents and my school.

But, it’s time to see through them and identify whether they are helping you stay on the right highway or you need a detour.

Environment

Environment means the place where you live, the infrastructure around you, the kind of people who stay close to you.

If you have ever stayed at a place different than your home town or your home country, you will realize that how in just a few days or weeks the way you perceive this new place changes.

Not only the way you see the external world changes, but the way you see yourself also changes. Your perspective towards your self goes through a complete makeover.

Whether you are in London or New York or New Delhi or Moscow or Dubai, every country carries its belief system. Racism, Religion, Violence, Co-operation, Love, Togetherness, and much more. There is a unique flavor of Belief in each of these places.

You can choose to accept or not accept the belief system on offer. But, it’s crucial to be aware of the fact that a belief system surrounds you, and that will impact you as a person.

Experiences

Work experience or Real-life experiences.

The place or company or organization where you work, it changes your mindset. Your boss, your colleagues, they have a considerable say in the way you are thinking right now.

If, for a few seconds, you take them out from the equation and see yourself into the mirror, you are going to see a new You. Take your current organization out of yourself and envision yourself into a new organization; you will feel changes in yourself and your belief system.

It will happen instantly.

How about marriage?

Or when you enter into a relationship?

Or when you come out a relationship?

Having kids? An accident? A disease? An excursion to the deepest jungles of Amazon? These all are experiences that push you to change the way you think. The real-life experiences you choose to buy decides the way you see this World. The change they offer is permanent.

List down your real-life experiences and then see yourself without them.

Do you see a different “you?”

Habits

Your habits directly correlate to your belief system.

If you are a painter, you see the world differently, and that’s what comes on the canvas.

If you are an avid reader, your belief system draws you to learn something new each day.

If you are like to follow any sport, fitness becomes the top priority in your belief system.

A binge-watcher or a serial social media person might have a completely different belief system.

Sometimes, I feel my belief system build my habits. And sometimes, it occurs to me that it is the other way round.

You chose and can choose

You now know that you didn’t choose all your belief systems, but it is also true that you have agreed to all of them.

But as Don Miguel Ruiz writes in his book — “The Four Agreements,” this process of surrendering to this outside belief system is called “Domestication.”

We have accepted this domestication.

Now, they are part of us. Just as the society around us makes the book of laws, our belief system is the rule book for our life. We believe them; we live with them, we judge, we decide using this book of laws. We have been “Domesticated” using these belief systems.

But, you can still choose — by reflecting on your belief systems and then challenging the book of the law.

The choice is always there.

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Nishith is a Chartered Accountant by profession. He is a Marathoner, an avid reader, aspiring author, philatelist, phillumenist, and a transformation coach. He manages a unique self-transformation platform — “Be Better Bit-By-Bit.”

The Apeiron Blog — Big Questions, Made Simple.

We know that Philosophy can seem complicated at times. To make things simple, we compile together the best articles, news, reading lists — and other free recourses to guide you on your journey. To continue with us, follow us on Medium and sign up to our free mailing list.