Summary

The web content discusses two methods for changing harmful beliefs: catharsis, which involves re-experiencing and processing emotional events, and developing the witness, which is about observing one's thoughts and emotions with detachment.

Abstract

The article "Two Approaches to Changing Belief" outlines how individuals can alter deeply-held beliefs that lead to negative emotional responses. It explains that beliefs are formed in response to emotionally charged events and can be perpetuated by the re-experiencing of these events. The first method, catharsis, requires a person to fully re-live the original incident to process the emotions tied to it, thereby allowing access to the underlying belief for modification. The second approach, developing the witness, is a technique where one observes their thoughts and emotions from a distance, leading to a calmer state that enables belief modification without the intense emotional labor of catharsis. The article suggests that while catharsis is effective, the witness technique can be a more gentle and efficient method, especially when dealing with multiple traumatic events.

Opinions

The author believes that catharsis is essential for transforming beliefs at a core level, which is necessary to alleviate emotional turmoil.
It is noted that catharsis can be emotionally exhausting, and the witness technique is presented as a less draining alternative.
The author considers the witness technique as a supplement to catharsis, suggesting it may be more suitable when the emotional charge of an event is not overwhelming.
The article posits that observing one's thoughts and emotions with detachment can lead to clarity and the ability to modify beliefs, similar to how sediment settles in still water.
The author emphasizes that changing a belief can dismantle automatic emotional responses to stimuli, leading to complete healing and behavioral change.

Two Approaches to Changing Belief

The first one is catharsis and the second is developing the witness.

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Whenever a person faces physical or emotional insecurity, he formulates a belief surrounding that incident. This incident keeps repeating in the mind of the person whenever a stimulus creates a chain of thoughts taking him to these stored impressions. Unless and until the belief is replaced, the re-experiencing of the stored impression related to the incident will be cathartic in nature.

Belief is guarded by emotions

Sometimes we would not be knowing the belief responsible for the creation of the unpleasant emotion but at other times we may know about it. But it is only when we calm the emotional charge surrounding those beliefs is when we can get access to them and be in a position to modify them.

“If the belief is not transformed then re-experiencing the stored impression would always be cathartic.”

“Only after transformation of the belief at the core level can one expect to calm the emotional turmoil.”

The two approaches

The first approach to overcome the barrier of emotional charge surrounding the belief is catharsis. It is the process of re-experiencing the earlier emotionally charged incident and allowing the mind to process it in totality. Details of catharsis are already covered in the below article:

Catharsis: A Pre-requisite to Changing Your Subconscious Programming.

At the end of catharsis, one’s mind is not bothered by the emotions and the person is able to access the belief responsible for the creation of the unpleasant emotion in the first place. He then can very easily internalize a better belief thereby transforming the automatic emotional mechanism that existed within him.

Example: Sara is a girl who got her ear-piercing done at a particular shop. The person who did the piercing told a lie to Sara that the process would not hurt her. But it did hurt her a lot. Eventually, Sara developed a belief that any person with a similar appearance as the one who did piercing is a bad person.

Whenever Sara came in contact with a person having a similar appearance as the one who did piercing, her chain of thoughts takes her to the stored unpleasant incident and she becomes anxious and nervous. Even entering a store that has a similar appearance as the one where her piercing was done makes her feel uncomfortable.

In order to overcome this unpleasant and automatic emotional mechanism, Sara performed catharsis. She re-experienced the incident when her piercing was done. She vented out her anger against the person who did piercing and that calmed her emotional charge associated with that incident.

After calming the emotional charge, Sara had access to the belief that has created havoc in her life. She was able to analyze the situation logically and understood that the person was just doing his duty and he lied about the piercing not hurting just because she would not become nervous beforehand. Upon looking at the incident from another angle, Sara was able to forgive the other person and replace her old belief with a better belief that such people are rather considerate and may lie just to make you feel better.

After changing her belief from the core level, Sara’s automatic emotional mechanism was dismantled. She no longer felt similar unpleasant emotions when presented with similar stimuli. Thus her healing was complete.

Developing the witness

Sometimes there are a lot of emotionally charged incidents stored in the subconscious mind of the person and it may be exhausting for the person to re-experience all these emotions in totality before accessing and modifying the belief.

“In such situations, one can use the technique of being a witness to yourself and just observe the incident with a sense of detachment.”

Observation of the incident from a distance would eventually calm the emotional turmoil and then the person will have access to the belief that can then be modified.

As is told by Buddha that if you just observe the muddy water from a distance then the particles will get settled automatically and the water would become clear.

In my personal opinion, this method is mainly a shortcut to changing your belief and is proven to have better results when the emotional charge associated with the stored impression is not that high. I mainly consider it as a supplement to the process of catharsis.

This method works because the only thing that recreates the same emotional pain is due to the belief and by developing witness too one has access to these stored beliefs. Once these beliefs are modified then similar stimuli would not create the same emotionally charged reactions.

Example: Ram had some differences with a certain group of people. There were several instances where he was verbally abused by these people. Ram tried catharsis on all these incidents but it was taking a toll on him. Re-experiencing all these incidents would exhaust Ram and he was looking for some shortcut.

Ram then discovered the technique of being a witness to these stored impressions. He simply observed all those incidents from a distance and allowed the emotional turmoil to subside eventually. This is similar to watching the muddy water till the dirt settles down and the water becomes clear.

After the emotional charge subsided, Ram was able to access the belief and came to the conclusion that all these people had their own insecurities that made them act the way they did. Moreover, a negative reaction to verbal abuse is also an indication of further issues in us that needs to be worked upon. Ram worked upon connecting issues as well and eventually became a person free from the automatic emotional mechanism that had been destroying his life for a long time.

Conclusion

Catharsis is no doubt one of the better ways of accessing the belief and modifying it to achieve a more peaceful internal state. But there are times when an incident can have an emotional charge even after quite some sessions of catharsis and it is then that developing the witness and observing the stored incident from a distance would help in calming the emotional turmoil. Once the emotional charge related to the incident subside then the belief responsible for the unpleasant emotion can be worked upon. Modifying the belief will ensure that the further stimuli would no longer create the same emotionally charged response and a permanent change in behavior of the person can be achieved.