Wellness Journey with Joe

Week 14 - Belief Systems are Dynamic

10/31/2015

Why Do I Do The Things I Do?

Challenging Belief Systems

Thoughts

• While information is perceived by our five senses, thoughts are conceived in the mind.
  • Thoughts are impressions, opinions, and rationalizations formed from belief systems developed through past experience and education.
    • Not school education only, of course, but ALL of the lessons taught by the specific environment each of us have encountered.
      • Our Mothers, our Fathers, our Teachers and our Preachers seem to be the main influences on how we take the information we gather from our senses and subsequently form our THOUGHTS.
        • No two people have encountered the exact same environment.
        • No two people will have the exact same thoughts.

 Conclusions

• These are the cognitive responses to the sensory information we are exposed to.
• Decisions that we make about reality.
  • We are taught certain things, and these teachings directly influence our conclusions:
    • This is right; That is wrong.
    • We do things this way!
    • The sky is blue.
  • The problem is that those who are influencing us happen to be fallible, and often you learn (from other teachers or simply through experience) that things just aren’t as they seem.
    • “Wait a minute, this may not actually be right, and if you look at it another way that may not be so wrong.”
    • “You may do things this way, but now I know that if I do things that way I will get it done so much quicker and more effectively.”
    • “Now I know that the white light from the sun is composed of many different colors, but the blue has a shorter wave length, is absorbed by atmospheric gas and scattered about, making the sky only appear blue.  Sunsets can bring out the reds and yellows; and the absence of light at night makes the sky appear black.

 Perspective

• This is also a cognitive response to the sensory information we are exposed to.
  • Perspective goes a step beyond conclusions.
    • Two people can take in the same information but perceive two completely different circumstances
    • The glass is half full.
    • The glass is half empty!
• Perspective is expressed as value judgments.
  • These value judgments cause a reaction in your body.
    • Satisfaction, peacefulness, calmness
    • Happiness, joy, exhilaration
    • Confidence, resolution, empowerment
    • Worry, fear, anguish
• Internal Dialogue
  • The perspective about ourselves and the world that results in that ever-running conversation we have with ourselves.
    • “I am successful!” vs. “I’m a bum!”
    • “I am intelligent.” vs. “I’m an idiot!”
    • “I am beautiful.” vs. “I am ugly.”
    • “I could do that.” vs. “I could never do that.”
    • “This is such a beautiful world.” vs. “Everyone is out to get me.”
    • “Heart disease is in my family, that’s why my blood pressure is up.” vs. “High blood pressure is lifestyle related and if I eat right and exercise I won’t end up like my father.”
    • Our internal dialogue leads right to a perpetual state of value judging.
      • Reactions to these value judgments are our emotions!!
      • These emotions are what affect our physiology.
      • This is the bridge between MIND and BODY!!

 Belief System FACTS

• Experience and Education create, mold, shape and even change our Belief Systems.
• Belief Systems are our Perspectives on life.
• Our Perspectives are formed by our Conclusions.
• Our Conclusions are formed by our Thoughts.
• And our Thoughts are formed by our exposure to our Environment – Our Mother, Father, Teacher, Preacher!!!
• Our Mothers, Fathers, Teachers and Preachers are fallible.
  • That is not to say we haven’t learned profound things from them.  We certainly have!
  • But they are fallible, and we may find through further experience and education that they weren’t as right as we once thought.
• Therefore, Belief Systems are dynamic; they change with maturity.  And I believe maturity is Life’s Greatest Opportunity.

Why Is Understanding All This Important?!

Because our physical health is directly affected by our mind, our thinking and our judgements.  Judging, you must realize, is NATURAL.  Judging situations was extremely important in our species' survival.  It is a built in mechanism that we will remain.  However, when fear-based belief systems rule we then flirt with turning on our body's Stress Response unaturally. 

And we will learn in our next blog post all about this incredible life-saving, yet potentially life-threatening response to percieved danger.  It is so important that you to understand this mechanism to fully appreciate the source of many of our current diseases.

Our bodies are incredible machines
in this most incredible world we live in.