REPLACED:
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THIS IS ALL KEPT HERE FOR THE SEARCH ENGINES, BUT USE THE REPLACEMENT PAGE, NOT THIS ONE!!!!
All refinements and additions will be on this new page.
At the core of your life is your beliefs collection. Indisputably, change it and you upgrade your life forever. This is the place to start first - and to finish asap!
You cannot afford to be less than an expert in beliefs, as these affect 60,000+ thoughts every day, affecting (or infecting) all of your life!
A belief is a "program" or "system" that you've adopted about how a particular thing in life happens. It looks like: "if I do x, then y will happen" or "if x happens, then y will happen", with perhaps an "add-on" of it being a threat and/or what to feel or do then.
Beliefs are "formulated" or just adopted from our experience mostly as a child, where they might have been appropriate for childhood but with many no longer workable when we are no longer dependent and powerless. Beliefs that are built into our wiring by evolution are often outdated and no longer relevant to this life, as they were formed in an atmosphere of extreme dangers.
It makes no sense for one to continue to live by outdated programs/systems, for they will be "unworkable", not able to get one what one wants in life!
The overall final objective, of course, is to have a great life, so the objective of this section is to upgrade at least your key beliefs so that they match reality and, as such, "work" to get you what you want in life (AND no longer cause you the opposite, unhappiness, undue concern, anxiety, false fears, and such!).
DO NOT TOLERATE LESS THAN GREAT IN THIS VITAL CORE OF OUR LIVES - THIS IS OUR LIVES!
The quality of our lives is determined by the thoughts we create and allow in our minds. They determine whether we feel stressed or have peace of mind and happiness. Is there anything more important?
60,000 thoughts per day, on average 80-90% are negative (and most pure nonsense). Yet happiness requires the ratio of positive to negative thoughts be 5 to 1.
I will not tolerate any less than that!!!!
After all, this is my very life!
WHEN TO CORRECT ONE'S BELIEFS
We can correct a belief after we've seen that it is incorrect and/or already produced a bad result. And, if it is at all important, we must correct it asap. (See the procedure.)
Or we can reasonably anticipate harm, problems, bad results or such just from seeing what experts suggest should be fixed ahead of time so that the bad results are not experienced in the first place! This means that you fix all the core beliefs and key beliefs that affect your life as soon as possible, as the top priority in life (although you will have to do what is of urgent importance otherwise first).
Those who don't do this avidly in life will suffer needlessly and cause needless bad results!!!!!
So, do it asap!!!
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OVERVIEW
To start, read the overview pieces then do the program if you want to have dramatically better thoughts.
NAVIGATION AND OVERVIEW OF TOPICS
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"The quality of our beliefs determine the quality of our lives."
The BuddhaKahuna
"When one cannot distinguish between one's beliefs and the truth, one cannot avoid suffering nor can one be happy."
The BuddhaKahuna
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
Mark Twain
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A thought is a mental representation of an idea, object, event, emotion, etc., usually involving a sequence of pieces. A belief is a thought about how something works to create an effect and/or the thought that what occurs will have a particular effect.
Both a thought and a belief can (and will) have significant errors. The mind "fills in" the blanks in what it sees, remembers, and concludes - which means it "makes up" whatever is missing and then things it is real (the truth). Despite a person being "certain" of something, his/her belief and/or memory is often wrong. And there is a reason why we evolved in such a way that this automatically occurs. We must know and understand how that works or we'll be operating on a fiction that does not work well in life - at least not as well as life could work. To understand this, read The Unconscious- How It Works And Doesn't Work, And How To Work With It To Create A More Powerful Life.
Correcting those thoughts and beliefs that are important is a necessity for creating a vastly greater life than you are living.
And that correcting, or "upgrading", is entirely doable, if you follow the simple path.
And there is nothing you can do that will have a greater payoff in terms of deep happiness!
Yet few do it. So they have to constantly be dealing with the results of the same misbeliefs and wrong conclusions, whereas it would have taken far less time to work on them upfront, plus it would have saved lots of mistakes and damage.
The call to action here is to implement the program for changing your beliefs.
THE CAUSAL CHAIN
The first sequence is a causal chain, where the next item comes about based on the prior item. The arrowed items below them are strategies to modify them.
↑ ↑ ↑
As in all causal chains, there are several places to intervene. Change the causes that are the ones you can best control.
We interpret or have thoughts about what is happening, something in the environment, and/or people. If the thoughts and interpretations produce a negative emotion or poor action, then we need to Correct them and then wire in (Rewire) the corrected thoughts/interpretations.
IN A NUTSHELL
Our primitive brain simplistically misperceives and forms conclusions that range from nonsense to pretty "bad", only occasionally being correct. Unless we intentionally, deliberately re-design them we will be run by random, accidntal, haphazaredly not-thought-out thoughts that are ludicrously naive but enormously harmful and damaging.
Unitl you understand how they are created, you cannot manage them properly and most humans will continue believing that they are the truth, when many are far from that - and if looked at with perspective one will wonder how he/she could have brought into much of this nonsense.
So, I wish you well in learning that the brain is strictly mechanical and that neuronal patterns (recordings by a lower IQ part of our brains) are only bits of data, with much being incorrect and/or illogical - and the big ones must be corrected by running them through the higher thinking brain that is our most incredible gift!
"When they come to mind, connected with some cue, they express themselves as 'thoughts'. However, they are only thoughts, only mental constructs, not existing in the physical world, the equivalent of a child's believing a monster is in the closet... Then these become, needlessly, the Sources Of Suffering."
"Those are the filters of life. People and circumstances do not cause emotions; beliefs (thoughts) do."
So what?
This is what: We must, must, must, must alter and correct our beliefs if we are to succeed in being happy.
The longer we put it off, the less happy our lives are. To the degree we do not do the work to finish, to complete, to fully change them, we will keep experiencing life at a far lower level than we want.
This is the path to changing your beliefs...
YOU CAN'T BYPASS BELIEF RECONSTRUCTION
If you want a better life, you must go through the work of creating new correct beliefs to replace erroneous, dysfunctional beliefs.
Beliefs = How you think things work and are
Erroneous beliefs = Biggest obstacle to living life
Correct your key erroneous beliefs asap! Or you'll keep getting results you don't want. Substitute correct beliefs.
How to find erroneous beliefs: Look to see where the results are not what you want! And whenever you "feel bad" (or suffer).
Follow the program for changing beliefs.
To get what one wants:
Decide what is wanted, prioritize.
Put systematic effort toward getting it.
Remove barriers - or you'll have to work much harder (Life is easy if you do
this first!) Prioritize and then finish these off.
Dumbest thing in the world: Keeping doing and believing those things that don't work. How could you possibly have your life work, if you do that?
Clearest indicator in the world: Wherever you get bad results.
Worst belief: "I cannot change my beliefs. And I know that because..." It is proven over and over and over that people can change their beliefs. They just do not use the right methods and/or take them to completion.
Fairy tale: Somehow thinking one can find shortcuts to this and/or thinking you don't have to go through the process to intentionally create it being better.
THE QUIKSUMARY (Scan this as if it were an outline for a story, then read discussion.)
QUIK OUTLINE
The Process:
I. BORN with: INSTINCTS
↓
II. LIVE LIFE and, as you go: FORMULATE, ACCUMULATE BELIEFS ↓
III. RUN LIFE ON BELIEFS, determining: QUALITY OF LIFE
↓
IV. NOTICE WHAT DOESN'T WORK SEE
(Erroneous belief indicated always by a ↓
negative emotion)
V. CORRECT THE BELIEF REPLACE IT
↓
VI. INSTALL THE REPLACEMENT BELIEF INSTALL TIL AUTOMATIC
Conclusion: Since we run our lives based on beliefs and that determines the quality of our lives, it is the very highest, mandatory priority to improve the quality of our beliefs - to discover what beliefs produce bad effects and to correct and upgrade them.
The Cause-Effect Truth
BELIEFS CAUSE EMOTION,
NOT PEOPLE OR CIRCUMSTANCES
(A vital, essential, massively important truth for you to know for sure! If we know that we create and can change our own beliefs and beliefs are responsible for emotions, we can create the emotions we want. When we understand that people and circumstances are neutral until we add a meaning/belief to them, then we can be responsible for our emotions; if we think that people and circumstances determine our emotions and our lives, we live as victims in an unwinnable game, with lots of unnecessary suffering.)
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SOURCES OF BELIEFS
RAW MATERIAL, provided to us, for beliefs: OTHERS
FORMULATION, from raw material/thinking, of beliefs: OURSELVES
We get beliefs from others (including reading, any media, conversations) and we formulate beliefs as we go, in an attempt to understand how things work, so that we can do better in life.
RESPONSIBLE FOR BELIEFS:
OURSELVES (100%)
FUNCTION OF A BELIEF
To provide a routine to handle a situation to produce a desired result, initially related to or around surviving.
A BELIEF AS A "THING"
A belief is a thought. A thought is related bits of data associated to a subject - it is simply neurochemicalelectrical associated circuits and data stored in the brain, a bit like a "recording" of sounds or data. It is akin to a computer program, very erasable and replaceable and having no permanence. Thoughts (and beliefs therefore) have no substance and no force (no power). The mind does pay attention to them as signals to react to in order to protect oneself from threats; as such thoughts are the cause of emotions, which are the mind's method of
"motivating" action to solve problems.
CORRECTION OF BELIEFS
MANY BELIEFS ARE INCORRECT AND UNTRUE → CAUSE HARM
WE HAVE CHOICES:
I. LEAVE THEM AS THEY ARE → GET SAME POOR RESULTS REPEATEDLY
II. CHANGE THEM → IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE
A. IDENTIFY which need correction, by: WHATEVER PRODUCES A "BAD" FEELING
B. EXPOSE, EXAMINE detail of the incorrect underlying beliefs. (Must be written to be
effective.)
Use Healthy Beliefs To Install.
D. INSTALL to level of automaticity (otherwise old beliefs automatically come up)
All of belief and thought management includes the same basic process to follow: ABCDEF plus I (implementation, installation). Use that as your guide and for perspective.
RELATED STEPS
A belief that comes up automatically is a routine that is automatically repeated - therefore it is a habit. Learning how to change habits and replace them with a new habit or practice will be an invaluable skill to have. Habits run one's life and therefore determine the quality of it.
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SUPER BRIEF DISCUSSION
We acquire and formulate and accumulate
We are born with a few instincts and two (instinctual) fears.
We then are exposed to "operating rules" ("this is how the world works") from our parents first and then from others (including "the culture"), which we either reject or accept. We often accept them without thinking, so we, in a sense, "learn" them from others. However, many of them are untrue and dysfunctional.
("Operating rules" are "if this, then this". Generally, they are 'If this occurs, feel this and do this in response.' It, of course, behooves us to develop excellent operating rules for our lives.)
We also formulate operating rules on our own, to cope with what occurs and to adapt to the world. Many of these are untrue and dysfunctional.
Most of these operating rules (beliefs about how things work) are accepted or formulated by us at a time when we have little logic and little knowledge and when we are powerless and dependent.
Why we formulate beliefs
If you study the basics of how the mind and our systems work, they are all geared to survival, which is the basic system underneath it all. In order to survive well, we have to have "quick routines", or "programs", in a sense, that tell us what to do, so that we can quickly respond and avoid death or physical harm.
So, beliefs are merely formulaic routines which we think work for us to survive better. The instincts (a form of belief wired into us) use primarily fight/flight/freeze to deal with threats. However, we make-up threats that are pure fantasy, but we treat them as if they are real and true. Our belief system is full of made-up, untrue, inconsequential threats, that are not valid and/or are very, very minor. With the right, corrected belief system, insults, possible financial bankruptcy, things not going well, etc., have no threat to them (though they are inconvenient) and we can make ourselves happy no matter. [You won't believe this now, probably, but it is actually true. You can tell that this is true by simply noticing when you look back at your life that you have survived intact - and that the waters you walked through have come back together and continued to be fully intact, just as you have.]
So, again, we formulate beliefs to have routines that identify threats and then protect us and/or to identify sources of pleasure/satisfaction/fulfillment and then have us institute a routine that works to harvest those.
Pretty simple. Pretty basic. No "magic" or mysteriousness to it.
As we go along in life, we notice that some beliefs get bad results; and we either correct them or not
If we leave those beliefs in place as they are, then they will have us operating from the default viewpoint of a powerless, dependent child, leaving many beliefs to just remain untrue and dysfunctional. (Not good!!!!) (A "viewpoint" is a way of looking at things, essentially through filters, called beliefs. If we don't correct the viewpoint we are engaged in in childhood, then we keep viewing life from the viewpoint of a child. Duh.)
As one becomes more knowledgeable and is able to apply reason, it makes no sense to allow those beliefs to keep running one's life.
Of course, some beliefs will fall away seemingly naturally - and many people believe that is sufficient. (That is a very harmful belief that is not at all true.)
However, the signs are all around us that there are still many dysfunctional beliefs: any harmful behavior, "bad" feeling, or "bad" effect. Examples are: any degree of anger or blame, any suffering (which is needless!), being overweight and/or unhealthy, any limitations we put on ourselves that are not physical limitations, watching too much tv, seeking relief, feeling stressed, etc. - all are sure signs of untrue and dysfunctional beliefs - which you have neglected to take the time to correct - now, doesn't that seem foolish?!?
AND, it does little good to change a few beliefs on the top of the pile if we don't change the basic beliefs underlying them all. Correcting that is "Job 1". See Core Beliefs.
No one to blame, only something that must be done (to live a good life)
There is no one to blame for one's beliefs. Beliefs, since they can be changed, are not a "part" of oneself, but just a recording we choose to carry around with us. Accordingly, there is nothing to defend. (Some people vehemently defend a belief, as if the belief was an actual piece of them - which is nonsense! See Who I Am.)
We are 100% responsible for our beliefs. We accepted them, even though we were often unknowledgeable, not yet logical, and were powerless and dependent at the time.
See, decide, learn, correct, be happier
Part of life is "learning". And, as part of that process, we make "mistakes" (out of not yet being knowledgeable enough!) after which we get to choose to learn from the mistakes and/or fill in our knowledge in some way... or not learn.
The champion in athletics, as well as the excellent liver-of-life, seeks frequent feedback and input and corrects often and quickly, so that they can be more effective at what they do. They do not tolerate dysfunction staying in their lives!
The minute you see a "not-good" result in your life know that that is an opportunity to correct the cause, which is either lack of knowledge and/or beliefs.
Notice that I did not include circumstances or other people in that, as a truly wise person knows that they are not the source of suffering in life.
Your rapid and complete correction of untrue beliefs will lead you to success in life, to achieving the life you love and loving the life you live.
Settle for nothing less
I personally will settle for nothing less than that. I hope you choose to join me on this journey, using what I've written and the resources I point to and using the forms provided to facilitate the process.
You may wish to "tack this down" by completing My Commitment To Correcting My Beliefs, which includes which principles you agree with (as part of what is necessary to proceed) at the time. (Note that you might not yet believe all the true principles and facts about beliefs, so you might come back later to checkmark them. However, you can still commit to the process of changing your beliefs.)
