What Are Beliefs?

What Are Beliefs?

What are beliefs is a simple question, yet the answer has many layers. As you peel the layers back you will see what the picture of your life is made of.

To get a full understanding of this loaded question, take advantage of the free ecourse, The Art and Magic of Believing.

'What Are Beliefs' in a Nutshell

All of the various beliefs you hold about the little things and the big things serve as the very building blocks of your life. When you believe in something you have a level of commitment to it. Agreeing or disagreeing with an idea can indicate you have a belief about it. Whereas, simply having an idea about something does not automatically indicate commitment, nor a belief.

Beliefs are the ideas you have a commitment to, and support.
They are the views and opinions that you have accumulated, that represent you.
Your beliefs are positions that you endorse.
Beliefs express your attitude about things, and your way of thinking and looking at things.
Beliefs dictate your approach and outlook to life.
What you believe is what you stand for.

Know What You Believe

Becoming familiar with what you believe gives insight for your personal development. Look at how you interact with others, and how you react to daily events. This helps to identify parts of your belief system that is operating at the foundation level of your life.

Let me share a little story with you that took place nearly 20 years ago. I was a loving housewife in the midst of busy city life. One day I was a bit exasperated and said to a friend, "Sometimes it seems like my whole life is taken up just running around with endless little errands. You know those small tasks that never seem to go away... doing the grocery shopping, picking up the dry cleaning, dropping video rentals back, and getting the car washed!" He kind of chuckled, and then, looking at me with deep wisdom and understanding flowing from his eyes, he said "Those errands are part of life. They don’t go away."

You might say that’s obvious. But what hadn’t been obvious to me before our discussion were the different meanings we had each given to those tasks. To me, they were an intrusion. I saw my life, and then I saw these little errands taking me away from the time of my life. To him, they were integrated as part of life. He saw them as much a valid slice of life experience as anything else.

He was the sage saying:

"Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.
After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."

You can be sure that each of us would have approached those errands differently, based on what we believed they meant in our lives. We would have had very different thoughts and emotions as we carried them out. It is likely that we also would have treated the people we encountered en route, quite differently.

Learn more about these layers by delving into the free 7 Part Art and Magic of Believing eCourse (now as an eBook!):

Part 1, What Are Beliefs, answers:

How can you identify your beliefs?
Does your unique window on the world affect what you believe?
Do you see the ‘truth’?
What are beliefs providing you with?
The difference between topic specific and global beliefs
Get the first hints of what limiting beliefs you splash on your canvas.

Art & Magic of Believing free eCourse/eBook
Power of Belief | Developing Your Belief System | The Magic of Believing
Changing Beliefs | Change Core Beliefs

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