It really helps when we walk on solid ground. We can be confident in our steps knowing there is a good chance we won’t stumble or worse, fall and hurt ourselves. And reality is no different.

Try to imagine if you can a world where you could not believe anything was true or untrue. Nothing had a predictable outcome.

The fact is we need beliefs to navigate our reality. They allow us to make decisions and plan our survival.

Can you count the beliefs that you have right now?

It would be an almost impossible task similar to trying to recount every memory we have. Typically we only realize a belief when we are confronted with a situation that requires a statement of our position.

For example:
Do you believe women should fight in mixed martial arts full contact fights?

Now from your answer ask yourself this next question…

Where did I get this belief from?

We accumulate and modify our beliefs as we move through life. Typically they come to us from authority sources such as Parents, Grandparents, Teachers, Media Sources, Governments and Peers. As youngsters we tend not to critically evaluate beliefs that are told to us. We accept them as true.

Our beliefs sit at an unconscious level; we don’t consciously evaluate all beliefs. We accept them as true as we move through our lives. Beliefs can be seen like glasses that we experience reality through.

It has been said that ‘seeing is believing’ but the reality is that ‘believing is seeing’. As we believe it, then we see it around us. We generally accept our beliefs as true without evaluation unless a situation arises where we are forced to reevaluate that belief.

Beliefs operate within our perception filters with some beliefs have more emotional attachment than others. What I mean by this is that some operate at a higher level of importance than others do. We consider these strong beliefs. Strong closely held beliefs can be harder to change than others that we do not have much emotional attachment to.

With our beliefs (and more typically with the stronger held beliefs) we seek confirmation of the solidity of the belief. We constant look for proof that it is in fact correct. And we do this in a number of ways.

Firstly we accumulate ‘evidence’ of situations of that being true through stories of others and personal experience. We attract those kinds of people into our lives that agree with that belief. We project that belief onto situations even if it may not be true. Lastly we also subconsciously manifest situations so that we can see the belief being true.

Now beliefs can help make life easier or harder. Some of them hold us back from our true happiness and success potential. Identifying those beliefs and then changing them is a skill that anyone can learn.

And hypnotherapy is a great way to help you identify and change your beliefs!

Author's Bio: 

Gareth Graham is a Clinical Hypnotherapist working globally from within Australia. He has over 5,000 hours of clinical hypnosis session experience and is a results driven therapist. Whilst more than capable of resolving a vast array of issues his areas of specialty are Anxiety, Depression, Weight Loss and Smoking Cessation.