Choose Your Own Beliefs!

"If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” -Mahatma Gandhi

Yesterday I went to the library with my daughter. I was looking around the bookshelves at self improvement books and I found a book called, “Happiness Now” by Robert Holden. The title caught my eye, since I’m practicing happiness every day of my life. I opened the book and the first paragraph I read says, “In our society, we focus on pain before joy, tears before laughter, and fear before love, so we gradually grow blind to our inner, ever-present potential for happiness.” I agree with Mr. Holden's words, and I was thinking about them for the rest of the day.

Most of us were raised with limited beliefs. Limited beliefs go against our desires. We have learned those beliefs from our families, friends and our environment. We've been raised to think we need to work hard to get what we want, we cannot have a lot of money, we are not good enough to do this or that, life is not easy, we need to suffer or pay the price and so on. And when people tell us we can get everything we want, we can have a wonderful life, we can do it! - we think, –you’re crazy right!- and just ignore them. Maybe we want to believe but our limited beliefs block everything good that can come to us.

I still remember my Dad’s words the first day he took me to the bus stop to go to the high school, “Why do you waste your time studying in high school if you won’t go to the university?"

I’m from a little town in Mexico where people think (or used to think) that women don’t need to study because they're supposed to get married and never practice what they study. I’m still not sure if my Dad said that because he was just repeating what other people say, or because he knows me very well and he knew that in that way he pushed me to do better things. I was a “good” rebel since I was a kid. I’ve never believed what people say. I like to try and discover things by myself. I like to prove to people when they are wrong. By the way, I went to an expensive private university and I was graduated.

Have you ever read the Deaf Frog Fable? It would be great if we could act like the deaf frog and ONLY “listen” (and feel) encouraging words and be deaf when people say destructive words about us. But unfortunately, because of our limited beliefs we are conditioned to hear the negative words most. We can identify with these words; we are very used to negative emotions, to suffer!

As Abraham says, a belief is just a thought you keep thinking. A belief is a thought you have repeated to yourself over and over again, until it is established and then, becomes your truth. Stop thinking limited thoughts and replace them with encouraging beliefs. This is your life and you are able to CREATE whatever you want.

We cannot change our past, but we can change our present and start to change the beliefs that contradict our desires. Analyze your beliefs and write about them. Are they true? Why are people saying things about you if they don’t know you? Why do you need to follow people (or ideas) just because they are leaders? Why do people say you cannot do something just because they cannot do it? You are the only one who knows what you are capable of. You are the only one who knows how you feel and what you want. Believe ONLY what is good for you, what FEELS good to you, believe in YOU!

We have the freedom to choose our beliefs. Don’t forget to be responsible when you decide what to believe and respect other people's beliefs. The beliefs you choose help you to GROW inside and be happy. They help you to be a better person, the person that you always wanted to be … so start to become that person today!