Have you ever thought about where your beliefs originate? Have you ever wondered if what you were taught as a kid is true?
Why do we believe something that someone else thinks is rubbish? We all have core beliefs.
Many of our beliefs start while we are in the womb according to several authors. The first book that I read that had this idea is ” Feelings Buried Alive Never Die…” by Karol K. Truman. She brings up an interesting idea that we may take on our parents fears and beliefs while we are in the womb.
I would imagine that a most parents have a the fear of not having enough money when the wife is pregnant. This can happen with every pregnancy because every child affects the finances of a family. If the family thinks they are not financially strong enough, they will worry about the loss of the mom’s income or not having a big enough apartment or not having medical insurance…… ect. The baby picks up these fears and emotions. We may be born carrying the fear of not having enough.
Our parents beliefs may have been passed down to them over many generations. We may have accepted family beliefs as our truth. For example, our beliefs about other races, or politics or religion are learned from our parents.
I bring this up because it is just the starting point of things that we have in our belief systems that may not be true for us. Sometimes,unless someone else questions our why we believe something, we may not even question what we believe.
So we have beliefs that come from the prenatal time, then the beliefs that come from our infancy which may be related to our gender, our race, our religion, and our family. If a parent is upset that you are a girl when they wanted a boy or vice versa this can impact the belief about ourselves.
Can you imagine that if you had been born into a different religion that you would believe it instead of what you believe now?
Personality can regulate our beliefs, too. Some people come are born with strong ideas and personalities. Other people may be more open to adopting all their family beliefs but that does not mean that they will not have challenges to those beliefs in their life.
In the book “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz, he gives us four guidelines for living.
The first is be impeccable with your word. Then second is do not take anything personally. The third is do not make assumptions. The fourth agreement is always do your best. I am focusing on the first agreement which is be impeccable in your word. He says that when we say something unkind or hurtful it can become someones truth if they decide to believe it. When a parent gets angry, they may make a remark that they will negatively affect their child. They may not remember saying it to the child.
There are times when I would find myself exasperated and wanting to have a child stop whatever they were doing and would yell at them. I am sure that I wounded my kids with my angry out bursts. The real damage occurs if I attack one of their traits and they believe it… for example you are so disorganized, you always wait to the last minute, you are not smart enough, you are lazy, ect.
Parents are not the only originators of false beliefs. You may feel you are a bad person because you do not follow all the beliefs of your church. You may have a teacher that choses to pick on you or makes you think you are stupid. One of the high school students that I know told me that his teacher said he was stupid in front of the class. I asked another student in the class what he thought about the teachers remark about that student. He said that it was true that the young man was stupid! So we may believe that we are better than others by remarks made by those in authority.
There is some evidence that if teachers are told that a student who has been doing poorly is very intelligent that the teacher will treat them differently and the student will eventually do better.
Experiences that generate fear can create a belief that life is not safe. We can have fear of getting divorced, fear of having someone close to us die, fear of being robbed, ect.
Another common belief is that you must work hard to make a living. I think that if you follow your passion you can be quite successful.
But we are affected by the beliefs of our parents, their parents, their parents ect. So if we grow up thinking that being an actor is a sure way to starve and that is our life work, we have to look at our belief system and then go to our heart. Follow your heart is an old saying.
When I was in college, I wanted to major in horticulture. My folks had me talk to a nurseryman and he said he paid college graduates $6.50 per hour. They felt my salary would be too low to justify spending money on a horticulture education. Eventually, I followed in the tradition of my mom and her sisters and became a nurse. I started out at $6.50 per hour. But medicine was an acceptable profession in my family. I would imagine that the nurseryman strongly encouraged his children to go into horticulture. Our family values can affect how we value various life paths.
I did not have a strong enough passion to direct my life work. I must have changed my major on a daily basis back then. I like soooooo many things. I still feel that way today. I love gardening, spending time outside, playing in the dirt,growing beautiful flowers. I enjoy bird watching. I love the varieties and types of birds.
I enjoy children. They bring out the joy and fun in living. I can honestly say that both my husband and myself loved doing things with our children. We still love to hang out with them and play games now that they are adults. We have to get our child fix when we see the nieces and nephews.
I love doing reiki and reflexology. I enjoy yoga and meditation. I love to walk in the woods. I enjoy playing golf. I love using essential oils and learning about them. I like to cook
Can I change my belief that work has to be hard to be profitable or can I turn play into my work?

One of my main goals at the present is to look at my spiritual beliefs. I have always believed we are all connected or one. I so not believe that God has created so many people of other faiths to go to hell. I believe that the greatest commandment is to love one another. I think that is how we connect to the oneness by seeing the love that we all are. By focusing on others differences we are not able to focus on the love that connects us. Labels can prevent us from going beyond our perception. For example…woman, man, black, white, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddist, all imply certain information. We think we know something once we have labeled it. The question is do we know that what we have labeled someone or something is true?
So I am challenging my beliefs by asking if what I believe is absolutely true. That is the “WORK” of Byron Katie. I love to watch the videos on her site for they have a universal appeal.
I am challenging you to start to notice your beliefs. Do you really believe you are a separate being, different from other human beings..either better, the same or worse. Do you believe you are richer, or poorer? Do you believe that a bigger house, or a nicer house, or no house would make you happy? do you believe that you have to work hard or hardly work? Do you believe that you will go to hell or someone else will go to hell? Do you really have all the answers?
Well, my thought for today is Stop Thinking. Enjoy feeling, being and creating. Blessings to you, Eileen