Posts Tagged ‘reality’

You and Your World~Metaphorically Speaking, Part I

Monday, November 28th, 2011

 “You live your life according to what you believe to be true of yourself and of the world–even if what you believe to be true isn’t real.” (jc)

Everything we think, feel and do in any given context is dictated by our beliefs. For those of us looking for change, knowing that could be important.

The human brain is said to be the most complex organism in the Universe. Of course, that’s a belief the brain has about itself. But with millions of miles of neurons packed into a single human cranium, with an estimated 1000 trillion connections, it could easily be true–and discussing how it works would get complicated.

And I don’t like complicated things. I like everything to be as simple as possible.

So, rather than discuss how beliefs are created, for now let’s agree that “A belief is information neurologically encoded in such a way that it becomes a statement about reality that you think or feel is true.”

That’s simple enough to play with.

Beliefs are your database of reality statements. They give rise to your thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

That’s how you know how to think, feel and ‘be’ within any given context.

Your life experience is the cumulative effect of your beliefs; the meanings that you project outward onto things and events. It’s not The Realty–it’s Your reality.

Your belief-experience becomes Your Story. And there’s no other story in the world exactly like it.

But your story of reality may not be true for me. I have one of my own. It’s called My Story. And it’s very different from yours.

Your beliefs prove themselves right by shaping reality to fit the mold that your beliefs create. They force you to experience the world their way–not as it IS. And they easily make it seem like everyone who believes as you do is right–and anyone who believes otherwise is wrong.

It’s a very convincing illusion.

All across the world, beliefs unify individuals from various backgrounds into groups aligned toward a common cause or–as opposing beliefs often do–create conflicts resulting in a world at war.

But what happens when conflicting beliefs reside within the same brain–and your brain is at war with itself, creating lots of unhappiness in your life?

Ever catch yourself saying something like “Part of me wants this, but another part of me wants that,” or “I feel like I’m constantly fighting with myself,” or maybe “I love it and I hate it at the same time”? That’s a sure sign of conflicting beliefs.

Listen for statements like these coming from yourself and others over the next week or so. You may begin thinking about language and its meaning in a whole new way.

Do you like to think you have ‘freedom-of-choice’? If so, get ready for a surprising twist in my next post.

 Hi. Welcome to my Universe.
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And thanks for being you. You’re the only you there will ever be. That makes you awesome.