Your beliefs reflect you as a person
We all have our beliefs. As much as we can strongly believe in something, we can strongly deny it. When that happens, our emotions can get in the way and affect the way we see the world. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. We all know people who are a lot into religion; and whether they believe in it or deny it, can get worked up very easily. This is how powerful belief is, it can drive you insane if not used properly. However, as I said, it is not necessarily a bad thing. Our emotions getting in the way can be very useful to achieve our desires and dreams, no matter what they may be. Whether Santa Claus exists or not, whether ghosts exists or not, cannot be proven. However the power of belief lies beyond the research of simple truth. Did you hear about the Schrödinger’s cat box experiment? As the cat goes in the box, he is both alive and dead. How come? It is because you don’t know its state until you open the box, so he is assumed to be both alive and dead. This same thing can apply to everything in life. For instance, do ghosts exist? Until you open the box -which roughly means here having a definite way of knowing if ghosts are fiction or reality-, you won’t be able to tell. The power of belief is not about searching for this truth, it is about believing in a truth and accommodating yourself with everything this belief gives you. Belief is a driving force that will make you, or on the contrary, prevent you to do things. Your perspective of the world is reflected by your beliefs. Do you see the world in black? Do you see nothing but horrible, hainous crimes and people? This is a direct reflection of your belief that the world is not something to be happy to live in, which will directly affect you as a person.
Let’s take two opposite types of persons: the first one is someone really happy that sees eveything in white, and the other sees everything in black. The notable difference between them would be the way they act daily. As the first person might always be joyful, smiling, laughing, singing, dancing… the other may be complaining, jealous, afraid of this crazy world and paranoid. Those are all negative emotions. What is different between them? Well, in fact a lot of factors might have a role here, but the most predominant one in my opinion would be their belief system. As the first person believes in the good, he sees nothing but that. Conversely, the other person only focuses on what is wrong with the world instead of thinking positively, how could he since his believe system has been made so that the world is unhappy? Your beliefs are a direct reflection of yourself. Whether the world is white or black depends on you, there is no right belief. If you decide that this world is rotten, then you will see it in black. However, if you can see hope and humanity in this world, then you may achieve another truth.
Someone’s world is someone’s truth
The problem might be that a lot of people don’t forge their own beliefs -or at least take other’s beliefs consciously-, but they without knowing it accept other people’s beliefs. If you’ve been lucky and have been surrounded by the right people during your childhood, then you may already have the beliefs you want to believe in. Unfortunately, most persons don’t believe in something because they want to, they do because they’ve been forced to, without knowing it. Do you know the difference between a rich and a poor person? The difference can be clearly demonstrated with one question: “I want to be rich, how do I do?”. If asked, the rich person will probably try to teach you something valuable while the poor person will laugh at you and tell you to work for pennies like everyone else, because only lucky people are rich. Sadly, it does not end here. If you were to compare these two parents’ children lives.. you would probably see a notable difference. If you’ve been conditioned to think that money is hard to make and that you can never be rich, then odds on that you will never be rich. Actually, the gap between them may widen even further because of a simple fact greatly affecting one’s belief system: the “truth” of one’s world. I do believe that each person has his own truth and that there is no “truth” for everyone. The truth of someone is dictaded by his perception of the world. Would seeing your poor parents make you believe riches is an option? Probably not. On the contrary, would seeing your rich parents make you believe you can attain riches? Yes. The only difference is that one is full of belief, trying, while the other doesn’t even bother to try because he “doesn’t believe it is possible”. In the end, nothing material changes. The only thing that changes and that differenciates them is their belief. While one is constantly evolving, the other is not.
Understand that I’m in no way saying that you’re just a puppet made by the persons who educated you. You’re not bound to stay how you’ve been raised to be. Change is always possible for the one who wants it. I’m just saying that believing is something that may be easier for some persons as they are in greatly advantaged situations. If you’ve never went outside, and have been raised at home, what would happen if your parents prohibited you from going outside because there were fierce and dangerous wolves? You would totally believe it, because you’ve never been outside and don’t know what it looks like. All your life you’ve been taught that “going out is dangerous” so you will constantly bear that thought in mind as long as you don’t go out for yourself and try. This analogy may be a bit extreme, but it is basically what belief is about. Until you try something for yourself and decide to believe in it, don’t make false assumptions about it. This example shows you that your beliefs are the truth of your world. While your truth would be that the outside world is full of vicious wolves, it would be completely different from someone else’s truth. It is very hard to “unbelieve” in something, especially if you’ve been conditioned to think it all your life. However I tend to think that everything’s possible. A good way of doing that is to approach people that make this truth their reality or to simply try it out by yourself and see how it goes. Remember, we all have different perceptions of the world. Surely, no one wants a vision they don’t want to believe in to be imposed upon them, right? You should believe in your own truth, whether it pleases the world or not. If everyone says that Santa Claus doesn’t exist but you think he does, well, no one has the right to take away that belief from you. As human being, we tend to adapt ourselves with others to blend in, because no one wants to be excluded. So if you believe that Santa Claus exists, but that everyone were to say to you that he is not; then you’d probably take that belief as a reality, although it might not always be true. However, do they have that right to make you believe something? Absolutely not, you’re free to have faith in whatever you want. No matter how much someone says to you that you’re silly, it does not change the fact that everyone has the right to think what they want. Now, we’re getting on an interesting part.
The power of belief
Beliefs are mixed with emotions. When you believe in Santa Claus, you have hope. Which means that, on the contrary, not believing in Santa Claus.. means that you have “no hope”, and therefore, no emotions. In short, belief can give you emotional states. If beliefs can make you reach certain emotional states… why wouldn’t you use them to your advantage? If believing in something, whether it is true or not, can affect you as a person and change your life, don’t you think you should use it? I’ll give a simple example. If you’re poor, but that you strongly believe that you’ll be rich one day.. wouldn’t your chances of succeeding increase? Don’t get me wrong, it is not magic, just believing in it will not make you rich. However, this belief that you will be rich will give you not only motivation, but also a purpose. That belief will certainly make you overcome every possible adversity, because, “you believe you will succeed” or should I say “you know you will succeed”. What is the difference between “a person that knows he’s going to succeed” and “a person that doesn’t think he is going to”? The way they act will change consequently. While the confident man will make everything to succeed, the other will just do the bare minimum because he doesn’t believe he will make it anyway. The closer to the reality your beliefs are, the stronger your emotions will be. Having the certitude that something is true… make it true to you, and therefore becomes something you care about. How does that work with things that cannot be proven? Well, first we’ll have to define the word “reality”. What is a reality? Are we talking about someone’s reality, or are we talking about the world’s one and only reality? Since we don’t know the world’s full reality at the moment, then until the box is opened and the final truth “revealed”, the world is ruled by your own reality. If you believe that ghosts exists, then they do. If you believe this is just fiction made by human, then they don’t. Believing in ghosts may give the hope that you can one day reach your deceased partner once gain. If this hope can give you the strength to live on, why wouldn’t you believe in it?
Believe in what you wish to achieve
Have you ever known people that suddenly enter a religion after a close family member or friend dies? Entering a religion is a form of belief that will reassure them and make them “believe” it is not all over. Is it true or false? No one knows, and no one need to know. If it can help them, whether it is true or not, they should believe in it. This is how powerful the power of believing is, although a lot of peole are not using it consciously to their advantage. While it is difficult to believe in something that everyone else denies, the first step is the wish to believe in it. As long as you do that, you’ll most certainly succeed in believing. You’re not alone, anyway. As stated previously, you can be greatly helped by other people who already “believes” (or have achieved) what you want to believe in, or do. Doing things all by yourself, while doable, might be complicated. That’s why I’d recommend to look upon people that have made the miracle you want to believe in, a reality. You want to be inspired by the person which you aspire to be, not by the person you wish not to be. Some people will always try to force their own belief upon you, they probably mixed “their own truth” with “the truth of the world” part during the process. Don’t believe in something until you want to believe in it, belief should be a weapon to make you succeed, not surrender. In the end, you’re the only one that has the right to embrace or refuse a truth. Everyone has his own perception of the world mixed with our own beliefs, and no one said that everyone needed to share the same perception; each of our truths are ours and can coexist with everyone else’s truths, no matter how different they may be.
