Belief is a Power Tool

      

By Shajen Joy Aziz, M.Ed., M.A.

Belief is a powerful tool.   It is if you believe it. And it isn't if you don't.   Notice your beliefs. Then notice the beliefs beneath your beliefs. The ones you don't often think about. The quiet ones. The inherited ones. The conditioned ones. The ones that have been running in the background for so long they simply feel like truth.   Notice how your beliefs create your experience of the world. If we're not consciously choosing them, they are often choosing for us. Our brain is doing exactly what it was designed to do. It learns. It notices patterns. It predicts. It protects. It remembers. It builds pathways from repetition and experience. That isn't a flaw. It's one of the greatest gifts of being human.   Conditioning is not the enemy. In many ways, it's one of our greatest teachers. Every experience you've ever had has taught your brain something. Some of those lessons have opened your heart. Some have protected it. Some have expanded your life. Some have made your world smaller. None of that is wrong. It's simply information gathered through a lifetime of living.   Your parents conditioned you. Your family conditioned you. Your teachers, your culture, your friends, your successes, your disappointments, your relationships, and the stories you told yourself about each of them have all played a part in shaping the beliefs you carry today. Every experience has left an imprint, quietly answering questions like: Who am I? Can I trust? Am I enough? Is the world safe? What is possible for me?   The question isn't whether you've been conditioned. Of course you have. We all have. The question is whether the beliefs you've learned are still creating the life you want to live, or whether your life has outgrown some of the beliefs that once served you.   This is where neuroscience becomes so hopeful. Your brain is not fixed. It is continually changing. Through neuroplasticity, your brain forms new neural pathways throughout your life. Every time you become aware of an old pattern instead of automatically living from it, something begins to shift. Every time you choose a new perspective, a new response, or a new way of showing up, you strengthen a different pathway. With repetition, what once felt unfamiliar can become your new way of being.   Awareness creates choice. Choice creates new experiences. New experiences create new pathways. Over time, those pathways become the beliefs you naturally live from.   So notice your beliefs. Notice the patterns they have created. Notice what they have given you, and notice what they may now be asking you to release. You don't have to judge them. You don't have to fight them. Simply bring them into the light.   Because the moment you can see a belief, you are no longer completely living inside of it.   From that place, your authentic self has room to speak. Your deepest wisdom has room to lead. And perhaps that is our greatest freedom. Not that we were never conditioned, but that we have the extraordinary capacity to become aware of our conditioning, honor what has served us, gently release what no longer does, and consciously choose the beliefs that create the life we are here to live. Shajen Joy Aziz, M.Ed., M.A. Award-Winning #1 International Best-selling Author, Speaker, Publisher Your Voice Matters ~ It's Why I'm Here  https://www.publishing-joy.com https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/shajen-joy-aziz-lichtenstein-woodstock-vt/257631 https://www.linkedin.com/in/shajen-cheyenne-joy-aziz-m-ed-m-a-35053715/ http://www.discoverthegift.com http://www.alivingcurriculum.com WATCH THE MOVE ->https://www.gaia.com/video/discover-gift