Changing your Beliefs

To be able to receive more good things, events and people into your life, it may be necessary to change any negative beliefs you have.
Here is the technique taught to me :

Stage 1
First you need to work out what they are. Look at your results, listen to what your inner voice is saying, and notice what you say to others. Ask your friends and family too, sometimes they know you better than yourself, or can see an aspect of you that you can’t. Keep some paper and a pen with you at all times, and stay attuned to this task. Every time you notice a belief, jot it down.

Stage 2
I used a speadsheet on the computer for this part, as it got quite messy, however, paper is fine too. Draw up 4 columns. In the first, write down one of the beliefs you have noted. In the second column, write what you would like to change the belief to. What is the opposite of the negative belief? Do not use negative words in this. Reword it to be a positive statement.

Stage 3
In the third column, write down a time or event in your life when this new belief was true for you. Yes, you heard right. This is the hard part. If you hold the belief that no-one loves you, for example, then go back and recall a time when someone, anyone, showed you an act of kindness that would indicate love. Never mind their motivation, that doesn’t matter for this exercise. Can you think of any others? You see, precisely because of that belief, we tend to block out anything or anyone that doesn’t fit in with that belief. So spend some time remembering. Look at old calendars to help you, or scrap books, or photo albums. Ask people you know, or go into meditation. This is the crucial step in changing your belief.
We hold our beliefs because events prove them. Because the events prove them, we hold the beliefs. So this pattern must be interrupted, and this is done by proving that the new belief is also true. By doing this, we break the hold and disempower the old belief.

Stage 4
Use the new belief as an affirmation. Write it on a card and read it to yourself several times a day. Each time you do, recall the event that proves it.

Stage 5 (optional)
You may find too many beliefs to cope with at once. You can either handle 2 or 3 at a time, or you may want to go over your list, and see if you can group any together to reduce their number. There may be several for example that essentially say “no-one loves me”. You can then combine them, leaving just the one to deal with.

I had a wonderful life coach who showed me this technique, and I did a lot of work on it. In doing so, I discovered that I didn’t believe this technique would work for me. Talk about self-sabotage!

So I decided to test it out on something that wasn’t important. I had the belief that all drivers of front wheel cars were inconsiderate on the road. In my experience, they had no qualms about cutting in in front of other cars, parking haphazardly to take up 2 spots instead of 1, and not giving way to other drivers.This was not an important belief, more an annoying one.

So I changed it to “front wheel drivers are considerate on the road”. My inner voice was saying “yeah, right” sarcastically, however I remembered one time when one was considerate to me, letting me in when 2 lanes merged. So I focussed on that. That very night, proving how quickly this technique can work, I was crossing a dimly lit street on foot, when a front wheel drive car appeared. It stopped for me while I was still in the middle of the road, and not on a pedestrian crossing – I was amazed! The technique works!