BELIEVE

In this holiday season, the frenzy of consumerism, feasting, and family gatherings can overshadow one of the most important elements:  What do you believe? It’s also easy to avoid living the life you want by deferring to organized religion, or other people’s ideas about what you should do.

There’s that old Tina Turner song with the lyrics: “the odds come out even, when you give up believing.” I really love that sentiment, because I’ve come to understand how important what you believe is. That’s because your belief system, along with your thoughts, play a huge role in determining your “reality.”

It can be a lot to accept that you are really in charge of your life, but with a conscious exercise of your belief system and thoughts, you can experience it yourself. Every small step will reveal whether it is the case for you, and I know of no reason why that shouldn’t be.

And if you eventually conclude that your beliefs really do shape your reality, then certain things naturally flow from that realization. There is no more need to blame others for anything, or to play the victim in life. If this shocks you too it is not surprising, because much of our society is based upon blame and victimhood. Instead of looking at so-called “painful” or “traumatic” events as causing victimhood, with all the attending emotion, try viewing these life events as learning experiences that show each of us the huge polarities in human behavior. After all, how would be recognize “good behavior”  if we didn’t experience and balance it out with “bad behavior.”

But imagine for a moment what your life would be like if you never felt like you were victimized, and/or if the people in your daily life shared that belief. Imagine how it would feel  to not encounter one single complaining person in your day; and imagine that feeling if it continued for a year! I’m sure that such a change would drastically impact your feelings of well being (in a good way!), as well as provide an extremely healthy role model for all those you meet.

If you think that this might be pie in the sky nonsense, I understand your skepticism, but if you try to implement this different belief system, you might feel differently over time.