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Old 12-24-2006, 08:19 AM   #5 (permalink)
Smiley
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Calgary, Canada
Posts: 25
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martindv, I'll give it my best try.

The human brain is a fabulous tool. One of the tasks at which it excels is finding patterns...auditory, visual, etc. It is amazing how well it can scan the environment to find evidence that proves your beliefs to be correct, and ignore all other evidence.

I accept my beliefs as factually incorrect representations of reality. My beliefs are nothing more than my own personal interpretation of "what is". Given that all that I perceive is taken through my own particular set of filters and categorized accordingly, and since I believe that I can never perceive except through my own filters, I've accepted that the resultant beliefs are necessarily factually incorrect. That is, they do not perfectly capture reality. Doing this has allowed me to be more proactive about challenging my own beliefs, whether they be empowering or limiting.

If the brain is scanning the environment to find evidence that your beliefs are correct, then essentially, you get to be right. No matter what, you get to be right. Believe that people are inherently good? Your brain will find evidence to support that. Believe that people are inherently evil? Your brain will find evidence to support that. You get to be right. The question now becomes, what do you want to be right about.

You know that there are beliefs that do not empower you to achieve what it is that you want to achieve. So, since you are already that far down the path, simply imagine yourself in third-person. Take away the emotional and self-defining attachment to the belief. Think, "If I were a person who had beliefs that supported this thing that I want to achieve, what would those beliefs be?" Essentially, decide on some new beliefs to replace the old ones that limited you.

Next, go find evidence. Consciously, deliberately, go find evidence. You're looking for volume here. You must retrain your brain exactly what kind of evidence you're looking for. Write it down. You're looking for something in the order of two billion data points. I mean, you've spent your whole life (or however long) finding evidence that the old belief is correct. So go find all of the evidence that you can.

Say, for example, you're looking to replace some limiting belief that's getting in the way of financial abundance with something that sounds like, "I am abundant and enjoy tremendous financial reward." What would qualify as evidence for this new belief? Well, who bought you a coffee today? Did you pull into a parking spot that had time on the meter? Did you find a penny on the ground?

Am I stretching here? Of course I am! But let's be straight...your brain has been going out of its way to find evidence that supports the old beliefs. Imagine, for a moment, someone who has limiting beliefs about their self-worth. They see someone across a room who looks at them. Person A, the self-worth challenged individual, sees Person B look at them and thinks, "that person looked at me funny". Person A now concocts some story about what Person B must think of them. Person A is now in reaction to Person B, even before having ever spoken to person B. AND, they now have additional evidence that says, "Person B looked at me funny, and thinks I'm a dork, so that's one more person that thinks so." Y'know what just happened in this common scenario? Person A just made all that crap up. Made it up! Just to find evidence to prove their belief about their own limited self-worth correct.

So, as long as you're going to make crap up anyway, make up crap that supports empowering beliefs! You will retrain your brain just what kind of evidence you're looking for. And your brain will respond, the fantastic tool that it is. And, when new opportunities and scenarios pop up that fulfill your desires, you will already have a brain that is trained to spot them.

To summarize: You get to be right. What do you want to be right about? Great! Go find evidence.
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