To understand this we have to first understand what a belief is.
You may have heard the phrase, “Change your thinking, change your life.” Using the definition of “belief”, I put forward to you that this is just another way of saying, change what you believe. If you can change whatever you use to process and make sense of your world, you’ll naturally think differently. What is used to process the world? Beliefs[2].
If our actions, decisions, and responses to the world depend on our beliefs, I think it’s in our best interests to be aware of the power beliefs can have in our lives. This awareness can play a pivotal role in making the pursuit of being objective and having clarity of thought achievable.
An increasing awareness of your beliefs—the things you think are true about yourself, the world, etc—can also help increase how much you know yourself. Alongside that, you’ll likely find it easier to more clearly see what is actually true vs what you assumed was true and what others would like you to think is true. Does multiple people believing something is true make it true? Truth is reality. Reality is what is [4].
I’d argue that taking control of your beliefs puts you in the driver’s seat of your life. Some people like to drive, while others others may like to be passengers. For those itching to drive, becoming aware of and, when necessary, challenging your beliefs may be what is required to make that switch.
Stimulus examples: physical and non-physical objects like people, yourself, thoughts, ideas, events, memories, places, words, impulses, and emotions
Citations
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/belief
[2] Psychiatrist Ralph Lewis – What Actually Is a Belief? And Why Is It So Hard to Change? https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/finding-purpose/201810/what-actually-is-belief-and-why-is-it-so-hard-change
[3] Rüdiger J. Seitz, Hans-Ferdinand Angel, Belief formation – A driving force for brain evolution, Brain and Cognition, Volume 140, 2020, 105548, ISSN 0278-2626, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105548. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262619303860)
[4] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/reality
