I have a certain set of beliefs. I know that some of those beliefs are no longer serving me. These are things that I have thought were true and have spent my life gathering evidence that they are true. You have to work hard at a job to secure a good living is one of those beliefs.
Our brains are amazing organs that can help us sift through the millions of data points coming in at all times. The consequence of this is that much of what we are taking in with just our five senses is not being delivered up to our consciousness. So my unconscious mind is registering millions of things right now but only when I place my consciousness on something do I really notice. There was a famous experiment where the test subjects wore goggles that would turn everything upside down for the wearer. For a period, the test subjects became disoriented and ill from seeing everything upside down. However, within a number of days, every person’s brain had auto-corrected for the glasses and again showed the world as “expected” which is right side up.
What a fascinating experiment. I recall learning about it in college, many years ago and thinking hmmm interesting. Only recently have I begun to question what this study really means and the ramifications of it. If our brain is auto-correcting what we see and experience to what is expected, what does that say for our lives? What are we expecting to see that we are seeing because our brain has the instruction that this is how it is?
Back to my old belief that you have to work hard at a job to earn a living, what is the reality of that? How many examples of this has my brain been finding for me all of these years, because that is the instruction? How many examples of people who are wildly successful doing what they love has my brain filtered out because that is “upside down”?
The wonderful thing is that with awareness, as my mentor Bill Harris says, comes choice. I can now choose to actively seek out examples that align with my chosen new belief and I can continue to reinforce those until my brain takes over and shows me automatically those cases that fit the new belief and discards the others. Fabulous!
If you need some assistance understanding this in your own life or want some guidance toward awareness and are ready to address some of your old beliefs, I am at your service.
