Lesson 20: New Beliefs (Part 3)

This post is my thoughts on a lesson from the Beyond Freedom home study course for personal growth and life achievement. This course has been instrumental in transforming my life from stress-full to stress-FREE. Order your own copy today at: http://www.LibertyLeague.com/margieremmers And transform YOUR life from where you are now, to where you want to be.

OK, so picking up where I left off yesterday, I was about to reveal a crazy belief that I have recently accepted as true. Whether it is in reality true makes no difference--believing it serves me.

As I mentioned, despite the fact that we seem solid, we humans (and everything in our universe) are actually just spinning energy--and frankly it is somewhat of a miracle that we can even keep our shape.

Whether we consciously realize this or not, as we learned from Jill Bolte Taylor, there is a part of our brain (the right hemisphere) that knows this. The rest of our brain, however, believes the illusion that we are solid, and CONTINUES TO TRY TO PROVE ITSELF RIGHT. It is constantly looking for security and reassurance that we are solid, we are unique, and we are individual.

We are really just floating in space, but there is a part of us that keeps trying to hold on to something.

This is another thing that I learned from Jon Gabriel. He teaches that the reason people retain weight is because the body needs to feel safe. The body stores the fat because it believes that it needs it for protection. And so his program is designed to consistently send the message to the brain, "You're safe. You're OK."

From the moment we were born, we started making decisions about our universe--"Oh, when I do this, that happens!" We were born trying to "put it all together" and "figure it out." And every time we figured something out (good or bad), we breathed a sigh of relief--"Whew! OK, I got it. This I know." That belief (again, even if it limits our potential or makes us feel bad about ourselves) makes us feel secure. It makes us feel safe. It makes us feel solid.

That's why we hold our beliefs so tightly. That's why, as Beyond Freedom says, "we will evaluate and scrutinize practically every bit of information that passes in front of us. But, our beliefs are held sacred."

So if this is the case, how do we change them? How do we give up something that for so long has made us feel safe in a spinning universe? I'll have to write about that tomorrow.

Lesson 20: New Beliefs (Part 2)

This post is my thoughts on a lesson from the Beyond Freedom home study course for personal growth and life achievement. This course has been instrumental in transforming my life from stress-full to stress-FREE. Order your own copy today at: http://www.LibertyLeague.com/margieremmers And transform YOUR life from where you are now, to where you want to be.

OK, so in yesterday's post I talked about Jon Gabriel's take on belief vs. truth, and how he doesn't care whether something is true, but only whether his belief serves him--does believing that thing make him feel good, happy, complete, successful? That is his only criteria. The truth is inconsequential.

Today's Beyond Freedom lesson (continuing from yesterday) is about getting rid of beliefs that DON'T serve you ("I'm not good enough," "Everyone's out to get me," "That would make me look bad, etc."), and replacing them with beliefs that DO (e.g., "I can do anything I set my mind to").

But in some ways, that is easier said than done, because the mind is always searching for ways to strengthen its belief. As Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right." You may say to yourself, "I can do anything I set my mind to," but as soon as you think it, your mind is filled with things you failed at--piles of evidence that, in fact, there are things that you can't do.

I mentioned yesterday that this exact topic is one that I have been batting around for several days. And I've come to what might seem some pretty crazy conclusions. However, my belief in the answer serves me a great deal--so I'm keeping it.

Here is what I have begun to realize: It's a commonly known fact that although we human animals seem solid, in fact we are not. In fact, we are just atoms spinning around, much more space than mass. It is quite a miracle that we are cohesive at all. In fact, Jill Bolte Taylor, neuroanatomist and author of My Stroke of Insight, describes how the right side of our brain does not even recognize separateness--how it only sees and feels with all the other energy forms in the universe. If you have not seen Jill's powerful speech at the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, grab a kleenex and sit down for 20 minutes to watch it now. It will definitely change your perspective, it could very well change your life:


And if, like me, you can't get enough of her message, watch the videos in Oprah's Soul Series.

More tomorrow... :o)

Lesson 20: New Beliefs (Part 1)

This post is my thoughts on a lesson from the Beyond Freedom home study course for personal growth and life achievement. This course has been instrumental in transforming my life from stress-full to stress-FREE. Order your own copy today at: http://www.LibertyLeague.com/margieremmers And transform YOUR life from where you are now, to where you want to be.

Last Friday, my friend Aisza threw down the gauntlet. OK, not really--she didn't directly challenge me, but her words caused me to challenge myself in a way that I haven't in awhile. She made me realize that it has been awhile since I have picked up my Beyond Freedom. In fact, I searched through this blog and found that it was November of last year when I last posted a lesson!

During my conversation with Aisza, I committed to doing a couple things full out, 100%, for ONE WEEK--one of which was one full hour every day of work in Beyond Freedom! So here we go...

Today's lesson is titled "New Beliefs," and it never ceases to amaze me how whenever I open up my book, the topic is EXACTLY what has been on my mind!

So many recent events have brought this topic to the forefront of my mind--there is no way I am going to be able to document them in one sitting. This, by the way, is the reason why Beyond Freedom is considered a 90-day course, even though there are only 29 lessons. It often takes more than one day to complete a single lesson!

I'll start with Jon Gabriel. I don't know how exactly I bumped into Jon on the internet--was it an ad? Was it a link in someone's blog? I don't remember. Regardless, I attracted his website and became fascinated with his unique approach to weight loss--by using the mind, rather than going on a "diet." I immediately bought his book, which came with mp3's of seminars that Jon had conducted in various places.

In one of the mp3's Jon shared a FASCINATING insight. He said that he chooses what to believe based on whether it serves him--not whether it's true. "Frankly," he said, "I don't care whether it's true or not. All I care about is whether it serves me--whether believing that is helpful in my life. If it's not, I get rid of it, and choose to believe something else."

And, of course, this is what today's lesson is all about--choosing the beliefs that make us happy, that bring us success, that make us feel good. Rewriting our old beliefs into new ones that serve us.

Of course, the hard part in all this is evidence. When we believe something, we search for evidence that it is true. After all, like the lesson says, "Beliefs are etched in our subconscious mind. And we won't let go easily." We are constantly searching for things to back up what we believe is true--even if those beliefs are harmful or make us feel bad. If we believe that all store clerks are rude to us, then even if we run into 9 nice ones out of 10, we will only notice the 1 that was rude, because it confirms our belief.

Well, my hour is up. Looking forward to tomorrow so I can finish my train of thought! :o)