Mind Your Beliefs & Rest Will Follow
Why can one manifest a million-dollar house in a month while the other cannot realize a new car in a year? Why does one struggle to get a text while the other secures date after date?
The answer to these questions is always the same. Those who manifest what they desire have subconscious beliefs that work for them. Those who fail to manifest what they want have subconscious beliefs that work against them.
In short, a person is either helped or hindered by his beliefs.
1. The Roles and Origins of Your Beliefs
So what is a belief, exactly?
The dictionary defines belief as an acceptance that something exists or is true. Now, when it comes to subconscious beliefs, that “something” is an idea.
Therefore, a subconscious belief is an idea accepted as true by the subconscious mind.
This definition leads to two equally important questions: 1) what is an idea and 2) how does one get accepted by the subconscious mind?
According to the lexicon, an idea is a formulated thought or opinion.
From birth – or even before – we begin to interpret the world by interacting with it via our so-called sense organs. As a result of these interactions, we draw many conclusions; we formulate thoughts and opinions.
For example, we may witness our father and mother fighting with each other daily and deduce that love between a man and a woman is hurtful.
Or, maybe we were born into a family as a fourth child, and could never get our parents’ undivided attention. Therefore, we concluded that we don’t matter, we are not a top priority, and we have to bend over backwards to earn some quality time with the ones we love.
In the first couple of years of our lives, our subconscious uncritically – and thus, automatically – accepts all of our ideas. Why? Because it simply doesn’t have enough reference points from which to evaluate them. For a baby, her parents – and her siblings, if any – represent the whole world.
Going back to our previous examples, an infant is not in the position to follow other couples around or hop on the Internet to gain more data about adult love relationships. He has no other choice but to believe that the behavior modeled by his parents is the norm. Similarly, no child can change her birth order or understand that not receiving undivided attention from her parents has nothing to do with her personally.
Now, these earliest ideas, particularly of self, will play a fundamental role later in our lives.
First, all of our actions, feelings, and abilities will be consistent with them.
Second, they will determine the nature of the new ideas our subconscious will be open to accepting.
For instance, an individual who conceives of himself as not good enough may strongly reject reassurance from a romantic partner and may self-sabotage his relationships which would violate his inadequate self-concept.
2. The System of Your Beliefs
The mind does not store beliefs isolated from each other but creates quite an intricate, spiderweb-like system. And it does so in an intelligent and organized manner.
First, every belief pertaining to one’s self is placed at the system’s hub. This is a very logical organizing rule, as the most constant factor in a person’s life is himself.
No matter the circumstances you are going through, you can only interpret them from your own point of view; with yourself as a center. As Neil Gaiman, a famous English writer put it; “wherever you go, you take yourself with you.”
Consequently, beliefs that articulate self-identification with a particular characteristic or categorization will become the base of one’s belief system.
This foundation will consist of many beliefs as there are many experiences one needs to relate to. By the time we reach adulthood, we all form a complex belief system nuanced by our interactions with the external world. And while we can have many experiences that are similar – or look similar – to others, ultimately, we all end up with a unique belief system.
Even siblings who were raised by the same set of parents don’t have identical beliefs. That is because, although they were raised by the same parents, they were not raised in the same family.
The oldest child has the experience of being the only one for a while, being the center of all parental attention. The middle children and the youngest ones are naturally deprived of this experience.
Also, the parents could have been at different stages of their relationship or had a different economic status when they had their children.
Despite our different experiences, every person’s minds follow the same two rules when it comes to constructing its belief system.
The first rule is that no two beliefs in one’s belief system can be the total opposite of one another.
For example, you cannot believe that you are short and also believe that you are tall at the same time. These are two mutually exclusive self-concepts. You either identify as one or the other.
The second rule is that every belief accepted by our subconscious must be assimilated into the system and work in conjunction with other beliefs that pertain to the same subject.
Now, this collaboration of beliefs could lead to either very rewarding or very distressing experiences for the individual.
When someone has overwhelmingly beneficial beliefs regarding a topic, he will have enjoyable experiences. (See scenario no. 1.)
However, when someone has accepted a mix of beneficial and unsupportive beliefs concerning the subject matter, he will face many challenges. (See scenario no. 2.)
Those with purely unsupportive beliefs will feel like the world is against them. (See scenario no. 3.)
Let’s look at how these scenarios play out in real life.
In scenario no. 1, we have a person who believes that he is good at making money and also believes that he is excellent at managing his money. To maintain the first self-concept, he will make money with relative ease. To maintain the second, he will invest in the right stocks, spend wisely, etc. In other words, he has the right combination of beliefs to enjoy financial stability.
In scenario no. 2, we have a person who believes that he is good at making money but simultaneously believes that he is excellent at squandering fortunes. To maintain the first definition, he will make money with relative ease. However, to maintain the second, he is bound to waste it.
If this individual ever wants to achieve permanent financial security, he needs to overwrite the belief compelling him to splurge. In other words, he will not be able to become truly wealthy until he weeds out the belief that says he is excellent at squandering fortunes from his belief system.
In scenario no. 3, we have a person who believes that he sucks at making money and also believes that he is excellent at overspending. This combination of beliefs is a recipe for living in a constant financial crisis. He needs to change both if he ever wants to get ahead financially.
Now, please note the abovementioned examples are oversimplified, as we usually have more than two beliefs regarding a certain subject.
3. The Relationship Between Your Beliefs and Your Specific Desires
When people learn about conscious creation they tend to get busy with what to manifest instead of who they need to become to manifest what they want. That’s an oversight.
Why? Because the subconscious accepts our assumption of a specific desire based on the test of self-consistency.
If the subconscious finds the specific desire consistent with beliefs already present in our belief system – especially with our innermost self-concept beliefs – it will accept the desire easily.
For instance, if you subconsciously believe you are one of the best businessmen on Earth, getting your business featured on Forbes will be a walk in the park.
However, the subconscious wrestles with assumptions of specific desires inconsistent with our self-concept(s). It resists accepting such desires and is likely to reject them until the individual forms an adequate self-concept.
A prime example of this latter phenomenon is the person trying to alter her physical appearance with the law of assumption who manages to change every feature but the one she wanted to. According to layman’s logic, if you can change the shape of your toes, you should also be able to change the shape of your nose. It sounds like a valid conclusion, right?
So why doesn’t it work like that? Why do people struggle to change those body parts they really want to?
The answer is quite simple. And no, it’s not a lack of detachment from the results. The issue is that the feature they are trying to alter serves as an outer manifestation of their undesirable self-concept(s).
Let’s take a look at an example. Suzie has a big nose. She thinks it makes her look ugly and wants a button nose instead. She believes that a perfectly shaped nose is all she needs to be beautiful. Suzie can’t afford surgery but does know about the law of assumption. She starts to affirm, “I have a button nose.” Months go by, but she can’t perceive any noticeable improvement. Not only that, but it seems like her nose got even bigger!
Why? Because the cause of Suzie’s ugliness was never her nose. The root of her ugliness is a less-than-ideal self-concept she accepted at one point in her life and incorporated into her definition of herself. Simply put, this dreadful self-concept is a part of her total personality.
The shape of her nose is just a piece of evidence – a third-dimensional proof – created by her subconscious backing up her undesirable self-concept.
When a body part is linked to a self-concept in one’s mind, it can only be changed permanently if the underlying self-concept is corrected.
In Suzie’s case, her subconscious will keep rejecting the idea of a button nose because it goes against her self-concept. Her mind argues: she cannot have a button nose because that’s a trait of beautiful people. And Suzie is an ugly person. Case closed. (Now, before you all ask how her mind knows/thinks of a button nose as beautiful. Suzie made her subconscious accept that idea by fixating on it. And ideas not related to self-concept are easy to sell to the subconscious because they don’t threaten your ego.)
If Suzie wants to be beautiful, she needs first to believe that she is. Then, the shape of her nose would easily conform to her new self-concept.
It is also no coincidence that many people struggle to visualize their biggest desire but can easily conjure up a ladder or a tennis ball. They literally cannot even imagine their wish fulfilled due to their current self-concept. And what good is imagination if you cannot fully tap into its creating power?
So here is an idea. Instead of wasting months or years trying to manifest desires inconsistent with your innermost beliefs, why not slow down and upgrade your self-concept? Why not stop chasing the same things and create a belief system that could bring you everything you want on a silver platter?