http://www.care2.com/greenliving/does-a-belief-system-make-you-suffer.html
Does a Belief System Make You Suffer?
Adapted from The Book of Secrets, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press, 2004).
Examine your possible motives for wanting to suffer. Do you deny that there’s anything wrong? Do you think it makes you a better person not to show others that you hurt? Do you enjoy the attention you get when you are sick or in distress? Do you feel safe being alone and not having to make tough choices?
Belief systems are complex—they hold together the self we want to present to the world. It is much simpler not have beliefs, which means being open to life as it comes your way, going with your own inner intelligence instead of with stored judgments. If you find yourself blocked by your suffering, returning to the same old thoughts again and again, a belief system has trapped you. You can escape the trap only by ending your need to cling to these beliefs.
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11 comments
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Thank you, Thank you very much.I wish I could do away with my belief-systems that hold me how I wish to be for public view.
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Indeed how true! Suffering like all other states of being is a choice and a frame of mind. We can choose to be happy, so why choose to suffer? Remember, NOBODY AND NOTHING CAN MAKE US UNHAPPY UNLESS WE ALLOW IT.
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Indeed how true! Suffering like all other states of being is a choice and a frame of mind. We can choose to be happy, so why choose to suffer? Remember, NOBODY AND NOTHING CAN MAKE US UNHAPPY UNLESS WE ALLOW IT.
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One thing I learned that has helped me along the way. Something happens, we make it mean something, based on our past . We are all meaning making machines. If we can separate ourselves from our machinery, we can see it is us making up the meaning. As long as we are making it up, we may as well make up something that empowers us.
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I have come to realize that there is only one belief that creates all beliefs. And that belief is the belief in a separation....a separation from God.
When you rid this belief, all beliefs are gone and one finds themselves being bliss.
One way to rid this belief is to simply realize it is a belief. Another way is to counteract every thought (good or bad) with a statment of Truth, such as my father and I am one or I am spirit and spirit is perfect. Another way is to take no thought to an appearance of things, situations and thoughts.
It helped me to understand that a belief is a program of the mind. It is not based on the Truth and therefore subject to change.
The Truth is changeless, timeless and beyond mind and appearance.
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Knowing that we hang on to our non-productive behaviors and beliefs for whatever payoff they provide is the easy part. Letting go of them, is a greater challenge. Letting go is the best thing we can do for ourselves. Everytime I am able to do so, I feel free. Recently, I have become less attached to my stuff and feel less in need of acquiring new stuff to make myself happy. I like this feeling. I think it will lead me down a wonderful and fruitful path. Thank you for your contribution to my awareness of myself and the power of the universe to provide, if I will but let it.
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So, does this eliminate the need for 'coping skills?"
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My Mom always judged how much someone cared about her by the amount of time they spent with her. When I began attending a codependency meeting, I found that had inherited this false belief from her. When I was in a relationship and the guy wanted to do something separate from me, I'd feel that he didn't care about me, like he didn't want to spend his time with me. Actually, he was just being himself with his own healthy interests. He was like this before he even met me! It had nothing to do with me personally. So when he would go do something, I tried to think of something I could do for myself that I would not normally do, but would like to. I began to enjoy the time we spent away from each other. Then when we were together, we had a lot more to talk about - the things we did during our time apart. It was a great change in my self-esteem! Thanks!
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One thing that made a difference for me as I let go of some of my less productive belief systems was not to judge the value of those systems... I know that may sound strange, but when I got into a mindset that some belief systems were "bad", I started justifying holding on to them, for all the reasons that they -weren't- bad. When I stopped judging them on a duality matrix, and just accepted that they may have served a purpose but no longer worked for me -now-, letting those worn-out belief systems be replaced naturally by more effective, mutually beneficial systems.
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