To Create the Future You Want, You Must Cultivate Beliefs That Take You There
A coach I was working with to transform my mindset once told me that I was struggling to create the reality I wanted because my job was literally to focus on everything that was wrong in the world. Climate change. Poverty. Inequality.
Over the past few years I’ve really taken in what she told me. Contemplated what it means to focus on what I don’t want. Realized that the more I do that, the more I get more of what I don’t want. I have gathered enough empirical evidence to back it up. But I also feel that there is so much more to creating my reality than what I initially thought when I started to realize who I truly am.
What we focus on persists
Our brains are exposed to over 11 million bits of information each second. But our conscious minds can only process 40 to 50 bits of that information each second. What we see in our reality is determined and shaped by our beliefs about how the world works.
If we believe that inequality persists, then it will continue to do so. If we believe that there is no solution to climate change, then that’s what we’ll find. If we believe the world is doomed and as a planet we are on the way to hell in a hand basket — well, that’s what will happen.
The reason why this is so is because our reticular activating systems are programmed to reinforce our beliefs about the world. If you want to know more about the RAS this article by
is an excellent resource and provides some great tips for nourishing our RAS to help us achieve our goals and usher in the world we want faster.
“Your thoughts are incredibly powerful. Choose yours wisely.”
— Joe Dispenza —
Meditation, mindfulness and a daily gratitude practice are all a part of that regimen. The overall framework is focusing on the good.
unpacks the reason why these practices help re-wire our brains in his many books. I recommend reading them all.
Upgrading our belief systems to usher in a new reality
These are all important practices and help us spend more time in the now, which essential if we want to get to know who we truly are. But we can also usher in the reality we want a whole lot faster if we upgrade our beliefs about . . . . everything.
I have a morning soul hour after I get home from the gym and finish meditating. I used to read a read a few articles and then write for a little bit before starting my work day.
Now I read just one article — daily inspiration provided by Story Waters / The Gnostic Writer — and I come back to that one article throughout the day and often again in the days that follow because there is so much to unpack.
In yesterday’s article, Reality is a pretense — beliefs are reality, Waters writes about how beliefs shape the reality that we see unfolding before us:
We have created this reality to be our constant teacher through the way in which it shows us what we believe through the experience of self that results from those beliefs.
The beliefs which underpin our experiences as humans do not have to be either rational or magical, they can be both rational and magical. Embracing both helps us live a fuller life according to Waters:
Whether you view the world through a magical or rational lens will alter your experience of reality. Meaning, the beliefs that you were aligning with will alter your experience of reality. Rational thinking is an incredibly powerful tool for understanding and refining. Magical thinking is an incredibly powerful tool for creating new tools of understanding / perception.
We are not separate from each other. We experience ourselves as separate because that’s what we have come to believe as our human selves. Waters argues that the idea that we are separate stems from a belief. In our human forms we live our these beliefs as selves that appear separate. But as Waters writes:
if you alter what you believe yourself, the planet, or humanity to be, you will alter the reality you are living within. This is how creation through belief works.
When we understand that our realities are simply a reflection of our beliefs we can see anything we might call negative in our reality as a reflection of that which needs to be healed within ourselves. And as such, our experience of these so-called negative events is transformed. Eventually we no longer see them as negative, but rather as opportunities for growth.
Our hearts will light the path to the reality we seek
Our hearts, which know themselves as infinite and both magical and rational, will tell us if we have cultivated and assumed beliefs that are right for our path. In the process as Waters tells us, we will come to know ourselves better and understand how personal our paths are.
“Just keep coming home to yourself. You are the one who you’ve been waiting for.”
— Byron Katie —
I’ll still be reflecting on these profound insights throughout the course of the day and in the many days and weeks to come. But this idea that I have to re-program my subconscious to belief this or that doesn’t resonate with me as much anymore. Isn’t that in itself a limiting belief?
If we are universal consciousness experiencing being human, aren’t we infinite? And magical? As well as being rational (whatever that might mean)?
So if I decide that something is true for me, then it is. Nothing more. Nothing less.
I know there is a lot more to understand than this. And eventually I will see more and more depth. But this is where I’m at today on the journey to creating the future I want. And I’m practicing this in both my personal and professional life by developing beliefs that light the path towards the world I want to live in.
