What you believe will become your reality.
On May 6th, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first human to break the four-minute mile (Taylor, 2018). In this article it stated, “The runners of the past had been held back by a mindset that said they could not surpass the four-minute mile. When that limit was broken, the others saw that they could do something they had previously thought impossible.”
In my research around the topic of personal beliefs and the effects they can have on your mental health, I was reminded of the book titled “Mind Hacking Happiness” (Webb, 2017). Webb writes about how we can intentionally “hack” our minds to work for us through a combination of mindfulness practices and building an awareness of the source of our thoughts. The outcome of this practice is to build mind mastery and commanding our minds to focus on a specific task to obtain the outcomes we desire. Another perspective is to consider is, how do we view our Self and how do we believe it uniquely defines us.
In western society, we are not taught about mind mastery, we are left with the belief that we are at the mercy of our thoughts. If left “un-supervised” our minds will shift into utilizing what is known as the Default Mode Network (DMN). This DMN is a large-scale brain network that is active when we are not focused on the external world and the brain is at wakeful rest (Raichle, 2015).
Abnormal functioning of the DMN has been linked to several mental illnesses, including depression, anxiety, and schizophrenia (Broyd et al., 2009). You may want to consider that the more effort you put into self-mind mastery, the more your beliefs will come into alignment with what you desire. Your intentional focus on your desires will put your mind to work solving the “problem” of bringing to you the exact scenario or feeling you want.
The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is a part of the brainstem that plays a crucial role in regulating our consciousness and attention. It acts as a filter that screens out unnecessary information from our environment and allows us to focus on what is relevant or important to us (Eagleman, 2021).
In this sense, the RAS can be related to human beliefs and truths because it helps to shape our perception of reality by filtering out information that is not consistent with our beliefs or expectations. For example, if we believe that something is true or important, our RAS will be more likely to pay attention to information that supports that belief, while filtering out information that contradicts it (Dobelli, 2013).
This phenomenon is known as confirmation bias, and it can have a significant impact on our beliefs and perceptions of reality. By filtering out information that contradicts our beliefs, the RAS can reinforce our existing beliefs and make us less likely to consider alternative perspectives or challenge our assumptions (Nickerson, 1998).
In order to fully realize our personal potential and to be free of our minds running amok, causing a huge amount of emotional upheaval, we need to separate ourselves from our beliefs. One way to do this is to pay attention to the things that trigger you or make you feel a “negative” emotion such as anger, frustration, fear, etc. Once you have an awareness of these moments, you can start to ask yourself questions like, “What is the belief I have connected to this feeling?”
An example of a belief becoming a truth, or a fact can be found in someone’s preference or aversion to a food. I personally do not like the taste of olives and in the years when my sons were very young, they witnessed me talking about how I didn’t like olives and didn’t want them on my pizza or in a salad. I noticed that they suddenly didn’t like olives anymore. This wasn’t based on their own experience, but rather on believing that olives were not good to eat based on what I preferred. To this day, neither of them will eat olives.
The “trigger” in this case is someone having a negative feeling or even disgust when presented with olives. To examine this, you could ask, “Why don’t I like olives?” This could lead to you thinking, “Well I never have.” Which could lead to the question, “When did I know I didn’t like olives?” And, this could lead to, “Well my dad didn’t like olives, so I decided not to like them.”
The practice of being curious about our beliefs will oftentimes lead to answers we may have not expected. And these answers may lead you to trying olives for yourself to really know for sure.
When you have a strong belief about something, this sets in motion a whole host of activity in the mind, which will have a direct impact on how you feel about it and what it means to you. By mastering your mind through curiosity, you will start to Know Thyself at a whole new level which will bring more peace and contentment into your life.
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Citations:
Webb, S. (2017), Mind Hacking Happiness – Volume I, CCRSM Press
Raichle, M. E. (2015). The restless brain. Oxford University Press.
Broyd, S. J., Demeurisse, G., Savulescu, C., & Yücel, M. (2009). Default mode network connectivity, functional connectivity, and schizophrenia: A review. Schizophrenia Research, 115(2-3), 1-14.
Dobelli, R. (2013). The Art of Thinking Clearly. Sceptre.
Eagleman, D. (2021). The Brain: The Story of You. The Penguin Press.
Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many Guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175-220.
Exploring the Neuroscience and Magic Behind Setting Your Intent – And Creating an Optimal Future for Yourself by Kris Hallbom and Tim Hallbom – August 10, 2012 https://nlpca.com/creating-an-optimal-future-for-yourself/
What Breaking the 4-Minute Mile Taught Us About the Limits of Conventional Thinking by Bill Taylor - March 09, 2018 – Harvard Business Review