Understanding the Power of Belief

What is remarkably strong enough to divide and connect people from all walks of life if given the privilege to do so?

Beliefs.

Are these statements imaginable for our society, concerning beliefs?

We are one conviction away from experiencing a global awakening.

One shared belief on a universal scope of respect towards fellow humankind, with no expectations of needing the other to change anything, would instantly change the world.

If so, how is it then, that something that has no substance, no pulse, no blood, or life has so much power that it regulates whether or not we live in harmony with one another?

In this post, I hope to clarify essence of this often reverenced and highly controversial topic, which, can border being an addiction, or a common day prejudicial practice at times, depending on who is speaking about it.

Beliefs are as safe as they can be fatal. Although, they usually can have the impression of being sheepishly innocent, underneath their surface could rest a ravishing wolf, or poisonous cobra.

My purpose in writing this post is straightforward.

I want to stimulate a discussion, based on fundamental details about the feasible ideas adhered to “the stuff” that serves as a basis for personal mindsets, as well as humanities as a whole.

Any belief has the potential to be as powerful as the person holding it, allows it to be. Albeit, I want to prove that they do not have any more or less energy than given.

Like every experience we encounter on this journey, the power lies in the reactions to them. 

Whether it is the most glorious blessing, or a catastrophic generational curse, we manage the beliefs we accept; they do not have control over a person’s abilities to function. Or, do they?

Conditioned to the Power of Others Beliefs

Essentially, personal belief systems are merely conditions of individual’s environments.

Beliefs are metaphorical side effects of where we have lived, those who were there, and what they said, thought, and did, that we took to heart.

Studies show that children pick up a variety of ideas, concepts, and behaviors as early as two years old.  

Regardless of ideas about them, beliefs are not innate behaviors; meaning, at birth, an infant does not automatically conclude that there is or is not a Santa Claus.

That takes some convincing, and since children’s minds are not as facts savvy as adults, they tend to soak up any information they receive as a dry sponge does in a pool of water.

Therefore, it has to be useful to apply on a personal level this question.

How much of what we believe belongs to us, as individuals?

Are we only carrying the ideas, concepts, and traditions of those who came before us out of sense to culture and legacy?

Have we become fearful of exploring that same creative nature that allowed many of those before us to develop and expand upon what they believe?

Or, have we just become comfortably lazy, busying ourselves with other things that are far less significant to consider what we value most and what we do not?

I fail to think that we do not see how the beliefs of the society we live is shaping a far different world around us, much different from the one I believe many of us held in mind, at a much earlier age.

We must remember that we are raising and influencing a future nation — One where we all will have to live.

Therefore, could we advance in being more cognizant to what we are influencing the future into believing about how the world should be moving forward?

Standing Up for New Beliefs and Ideas

Throughout history, humanity has always evolved into a better form of itself.

It might not have been on a global level, but there were always those brave souls that stood up in the face of traditional values and customary discriminatory principles, who supplied reasonable doubts about traditional ideas.

I cannot say that I have always thought about this topic in the way I have grown to see it now.

However, I imagine I am not alone. I am standing with several others, connecting daily with them through various social media platforms, from all over the world.

I urge them to carry on with the good fight. Change does not always happen on a drastic level. It usually happens ever so slowly.

Those who are open to it are usually fighting for it to happen, they learned, at some point, to evolve along with it.

While those who are not as clear to how evolution operates, adapt to change after it has happened.

Standing up for different beliefs and ideas does not mean a person gives up the core values and principles they believe to be true.

To me, it means they have embraced those they reached from their own convictions.

Finally, I close my part of the discussion and leave with each of you, the readers, this final thought.

I am not questioning the views or beliefs of others, neither am I suggesting they alter theirs to match my preferred specifications.

I only want each of us to practice, honor, and continue to push those we follow under a microscope of self-inventory – where we empower ourselves by contemplating with deep reflection, on whether are not we are giving beliefs their power, why they hold such power, or have we lost the battle over them being more in control of us than we are over them.

Over to You –

Do you believe in the power of belief? Did you ever feel conditioned to others’ beliefs? Do you think the power of beliefs can help bring about change? Share your thoughts below.

 

Photo Credit:  AlicePopkorn,  StandUPP