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Beliefs are truly at the heart of subjective technology. They are the leverage for shaping experience. They’re written about a lot and there’s a lot of information out there surrounding concept of beliefs. With all the information, it can get a bit confusing and conflicting… I’ll touch upon what I believe are the important aspects of beliefs in what I hope is a simple yet effective way - what they are and how to find them.

Beliefs in a nutshell

Beliefs are thoughts with less resistance. That’s it - quite simple. It just comes down to this: Resistance to a thought means you have doubt about the accuracy of that thought. Resistance means you don’t accept it and you just don’t believe it. Let me explain…

Think about something you believe. This could be some statement like “the earth is round”. Easy enough. You believe that and it’s an accurate statement. It’s a statement you wouldn’t give a second thought about. Well, that’s a belief. (Some would say that’s because it’s truth, but really it’s a belief.)

Now think of something that you don’t believe like “tigers breathe underwater” and notice the difference. The first statement carries no resistance, it just is, whereas this statement popped up some sort of warning signs in your mind and you don’t believe it. Those warning signs are the resistance. That resistance is the doubt.

There is, of course, a range of beliefs. They come in all different strengths, but it’s easy enough to determine the strength of any individual belief just by measuring the size of that (metaphorical) mental warning sign (resistance). The strongest belief doesn’t have a warning at all (no resistance), a slightly weaker may have a nagging little picket with “most likely” painted across its surface (minor resistance), and something that is only tenuously a belief at best may have some mental version of a Vegas sized flashing neon billboard with the word “beware!” (major resistance).

So a belief is a belief to the extent it does not have resistant counter thoughts. And the strength of a belief is based on the size of the resistant counter thought it attracts.

Subconscious beliefs

The most interesting and important beliefs we have are the ones we may not even know we have. These are things we got a hold of long time ago and through time and repetition they went deep into our subconscious. They are there and they actively shape us, but we just don’t pay attention to them anymore. For example, you could draw a parallel to learning to drive. At first you drove self-consciously, thinking of all the different pedals to push and gears to shift, but after some time and practice (repetition) you didn’t think about it much anymore and could finally chew gum and drive down the highway at the same time…

Some of these subconscious beliefs are necessary for your survival, others are just helpful. Some are empowering while others are misleading. You may find some that are down right nasty. And you probably have a number of beliefs that are just neutral. No matter what, it’s a good idea to bring these into the light of consciousness to inspect them for the current value to you.

Fishing for beliefs

So how do you find these beliefs? One way that I have used successfully is to look for repetitions of thought, specifically in similar situations. The idea is that similar situations will start circulating similar thoughts. If your paying attention to your thoughts during these situations you are likely to catch a belief just swimming in circles in your mind.

For example, many years ago, I found myself getting nervous in front of groups of people. Sometimes even relatively small groups of a few people. In these situations I’d often have negative physical responses like sweating, clammy hands, cold skin, and an instant belly ache. During these situations I noticed a recurrent thought that had little resistance - “If you speak up, they will punish you.” Needless to say, once I recognized that belief, I caught that fishy and chose not to throw it back in… and ever after I didn’t have a problem with groups.

Where did that belief come from? Who knows. Most likely it was picked up somewhere in childhood. Everyone probably has a number of similar uncomfortable beliefs they picked up from siblings, parents, teachers or other adults at a young age. But it really doesn’t matter where it came from, once you spot a negative belief, it’s time to get rid of it.

Become aware of your thoughts - especially in negative situations. What are you thinking? What are you repeating to yourself unquestioningly? Find these beliefs and examine them. Some of them you may find useful and return, but others it may be best to remove.