Discovering the Power of Belief

What do an atheist, a religious fundamentalist, a political activist and a skeptic all have in common? It’s obviously not a particular creed or belief system, but the one thing they do share is belief. In other words, it’s not what they believe, but the fact that they believe. Each of these people believe in something. For one it might be an avenging God, while for another, there might not be a God at all. An activist believes in their cause so much that they might risk jail, whereas a skeptic could argue that the whole political game is rigged so “why bother.”

Belief is fundamentally an acceptance that an idea is true and it is in large part

how our mind processes information. In other words, our capacity to believe is part and parcel of how we exist in this world. For example, without a belief that people generally obey traffic laws, we would not likely ever want to leave our house! Or without a belief in the effectiveness of food labeling, we might never want to eat something that we haven’t grown ourselves.

Those who study human development tell us that beliefs, that is, thoughts that we hold with absolute certainty, are generally developed in two ways. First, beliefs are sequentially formed in our mind…that is, every time that I drop something and it crashes to the ground, this reinforces a belief in the law of gravity. Or when I put my foot on the gas pedal of my car and it moves forward or I take an Aspirin my headache disappears, then my belief in pedal and pill is strengthened.

The other way that we develop beliefs is through the influence of our social systems; family, religious communities, commercial advertising, political influences, etc. When people that we value hold beliefs which are important to them, we often (unconsciously) make them our own. This is, after all, a primary function of parenting...passing on treasured beliefs to the next generation. The growth to maturity is to examine these beliefs and see if they serve us as adults; if so we keep them, if not we should be free to let them go.

We’ve discovered that our beliefs form the matrix of how we live our lives. If our lives our rooted in optimism, then we will generally be positive people. Conversely, if pessimism is our default then life will not be so pleasant.

We also know that there is a direct correlation between belief and physical or emotional well-being. Researchers have seen how people who actively change belief patterns recover from life-threatening illness, physical limitation and emotional disability. Psychologist William James (no relation,) once wrote, “Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.”

My job, as a hypnotherapist is to help you work with your belief systems and bring the powerful and positive change that you desire. Whether you want to quit smoking, lose weight, experience professional success or find love in your life, hypnosis will help you discover the power of belief as you create ones worth holding on to.

So contact me, and let’s get started. My website is davidjameshypnosis.com and from there we can begin your great adventure!