Beliefs: Our beliefs control our action

I am not talking about religion here but the way we view ourselves and that around us. These are things we believe are true. We believe them and react to them as true. We do not consider if we want to believe or if it can be changed. It just is.

• Our beliefs do not come out of thin air.
  

From birth, the important people in our lives treat us a certain way. They not only teach us how to walk and talk but also how to think and act.

Child “A” is brought up by hardworking, loving parents that encourage them. They teach “A” that they are a worthwhile, lovable person that can be and do whatever they set their mind to.

• What does child “A” grow up to believe?
• What type of adult do they become?

Meanwhile child “Z” is brought up by lazy, inattentive parents. They have little enthusiasm for anything. They shout a lot and make scathing remarks about “Z”s behaviour and abilities.

• What does child “Z” grow up to believe?
• What sort of adult will they become?

These are not the only examples I could use and there are obviously a huge range of possibilities of how parents and significant people act towards us as children and the affect of that upon our behaviour and beliefs we hold as adults.

• Imagine for a moment you believe you are ugly or unlikeable.
  • How does that make you act toward others ?
  • When you act like that, how do others react towards your behaviour ?

Fears

We all have them – fears, concerns, worries, anxieties and phobias. It is that negative thought pattern that runs around our head that says, ”I’m scared that this is going to happen”.

Q: Where do these fears come from ?
A: Past experiences.

You wouldn’t be scared of spiders unless something had happened to you in the past that made you scared of spiders. They are tiny insignificant creatures compared to us. They have far more reason to be scared of us. Logically you may know your safe. Illogically your mind reminds you of a time and place where a spider was a terrifying thing. Our mind may even forget the experience and just link a thing (in this case spiders) with an emotion (fear).

Your mind makes these types of connections between a past experience and an emotion all the time but here we are talking of fear.

• When you are scared how do you act ?

Most of us would have heard of the fight or flight syndrome. When the body feels under threat it makes adrenalin. We use it to either stand and fight or run away. What we choose to do comes from what we believe the best choice of action is for us

This choice of course comes from our belief system, which comes from past experiences.

Biology: Your body reacts to what it believes is real

A thought creates an emotion be it fear, anger, sadness, happiness etc.. This induces a chemical reaction within our body.

The hypothalamus is a small part of the brain that has many uses. It maintains the body’s homeostasis or balance. It controls the heartbeat, appetite, thirst and body clock.

The part we are concerned with here is the affect it has on our endocrine system –these are the ductless glands that controls our hormone production. This is how it helps to govern our emotional behaviour.

Neuro peptides (the building blocks of hormones are produced in the hypothalamus which are released into the bloodstream through the pituitary gland which sits just below the hypothalamus. The peptides are sent to the ductless glands of the endocrine system that transforms them into hormones.

The hormones we make affect how we behave in a given situation. The stronger or the more often the emotion is felt the more of the same peptides are released and therefore, more of the same hormones are made leading to a limited pattern of behaviour.

The brain connects thoughts with feelings and maintains a cycle of behaviour.