We form beliefs about ourselves, others and the world around us based on our experiences and what others tell us. Some of our beliefs we may have held our entire lives, taught by our parents, whilst others are learned all the time through new experiences or meeting new people. The key to understanding why we form beliefs is to understand the benefits they provide to the brain. 

 

The brain is responsible for scanning and filtering literally millions of items of sensory information every second. Some of the information is crucially important to us, and some of it is utterly irrelevant. In order to avoid being swamped by all of this incoming information the brain takes cognitive shortcuts, it filters the information through a set of beliefs, psychologists call these schema. A schema is basically a framework for understanding the world. Everyone uses schema and everyone’s schema are unique to them. This schema tells you what the sensory information your brain is receiving means and is developed by your experiences and what you have learned or been told. It enables you to automatically respond to situations or threats without needing to carefully evaluate every tiny piece of evidence and make a rational decision. 

 

For example, you may have a schema that tigers are dangerous and want to eat you. If you met a tiger you’d want to get out of the way rather than wondering if this really was a tiger, whether it looked hungry, whether it looked dangerous etc. Your schema would enable you to take the important information from a situation and respond quickly and appropriately. 

 

Beliefs are much the same, they are built around our interpretation of events and patterns we believe we have seen. They enable us to make sense of the world and identify what is important and what isn’t without having to critically evaluate all of the information available in every situation. This is great when your beliefs serve our needs but not so helpful when they are leading to undesirable. 

Our beliefs, whether we are aware of them or not, are a very strong driver of how we live our lives. Our interpretations of events and our decisions are both strongly influenced by our beliefs. Let’s take a look at how some beliefs about money may manifest in our lives: 

If your beliefs about money are preventing you from living the life you want to then you need to change them. This can be tricky since beliefs are often subconscious and tenaciously held. The key to changing beliefs is in identifying the belief and then critically and rationally evaluating the evidence available to see if they are true. It can sometimes be helpful to discuss your beliefs with a trusted friend who may be able to help you see a different perspective or uncover the root cause of your beliefs. To change your belief you need to proactively look for situations or experiences which don’t fit in with your existing belief. When you have found enough information which contradicts your existing world view you will be able to develop a new more positive set of beliefs. However if what you want is to obtain rapid change therapies such as Analytical Hypnotherapy, Regression Hypnotherapy, EMDR, EFT or NLP can help you to find the roots of your beliefs and achieve your goals.