Our beliefs have been shaped by numerous forces, including our family, religion, teachers, personal experience and society at large to name a few. Unfortunately, for many of us, we were not instilled with the most empowering, positive ones. What we do not realize is the role our beliefs have in shaping our reality. This causes us to hold onto beliefs that do not serve us, that make us unhappy,...

Our beliefs have been shaped by numerous forces, including our family, religion, teachers, personal experience and society at large to name a few. Unfortunately, for many of us, we were not instilled with the most empowering, positive ones. What we do not realize is the role our beliefs have in shaping our reality. This causes us to hold onto beliefs that do not serve us, that make us unhappy, that dissipate the awesome personal power we have in shaping our lives. You can live your life in any way you want and create whatever experiences you want, you just have to believe you can. It is one of those simple but not easy things.

You look at your own life and that of people around you and you have no trouble gathering ‘’proof’’ that supports everything you believe to be true about life and the nature of reality. But, these things are occurring in large part, because of the beliefs we hold. The beliefs are influencing the outcome in reality. Reality does not influence the belief. Whatever we believe will be true for us.

This sort of thinking is often dismissed as silly, naïve or even outright stupid. If you are one of those people who react in this manner, I ask you to keep an open mind. Really think about the things in your life that are not going so great. What beliefs are you holding in these areas? If they are negative ones, I ask you to entertain for just one second, that maybe it is your beliefs that influenced the coming about of these situations. What do you believe about love, money, success, happiness?

One of the things that really hit home for me with this whole ‘’whatever you believe will be true for you’’ thing is observing different people’s lives and their corresponding belief systems. Look at some of the most successful, happy people in the world – what beliefs do they hold about what is possible and the nature of our existence? They are pretty positive, good ones are they not? Look at the average person and the beliefs they hold – they are pretty negative and limiting are they not? Looking at things in this light, it is pretty glaringly obvious that our beliefs are the determining factor in how we conduct our lives. Do you think the positive people have good beliefs because their lives have always been completely perfect and they never had any reason to be negative? Of course not, they developed a very specific set of beliefs that served them well and some of these people overcame circumstances where it would have been very easy to be negative and bitter about life.

Beliefs are just things you tell yourself over and over again. Start telling yourself a different story and your life will change. If your beliefs are negative now, you can change them to positive ones, it is all a matter of the mind, where everything is plastic and moldable. If you have beliefs that are no longer serving you, put some new ones in their place.

Kelli Cooper is a freelance writer who runs the personal development blog Life Made to Order. She is also the author of Passing on Parenthood: A Childfree Woman Speaks Out. She has a passion for personal development and sharing what she has learned in her own journey to help others improve their lives as well.