How exactly do you examine your beliefs, what does examining beliefs entail?

I often find myself wondering if I am examining my beliefs properly or when i become aware of a limiting belief I’m unsure of what the next step is, so I ask my fellow sethites, what does examining your beliefs actually involve, what do you actually do? Are there many different methods and processes to examine your beliefs? Is there a right and wrong way to do it? What methods does Seth himself suggest and do you have any self developed ways of examining them?

I have read personal reality but I don’t recall or can’t remember where Seth has gone into specific detail as to what belief examination involves.

Any and all responses would be greatly appreciated.

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You probably won’t like this answer, but you can’t escape it. Only YOU can know if these examinations are your beliefs or not. I used to ask the same questions and found that MY issue was one of trust. Trust of the results of my query. It became easier for ME when I finally let it be easier. Tell you what. This is one method I employ. Pick any topic in your life. Your body, let’s say. Now open up the word processor or pen and paper and start having a conversation with yourself. “My legs have been sore lately and after work I get so stiff, I sometimes wonder if I should get a different job that isn’t so hard on me…” Where ever your conversation goes, let it go. It may be awkward at first but that can change. Go back to the writing at a later time and examine its contents. You’ll be amazed at how many of your beliefs are right there and not hidden at all.

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Thank you for your reply Jimmie, I found it very helpful and will try this method of becoming aware of my beliefs. However, and I don’t mean to sound rude but it didn’t really answer my question. Maybe I have worded my question wrong but I wasn’t asking how to find my beliefs but rather what exactly to do when I find them, the obvious answer is to examine them and so my question was what does that examination actually involve? Or is the examination the finding of the beliefs? I am probably over thinking this haha

Thanks again!

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Yes it would great if someone could answer this as I always ask myself the same questions! Like is it just a matter of noticing that ‘wow, okay so that belief has been a contribution In creating that event all this time’, along with the feeling of relief (that’s my experience if it anyway). Is that process a way of dropping a belief or is it something else entirely? Like is noticing and recognising how the belief has been creating your life enough to diminish it?

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Beliefs in effect are just habits of thought on a subject, circumstance or a person. They are individual and always your own. They maybe similar to other peoples, but they are your perspective and therefore valid…TO YOU.
The trick is noticing how you FEEL about your beliefs. Beliefs are facts you assign to your world and therefore an IS or a FACT…
If what you think about gives you an emotion, either better or worse it is the indicator that you moving toward something you want or not. If you have no emotion to a thought, it is a fact or something you take for granted. There is no right or wrong.
By noticing you are acknowledging WHERE you are regarding a thing or circumstance and if you want to change it, think differently about it.
Once you do this after a few times of recognizing a belief, it literally disappears as it is now a non issue for you.
The emotion is just the alert from framework two, to the intellect.
For example, I really don’t like brusselsprouts (I used to believe they are a form of child abuse!),Others love them. I recently ate some whilst out for a meal as a guest and I really hated they were on my plate. As I did not want to seem ungrateful I had one. And guess what. It was nicer than I BELIEVED it would be.
My thoughts toward them no longer applied, at least this time. And because of that experience I no longer fear brussel sprouts.
I know this seems extremely glib, but it is how its been for me on many, many occasions.
As Jane says we all have prejudice perceptions and your emotions tell you if something is of value or not.

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Okay I think I understand now. I must say, you explained that very well!

Thanks a lot Chris.

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Excellent!!! You did explain that well, as always :slight_smile:

Thanks Chris!!

The way I think about “beliefs” is that they are emotional root assumptions. This is distinct from concious thoughts we hold in our head which are more so opinions rather than “beliefs” in the context of Seth writings.

Uncovering emotional beliefs can be challenging especially on your own, a good Bodynamic or ISTDP therapist is most advantageous here. Most of our strongest held emotional beliefs are formed pre-verbally in early childhood. There are patterns to these which I have wrote about extensively on my website that take the form of character structures.

Many other beliefs take on the form of “defenses” against core emotions cutting us off from inner knowledge and our inner self. Here I have found the ISDTP system to be extremely effective at uncovering them and subsequently changing them. The book Co-creating Change is also really helpful in this regard.

Beliefs are a way of managing emotional energy. They have to do with what we believe is necessary to remain in contact with other humans and subsequently ourselves. Our external relationships mirror the relationship with our inner self. It’s how we structure this relationship on an emotional connective level that is the nature of our beliefs. In modern somatic psychology this is know as “attunement”. How well can we tune in to our inner self, will determine how well we can tune into others. Beliefs and how to work with them take the form of relational and energy management skills that need to be learned.

Without having read the other responses, here is my reply.

Beliefs are those thoughts and feelings we have every day. There is nothing, bar the thought - I am creating this - and a few other ‘rules’ which are not beliefs.

If something ‘bad’ happens, the idea is to not see it as a result of you, as a person, but the result of a belief. In other words - its not ‘true’ - its not ‘you’ - its a belief you entertain which is attracting people and events which you then unthinkingly, identify yourself with…

My way of handling this is just as the above. This is what I tell myself, even when the fire and storms are over, because its not good to repress any feelings - I return to the fact that it is a belief which has ‘caused’ it …

A belief can be, and is, something as small as responding to a weather report - its going to be hot tomorrow and you don’t do so well in heat - so you think ‘ooh, noo’ and immediately set your self up for a lousy day in advance. Much better to calm yourself and think - it may be hot, but I feel cool and comfortable. This will allow your body to produce the needed chemicals which will keep you cool and comfortable, instead of suffering and miserable…

It is so simple, and it takes years anyway - unless it doesn’t - because - EVERYTHING - including how long you believe it is going to take to change your beliefs for the better - is a belief…

Have fun, and don’t worry … just remember. What is a belief? Everything you think and feel… :-))

No need to dig endlessly…if you are confused about it, just write down your thoughts on occasion and look at them. These are your beliefs…

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You explained that exceptionally well Rachel, thanks a heap for your help!! I got so much out of your post just now that will help me apply this to my life.

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Thank you, Sam :relaxed: Bless you for caring enough about yourself to give it a shot. beliefs are just that - creative geniuses, which govern every moment of our days and nights…

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May I suggest reading the post about F1 /F2 that I posted in both Fans of Seth and SNA. The idea that one belief is as good as another is touched on there, and that frame of mind is also a great help when working with beliefs.

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here’s my two pennies, introspection opens into such a broad spectrum of memories, that looking for the root of beliefs can be a challenging task. Beliefs are an amalgamation of “quantum data”, ranging from first hand experiences to genetic memories, beliefs are further shaped by your culture. so pinpointing the exact source of a belief is near impossible from our (3D+linear time) perspective. there are way and means to dig into portion of ourselves than we usually are not aware, and find some information/memories there that might give some clues on the subject, keeping in mind that everything is open to interpretation. and informations from other realms have to be translated to our means of communication and understanding, sometimes missing elements of the original…
The way i see it is to start small, using a couple of simple and effective methods. I’d like, at this stage to clarify something: the statement “You create your own reality”, it’s not something you need to learn to do, it’s simply a fact. so by observing your immediate environment, you are simply observing your beliefs. some beliefs are wide spread, therefor more or less accepted as fact, such as, “the sun will rise tomorrow morning”,“my eyes see”,“dogs bark” ect…, those can at this stage, pushed to the side. then there’s more personal beliefs; that’s where the fun starts. to figure out your personal beliefs, listen to yourself think or talk, and catch yourself when you use the words “always” and “never”, you will quickly realize what you believe, like “men are always like that”, “Pasta never tastes good”, “he’s always angry”. etc… now if there is a belief you question, then ask yourself “Why am I making this assumption” , sometimes it will be blatant or immediate, sometimes you might have to dig a little. it’s a simple method but the words we choose spontaneously, speak our mind more than those we consider. listen to your own statements or expression, and the words you choose, they will tell you a lot about your beliefs :slight_smile:

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Hey Rachel, is there a link to these posts? I can’t find them.
Thank you :smile:

I just tagged you in the one on Fans of Seth, Sam . enjoy, :-)))

Frequently.

That’s actually a different Chris, not me. :smiley:

This may or may not be true, Seth may have said “many” at some point but I do not believe he ever said “most”. However (for the others in this thread) it isn’t of importance either way, as the beliefs exist in the present and are easily changed in the present, the date of their formation is really quite irrelevant. It could be helpful to know why you adopted the belief at that time, but what truly matters is why you hold the belief now. In many cases the answer may be, “well, I believed it at one time when it made sense, and I frankly never questioned it since”, and now, having re-discovered it, you realize there is no good reason to hold it, i.e. it no longer makes sense, and so it is discarded.

In a certain context of study these statements are true, and the system and belief may indeed be quite helpful. Beliefs will quite often have both emotion and imagination (i.e. particular mental pictures) attached with them. However, back to Seth’s teaching: belief generates emotion, belief generates thought, and belief activates imagination. Belief is primary, not emotion. We have emotion, we have thoughts, and we have belief, but we are none of the above. Not identifying with our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions is of utmost importance. Realizing that emotion and thought are the effects and not the causes of belief is highly important. We can use both emotion and imagination in a deliberate conscious manner to alter belief, and that is often how it is done. Without this deliberate conscious action on our part however, they are driven by our belief. Which is why it’s quite helpful to look toward our emotions and thoughts on various subjects to somewhat easily identify our beliefs, and then work at changing them.

Yes exactly.

Yes!

It’s true that precisely when the belief was adopted may be long forgotten (or it could have come from a complex of pre-existing beliefs). I just want to reiterate for readers that this is not important, as the belief exists and is freely examinable in the present. Do not go looking for the source of a problem in the past, this is not helpful, and is instead quite disadvantageous. What matters, the only thing that ever matters, is why you believe it in the present. :wink: And this is available!

This is good advice.

Cheers all.

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@Christopher I thought it started with thoughts, then beliefs then emotion? Of course it becomes like a feedback loop once you get into it, with the beliefs and emotions generating thoughts that generates emotions which causes you to think thoughts etc.

Someone posted in FANS one of Seth’s quotes where he goes further and says that expectation is key to any manifestation and that without it nothing gets done. I think the 5 minute exercise in NOPR is designed to help you generate expectation.

Nope, beliefs. The way I conceptualize it, is that “by default” everything is belief → thought/emotion/imagination. You can deliberately, willfully think thoughts and generate emotion and imagine things to create something that you have conflicting beliefs about, but it will be really difficult, and seem like a chore all the time. You’ll be fighting it. An upstream battle. But if you change the belief the thoughts and emotions will flow naturally. Yes thought and emotion and imagination creates reality, but belief creates those… basically.

I could quote many passages from the beginning of NoPR but it’s about bed time for me!

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I agree with Chris, this is also how I interpret the material.

So do you mean don’t sit there and focus your attention on the past, looking for events that took place, that may or may not have been where you first developed the beliefs? But is it okay to in the moment have the spontaneous insight that ‘wow okay so I believed that in the past because of…but this belief is disadvantageous and I will now change it otherwise it will keep creating this particular reality’ (I realise I’m half repeating what you already said but I’m just trying to clarify it now in my own words).