The problem with beliefs is they can run - even ruin - your life, In fact, beliefs can become perpetual attachments that hold you in bondage forever. Beliefs shape the way we feel, think, and act. It is important that you accept that some - perhaps most - of your beliefs may be wrong. Your beliefs may have no relationship to reality, according to psychotherapist Bruce Di Marsico,"A belief is assuming something to be true, to be a fact belief is not caused, it is created by choice. A belief about a thing's exists is not the same as its existence," put another way, gravity is not a belief. It's reality even if you can't see it, but saying that gravity is bad for you is a belief.
Beliefs like this one can trip you up in life much more than gravity ever will. When is the last time that you questioned some of your strongest beliefs? Perhaps it is time that you did, If you take a close look at your life, and find that you are unhappy in general, it's time to get rid of some of your most treasured beliefs. Are you in financial trouble? Are you not as successful as the general population? Are you in a bad marriage?
Virtually all the things you have in your life are the direct results of your beliefs, such to our detriment, failure to question our beliefs results in our adopting many false ones, it is easy to fall for false beliefs common in society. Good humpies are not hard to find, do you believe reading in the dark or poor light will hurt your eyes? Guess what? There is no evidence to support this, the American Academy of Ophthalmology states: "Reading in dim light can no more harm your eyes than taking a photograph in dim light can harm the camera.
"Do you believe that it is dangerous swimming right after you eat a large meal? Here again, there is no evidence to support this. Although the Red Cross published a brochure over fifty years ago warning of the danger associated with eating just before swimming, today's Red Cross brochure says it isn't dangerous to swim after eating. No wonder Josh Billings wisely proclaimed, "The trouble with most folks aren't so much their ignorance as knowing so many things that aren’t so".
We hang onto beliefs simply because they appear reasonable. Yet a lot of what was reasonable a century or two ago is deemed unreasonable - even insane - today. Throughout history there have been many cases of popular beliefs that later proved to be preposterous. All of humankind, for instance, at one time believed the world was flat. But Christopher Columbus proved otherwise. It follow that a lot of popular beliefs today will be proven totally wrong and ridiculous and grossly insane - fifty or a hundred years from now.
Modern philosophers and researchers specializing in the study of the human mind claim that we are a long way from understanding how we think. Historian James Harvey Robinson claims, "Most of our so called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do". Clearly, our thinking is not as advanced as we would like to believe. No doubt humans living several centuries from now will look at many of our present popular beliefs and ways of reasoning as organized and collective nonsense.
In short, it's okay to have beliefs - but it is not all that wise to hang on to unworkable ones. Unless you constantly challenge your beliefs, you may not be aware that your beliefs have no relationship to reality. Getting stuck in your beliefs can be detrimental to your physical and mental health. Viewed in this way, belief is a disease. Like any health problem, you must eliminate the cause. This means diagnosing your most treasured beliefs and discarding the ones that aren't contributing to a healthy and successful you.
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