The Importance of Changing Your Mind

I believe changing your mind is an important part of being human. In fact, I encourage you to change your mind, often and in unexpected ways in order to increase your happiness and expand your ability to enjoy your life.

When we are young, we create beliefs about our world and our selves. We believe that things are true. That certain ways are right, and others are wrong.

Thinking in black and white terms was important to allow us to feel safe as a child.  It helped us make sense of our world and those around us.  It allowed us to connect with our familial tribe and those we choose as friends.  We naturally continue to hold to these beliefs unless something changes - internally or externally. 

No one ever told us changing our core beliefs was normal so for some of us, changing our mind seems a foreign concept.  As we get older, many of us hold to old ways of thinking because it's easier, feels familiar and we don't know what we would think if we changed our mind. 

We think once we have made up our mind that something is true - especially a core value concept - we shouldn't change it.  That is a self-limiting concept.

Being that this is life and it's constantly changing, at some point, we need to re-examine things and formulate new ideas and beliefs when the old one's no longer serve us.  This can feel like an internal struggle for many of us, especially if the belief was based on a core structure of our familial tribe.

This lack of flexibility isn't healthy on many levels.

Inflexible thinking causes us to feel strong at times, yet it limits our ability to experience new things and blocks our beliefs about what is possible.  It also starts to limit our physiological responsiveness by creating a physical tightness.  As we think so we are on a physical level.

For example, think about something you feel strongly about.  Notice how your body feels, it may feel like it gets tight, upright and powerful.  It may also feel angry, sad or something else entirely.

Now think about something you don't feel strongly about, notice that there may be a very different physical response. 

So a question may be, but if I don't have clear beliefs, who am I?

I wonder if sometimes we misunderstand our beliefs are not the definition of our being.  Just because I believe in something, while it may define some constructs of my behaviors, it doesn't define the inner being that I choose to be or who I am at a soul level. 

Beliefs should align with who we are and who we are becoming, and if they hinder our path, we should regroup and examine what is occurring.  We shouldn't follow our beliefs and become enslaved by them, our beliefs should follow who we choose to be, we are in control.  When we are aligned with our internal belief systems and choosing our lives intentionally on a strong foundation, we feel alive, free, emotionally strong and joyful.

If you wish to explore this mind body relationship further, you may be interested in an NLP, Scion method or Empowered Self course.

Practicing Flexible Thinking

I believe flexibility of thinking can be learned and by becoming more flexible, we naturally find our world opening to possibilities and find ourselves feeling happier, more open and more available to take advantage of new opportunities.

One way to begin to examine your belief system is to choose something you are passionate about, something you feel you truly believe in.  Then make an argument for each side of the belief and allow yourself to argue BOTH sides. 

You might try this with a friend and see which side they believe.

See how it feels to do so and notice if anything changes in your belief system.

Let me know how it goes:)

Blessings,

Jenifer

To learn how to become more flexible in your thinking, you may consider our upcoming courses - The Empowered Self and Introduction to Homeopathy.