Bringing Beliefs into Being

"The flapping of a butterfly's wings in one corner of the world could cause a hurricane in the other corner"

This quote that eloquently describes The Butterfly Effect speaks of seemingly insignificant events adding up to create a major change in the world. Wouldn't the same be true of our minds and the worlds it holds within it?

The Christopher Nolan Sci-fi flick Inception explores this idea through dream hacking. They use a person's dream to hack into his subconscious mind and not just extract information but also put ideas into the person's mind. The key elements that came through the idea of Inception are:

a) The change of an idea must be very simple yet highly layered which touches one's thoughts, feelings and beliefs and

b) The new idea must be introduced without the person being conscious of its introduction but the person must be able to sense its impact.

If you look through all the gizmos and gadgetry involved in movie, the thought that a simple idea could change the way we live is extremely powerful. In a world that is filled with many promises of the behaviour alteration programs and confidence camps but perhaps none with a high impact this holds great potential.

Let us explore this through a case study. Till about the age 24 the longest running challenge I had in my life was being underweight. I had spent the entirety of my childhood and teenage struggling to gain weight to no avail. My parents and loved ones also invested significant amount of time coming up with ways and means to help me bulk up but it did not work. And then there came a major change in my life: I moved out of my home to live in Mysore and then Pune. Within about 6months I went from 65kgs to 56kgs and boomeranged back 65kgs. Within a year I was touching 70kgs and within 1.5yrs I was 75kgs!

So what happened? Comparing the 2 states I was in the key differences you can see are:

a) My appetite which was minimal earlier was first lost and then regained with a new found vigour and

b) The fear of change and others' expectations which perhaps gripped me before was replaced with possibilities and independence.

The core belief that drove both these differences perhaps was:

I cannot survive the world on my own!

But then I reached a corner where I had to work in a city away from home and stay by myself. I had to take care of my own health and realized that the world has better things to do than to judge me. And so in a matter of a few months I started eating well and put on an astonishing 17kgs!

All that changed was my belief: I can survive in the world on my own! In fact the new belief helped me become more independent in other areas of my life as well.

Now think about the last time you were in a similar situation: maybe it was a weight issue or an employee motivation issue or a relationship issue or a business challenge or an academic challenge or something entirely different. How many tips and tricks have others given you? How many of them have you tried? And how many times have they worked? And how long have they worked? And how effective have they been? All of us are entrapped by the world's promises that it can solve our problems when the answer to the problems was inside us all along; in our beliefs, feelings and thoughts.

So how do we bring new beliefs into our lives? We can take a cue from an aspect of our life most commonly associated with belief: religion and religious acts. So how do we become part of the religion that we are currently part of (even atheism is a religion in that sense since they too have their own practices an ideologies!)?

a) With simple statements/dogmas at the core of one's everyday living,

b) Reiteration of those dogmas in thoughts, words and deeds,

c) Positive reinforcement of those dogmas through the celebration of every instance it is met.

d) Building an ecosystem around you that would nurture those dogmas deeper into your life.

But the step before the first step is to know you need to take a step. As someone who is working daily to help people realize their potential I have realized that you can never help those who think they don't need help. So start with one area, from one corner, from on thing that you wish to transform and reach to the core belief that is driving it. Who knows, it may change your life completely!

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