Rapid fire, "Do You Believe?"

Yes, I have been thinking out loud lately so I figured, what the heck, I will write it down.

Belief Don't leave home without it!

Where does it come from, and more importantly, where does it hide when it goes away?

There are a lot of reasons for belief and even more things to believe in. We can believe in Santa or Faeries, or Unicorns. There are reasons to believe in just about anything, especially things we cannot see or touch. If something is important enough to us we put it into our belief system. Sometimes it is a thing we cannot explain. We are sure it exists but we do not know how, or sometimes even what it is. Still we believe in it.

Then there are the things we want to believe in. These are the things that we tend to think are too good to be true so we want proof they are real before, we can truly believe. Among the most common of these is believing in oneself. The path we have chosen or perhaps the ability to do something that we are skeptical about. Take something like communicating with animals, or ancestors. We want to believe it is real so we conceive it is real, but our logical minds tell us that it is not possible. This comes from our conditioning toward any given belief. If we are told over and over throughout our lives that it cannot be so, that subconsciously becomes a part of our belief system also.

This leads us to denial or dis-belief. It does not have to be something we have been brought up to exclude from our belief system, it can instead be brought on by a series of events that prove to us, a reasonable doubt. Even things that have become solidly planted within our belief structure can become questionable. Our belief or "faith: can be shaken by something we had not considered before. When a counter fact is introduced, and cannot be denied easily, we fall into disbelief. Disillusion can be a real struggle when attempting to weigh our beliefs against a counter logic.

So what is belief? Belief is the perception that something is, period. It is not always a good belief though and sometimes this plays an even greater role in our system. If we believe something we cannot see or touch is bad and can hurt us or give us bad luck it can influence our decisions even more easily. This is known as superstition. When this factor comes into play we are very easily swayed from attaining a goal, hence, superstition is anti-belief.

It is important to believe in certain things in order to maintain a healthy and positive attitude toward life. If there is one thing that you must believe in it is the self. If there is no self confidence and self assurance then a person cannot advance toward a goal. It doesn't take a lot either to make a great difference. This is the only part of the system that can remain in the gray area and still function with any reasonable benefits. As long as we believe we are doing alright, there is always room for progress. Just that minimal belief can be enough to sustain the flame within and point us toward a greater light.

My candle is still burning, how about yours?
TBC 2008