Are Your Beliefs Secretly Sabotaging Your Spiritual Evolution?

HJ: Beliefs tend to operate subconsciously until we become aware of them.  They are like the laws of physics — always in effect and yet we don’t really notice them unless we make a concerted effort to do so.  Our beliefs literally define our perception of reality and act as filters for the vast amount of incoming information our minds receive every second of every day.  Furthermore, they largely control our thoughts which are the primary factor influencing what the law of attraction brings to us.  In this way, beliefs shape our reality and allow us to only experience (rather, perceive) those things which fall within their framework.   Therefore, we tend to ignore or exclude all the data and experiences which are not in alignment with our beliefs about ourselves and reality.  This can be a major hindrance to our spiritual evolution as we can and do filter out experiences that are beneficial and even crucial to our further awakening and expansion of consciousness.

It is impossible not to hold beliefs, but it is suggested that you choose those that are most expansive, beneficial and allow for the greatest possible experience of awareness.  This does not mean that you give up your faculties of critical thinking, as questioning everything you accept as truth is necessary for discernment and spiritual evolution.  However, do not limit yourself before giving everything its due consideration and make sure you are not letting your beliefs keep you from higher awareness and experience.

This enlightening article by Evita Ochel will help you get a handle on your beliefs, how they might be limiting you and how to change them if you find that they are.

– Truth

Don’t Let Your Beliefs Sabotage Your Spiritual Evolution

By Evita Ochel | Evita Ochel

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Perhaps from the day that we can communicate, we start to form beliefs. And as we go through life, we seem to accumulate more and more beliefs. Not only that, but in many ways our convictions also grow stronger about what we believe. Alongside we become more resistant to changing them because it seems our entire life foundation is built upon them and would crumble if we disturbed anything.

Have you ever stepped back, and consciously considered what it is that you believe? And why?

Have you ever traced the roots of your beliefs to find out where they really came from? And what validity they have, if any?

How often do you take inventory of what it is that you believe?

Thus what happens to most of us unfortunately, is that we stop using beliefs to help us on our spiritual journey of evolution, and instead become imprisoned in our beliefs. We divide and separate ourselves over our beliefs. We fight for our beliefs. We will argue with loved ones and strangers alike because of our beliefs. Some even kill due to, and for their beliefs.

But just like the Ego, beliefs in and of themselves are not bad. Both are simply tools, and as we know when it comes to any tool, its power and effectiveness comes from how we use it. So let’s take a further look at the enslaving and empowering sides of beliefs to remind ourselves how to best use them on our journey of spiritual evolution.

Where Did We Get Stuck?

Being an active member in the online communities for several years now, I have noticed a certain pattern within the last year especially when it comes to this topic. I have had numerous opportunities to observe how many people during their awakening are being disempowered by the ideas going around that they choose to accept as solid facts, sabotaging their spiritual evolution. I am not talking here about the limiting beliefs of religious or political dogma, which for so long have shackled humanity into fear, guilt and disempowerment, and could have their own long discussion. Instead, I am talking about the fields of spirituality, metaphysics and New Age thought that are supposed to be awakening us further.

During this time of the shift on our planet, many people’s journey of awakening includes shattering the limiting beliefs of religious or cultural dogma to free themselves. For many, this causes a major turn in their lives that includes a period of elation, upliftment and renewed sense of empowerment. However, fast forward to a few months or few years later, and we have so many of these same people locked into new beliefs, sabotaging further spiritual evolution. In the grand scheme of things, don’t get me wrong, I know there is perfection always, even in what looks like madness and everything has its time. But my hope in writing this, is simply to nudge some of us back on track to enjoy the benefits of this beautiful physical experience and continue to further our evolution.

Let us use a current popular New Age example with regards to the Shift of Ages on this planet, to demonstrate this point further. Today, I have the pleasure of interacting with people from all over the world, of all ages and races, who strongly believe in many captivating ideas surrounding this topic. Some of the most popular beliefs include: Planet Nibiru flying by or even crashing into the Earth, Ascending into the 5th Dimension, the Earth being split based on evolution levels, our DNA being fully activated, getting light bodies, the magnetic poles reversing and causing worldwide destruction, being saved by aliens and taken away in their craft, and on and on the different beliefs go. Now please understand that I am not saying that any of the above are wrong or false, but it is possible they are not true either. Basically put, getting locked into ANY beliefs isn’t beneficial for us.

Our power, our freedom, and our expansion lies in flexibility of thought, not in locking down of thought. As soon as we form strong beliefs about ANYTHING, we limit or stagnate our growth in that area. It is normally with good intentions that people explore new ideas, only to end up having them as new dogma to live by.

Therefore through this exploration, I am not telling you or asking you to give up your beliefs, but simply to keep expanding them. Expand all your beliefs enough to always allow some light, clarity and most importantly awareness to shine into them. Keep expanding them, so that there is always room for growth.

Whether you are seeking a path of spiritual enlightenment, or simply want to live out your highest potential, have a happier, healthier and more peaceful life, continually surveying and expanding our personal beliefs is necessary for continued growth and evolution of our soul.

The more willing we are to let go of the old ideas and move on to the new ones, the easier coming events will be for us.

Rebecca Lynn, The Secret Triangle

Freedom Lies in Fluidity

So how do we free ourselves? And what makes humans so prone to wanting to solidify ideas into beliefs so readily? The answers to both of these questions can be complex, but to look at things simply they both have their answer rooted in the state of our consciousness. To understand this fully, let’s back track a little.

One of the most dangerous beliefs we have is to “believe” that we *must* have a set of beliefs, otherwise we do not know who we are, where we came from, etc. This is why it would be one thing if we *just* believed in the different ideas. But the biggest problem comes from the fact that within short periods of time, we attach our identity to the beliefs we hold. This is the most catastrophic part about beliefs and makes them become stuck in the individual and collective consciousness. Races, religions and nations have done this for eons and we see the state it has resulted in on our planet. Strong beliefs alone only create tough habits to break. But identity driven beliefs, create human and planetary destruction.

Today, the average person on this planet is mostly defined by what they believe, or do not believe. We insist on holding so tightly to so many of our beliefs that they can cause us a lot of suffering. In fact they can destroy us, our communities, even whole countries. Again, we can easily see examples of this all around us in our world.

However, to appreciate the power of beliefs over us and why we seem to wrap our identity in them, as if we “own” the beliefs, or “are” the beliefs comes from the unconscious nature of our mind. Until we master our minds and really mature on a spiritual level, we live the majority of each day (yes over 90% at least), from the unconscious state of our mind. Most people are so entrapped in habitual thinking, speaking and doing that they cannot comprehend this fact at all, and will argue left, right and center that they are indeed acting from the conscious state. It is amazing how the unconscious can trick us into buying into that belief too.

So, in order to step out of the rigidity of our beliefs, and not base our identity on them, it takes a great deal of regular conscious awareness about what we think, say and do, and WHY. Consider the following example.

Many times you may have brought something to someone’s attention. Like for example a different way of seeing something, or doing something. Do you remember the most common response you normally get from them after? It usually goes something like this accompanied by a pleased astonishment “Thanks, I never considered doing/thinking/being that.” And why? In order to “consider” something, we have to be using our conscious mind, otherwise we function solely from the unconscious mind. To the observer, or even the participant, it may go completely unnoticed in the daily routines whether we are functioning from the conscious or unconscious mind. However, upon deeper analysis one realizes that living from the unconscious state keeps us stuck in cyclical patterns. This means we can only experience a very limited way of seeing or doing things. When we switch over to conscious thinking, this is often where people have all sorts of awakenings, from the minor to the major.

In the end, as I already shared above, the problem is not in having beliefs, but in taking them too seriously, attaching ourselves and our sense of identify to them, or thinking we are them (and they us). There is nothing wrong in forming beliefs and using them as the wonderful tools they can be to propel us further along our spiritual evolution, as long as they stay fluid, always ready to work with the ebb and flow of life, as we traverse on our spiritual paths.

How To Use Beliefs in Empowering Ways

In order to integrate all that is shared here, what can you do in your personal life on a practical level?

1. Always question what you believe.It doesn’t matter how many scientists have proven it, or how many people in the world believe it. Whenever you hear yourself giving out facts or having thoughts, bring in moments of conscious awareness by asking yourself questions about the belief. “Why do I believe that?”, “Where did that belief come from?” and most importantly “Does it serve me currently?” are all vital questions to consider.
2. Keep all beliefs fluid, knowing that the Universe rarely works in certainties.Rather, potential and possibility is all around us to experience pretty much anything we can think of experiencing. Nothing is impossible, everything is possible, and every belief has as many “truths”, as there are minds to consider it.
3. Stay consciously alert not to adopt other people’s beliefs blindly.The way I look at the world today is not that some people are lying or wrong, while others are telling the truth or right, but simply that everyone has their own version of reality. And given their model of the world or reality, their beliefs are always right for them. But according to my version of reality, their beliefs may not be right at all, or right for me. We don’t need to judge or convince each other to adopt each other’s ways, but simply respect the diversity of experiences possible.
4. No one person can give you the whole truthEach person experiences this reality through their personal biases, and is at their own level of evolution. They do not have your truth, and they definitely do not have the whole truth no matter how convincing or good they may sound. The best any of us can have while on this planet, or until we attain mastery of our mind and integration with our higher self, is an interpretation of truth. Therefore, we must each continually find our own interpretations, that serve our spiritual journey most at any given moment.
5. When in doubt, consult your intuition.Your feelings and emotions don’t lie. Your thoughts may, and often do. Your mind can find all sorts of ways to trick you, but your emotions won’t. When you read or hear something, take a conscious moment to be still and see how it is making you feel. Once you practice this enough, you will not mistaken the feelings insidewhen material resonates with you on a deep, soul level, versus when it is not in your best interest to pursue it further.
6. Choose your beliefs wisely.If you are going to believe something, which we pretty much always do at any given point in time, choose the most positive, uplifting and empowering beliefs. Not only will your state of mind and quality of life benefit from this, but it benefits the entire collective consciousness. The more people buy into and believe ideas based on doom, negativity, fear and a sense of disempowerment, the “worse” of a collective reality we are co-creating for each other.
7. Consider everything, attach strongly to nothing.This allows you to move through your spiritual evolution with most ease and grace, enjoying the journey along the way, instead of being burdened by it. So while there are some fundamental Universal laws, which govern the evolution and life in this dimension, most of what is being passed around and presented as fact or truth, is just a bunch of creative possibilities of what can be depending on your view of reality.

So whether it is about God, the nature of life, death, reality, health, food, education, work, relationships, parenting, yourself, or any other topic, take regular inventory of the beliefs you hold in all of these areas. Continue to question, examine, and expand them, as this in return expands you as a being infinitely. And don’t forget that the beliefs you hold about yourself are the most powerful ones, which govern the direction of every other belief you will ever have. For example, if you believe yourself to be disempowered or not have choice in life, your beliefs about everything in the world will reflect that right back to you.

To conclude, I would like to leave you with the beautiful words of Lau Tzu, who reminds us that water’s greatest strength, is its fluidity—its yielding nature. May we remember to be like water, where in order to be strong, we do not need to be stuck.

Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water,
Yet nothing can better overcome the hard and strong,
For they can neither control nor do away with it.

The soft overcomes the hard,
The yielding overcomes the strong;

Truth is easily hidden by rhetoric.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Expand your beliefs to expand your reality, and continue to taste the infinite nature of all that is possible and true.

Evita is a consciousness expansion teacher. Her diverse passions and expertise include being a speaker, holistic nutritionist, web TV host, and author of the book Healing & Prevention Through Nutrition. Her health oriented teaching and writing focuses on natural, wholesome, plant-based and organic nutrition to enjoy optimal health and longevity. Her spirituality oriented teaching focuses on consciousness expansion and heart centered living, to live with joy and inner peace. Evita has also created several online publications: Evolving Beings, Evolving Wellness and Evolving Scenes, as well as Healthytarian—a lifestyle for the well-being of the mind, body and soul. To learn more about her work, visit EvitaOchel.com