How You Perpetuate Your Beliefs: The Self-Fulfilling Belief and Action Cycle
You’re walking yourself in circles, literally.
Our beliefs are the core foundation of our lives and actions. They drive how we live and breathe. Yet, often we don’t question our beliefs.
Where do they come from? Where do they go? Where did they come from, Cotton Eye Joe?
Your beliefs come from your own personal lived experience. Since you were young, everything you have gone through has taught you something about life.
You picked up subconscious messaging about the world around you that shaped what your beliefs are today.
But we never pause and reflect on our beliefs. What you don’t realize is how they shape your thoughts and behaviors. In turn, these enforce your beliefs. You’re further perpetuating your beliefs, and, this is important, your actions and beliefs create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Here’s what I mean by that.
You have a certain belief. You act and behave in accordance with what you believe. Your behavior influences the experience you have and your perception of it. Your experience, thus, validates your belief. It is a vicious cycle that reinforces itself.
Take for example.
Your underlying belief is that you don’t believe you’re good enough. So, you do two things.
One is you look for evidence to confirm this belief rather than invalidate it. As humans, we do something called confirmation bias. You specifically look for examples that will strengthen your beliefs rather than look for evidence that may invalidate them.
Secondly, you act in a way that reinforces these beliefs. You seek out situations that confirm this narrative.
You believe you’re not good enough and you don’t deserve love, so you seek out unhealthy relationships.
These unhealthy relationships don’t work out. After all, they were doomed from the start. Your subconscious belief that you don’t deserve love made you seek out a relationship that would be unfulfilling.
Unsurprisingly, these toxic relationships end and reinforce the original belief that you don’t deserve love.
There is good news though. Once you become aware of your patterns, you gain back the power to change them.
It takes work, but with time and help, you can rewire and change your belief system. Therapy is a great way to do this.
The other resource I enjoy is The Holistic Psychologist. Dr. Nicole LePera empowers individuals to take back their power and break free from trauma cycles.
She discusses how we internalized beliefs as children and now subconsciously continue to play them out. You do this completely unknowingly. LePera wrote a book specifically for individuals who want to learn the work of healing themselves. (not an affiliate link)
Once you become aware of your patterns, you gain the power back to change them. Once you are aware of it, you can see where it plays out in your daily life. You are aware of your thoughts and behaviors and can make a conscious effort to change them.
Final Thoughts
Your subconscious is powerful. You play the same patterns, day in and day out, and don’t even question them.
You don’t have to continue to act out the same harmful narratives you learned in childhood. Once you become aware, you can take back that power. You can rewrite your story on your own terms.
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