I first came across the idea of beliefs and changing beliefs in the book “Mind Power Into the 21st Century. Techniques To Harness The Astounding Powers Of Thought” by John Kehoe.
I discovered a technique called self-suggestion that gives you the power to change your beliefs.
Some of the techniques in the book that I remembered and started practicing were :
- Affirmations
- Gratitude
- Visualization
I was very excited that I could change my life. This book gave me a vision and prospect for a bright future.
As I was from a poor family, that book was a lifesaver. I started to learn it word by word.
What are the affirmations?
Affirmations are thoughts that you constantly repeat silently or out loud with the intention of believing them.
For example, I believed that money was the source of all problems.
I created the affirmation:
- “Money allows us to buy food,”
- “Thanks to money, we are well-fed,”
- “Thanks to money, I have some clothes to wear,”
- “Thanks to money, once a year, my mum buys me a lego,”
- “Thanks to money, I have Sega, a game console, and I can buy game cartridges to play and have fun.”
Wow! When I created that list, I looked at money from a different perspective. It meant that money brought me fun.
“Money brings fun” was my new belief! And I truly believed in it because I loved playing Sega alone and with my friends. Mainly, I liked car games.
That was my first experience of changing my belief. If I can change one belief, I can change all of them! I can totally reprogram my mindset! I was very enthusiastic.
I created a list of beliefs about my life, future, and money.
The list of affirmations was as simple as that:
- I achieve success in my life
- I get the highest grades at my school
- My mum gives me more money for my pocket-expenses
- I feel confident at school
- I easily communicate with girls
- I like money! Money allows me to buy goods
My affirmations were focused on the things I wanted.
What is gratitude?
First time I heard of gratitude! The author said you must be grateful for everything you have in life. Then you’ll get more from the Universe. Be grateful and get more.
I didn’t understand the power of gratitude. I thought I didn’t have anything to be grateful for. I took everything for granted: my mum and dad, my high grades at school, my friends, and the fun I had in life. I didn’t think I should be grateful for that because having mum and dad was obvious. It was obvious that I studied well and had friends.
Gratitude was like rocket science for me. So, I passed by it and started to learn different methods.
What is visualization?
Visualization is a mental practice when you picture in your imagination the things you want to have in your life.
For example, you want to live in the house, so you visualize living in your dream house. If you want a car, imagine you are driving that car.
This method was interesting, but I was terrible at imagining something in my mind. My pictures were blurry and unclear. I couldn’t focus on a visual image for more than a minute. I jumped to another picture, or my thoughts carried me away from the picture to some problems.
For example, I tried to visualize the new flat we were living in, but my mind came up with the thought: “How would you get it? Your parents don’t have money for it,” and I went down the road thinking how poor we were. So, instead of being upbeat and excited after the visualization, I felt gloomy.
I tried hard to learn how to do it, but I failed.
I was frustrated about self-suggestion methods because I failed to do them right.
If to choose between all the self-suggestion methods I learned, I was super excited about affirmations. I decided to work hard on instilling new positive beliefs into my mind!
But this book gave me a start to discover more ways how to influence my subconscious mind. From that point, the lifelong journey in my personal development has begun.
