The Power of Belief and How Your Stories Shape Your Reality

Belief is everything. It holds the key to understanding how we create our reality. Belief is not just a passive thought, it's an active force that shapes our experiences, drives our success and validates our understanding of the world. Our beliefs form our reality. At its core, belief is the foundation of manifestation.

How Beliefs Are Formed

As a child I remember sitting under the night sky and seeing a shooting star, my parents told me “shooting stars are so rare, you’re very lucky to see one!”. When I found my first four-leafed clover as a child after hours of looking intently, the statement "you're so lucky” was reaffirmed to me once again.

Over time, I internalised this repeated message as a belief: I am lucky. I am lucky. I am lucky. To this day I believe I am lucky. I have many proof points in my life where I have experienced an abundance of luck, and my father always reminds me “you always land on your feet”.

Repeated thought patterns form the foundation of a powerful belief system. My brain became programmed to search for evidence supporting my "luckiness". And the best part is that I find it everywhere, luck always unfolds into my reality.

The Ego's Role in Reinforcing Beliefs

Our ego constantly seeks proof points and validation for our beliefs. When a lucky person experiences a fortunate circumstance, ego immediately categorises this as evidence, the person might think "this happened because I'm lucky".

The evidence then reinforces the belief, making it stronger. Each lucky experience creates a positive feedback loop that perpetuates and intensifies the original belief, the ego is satisfied that it was right again.

Meanwhile, someone with a belief that they're unlucky might experience the same fortunate event but dismiss it: labelling it "a fluke" or "just a one-off". Their ego filters out anything that contradicts their existing belief system, further reinforcing their perception of being unlucky.

It’s important to remember that this doesn’t mean that our ego is against us. Our ego is just looking to keep us safe and seeks predictable outcomes.  

The Double-Edged Sword of Belief

This powerful system works in both ways. Positive beliefs can create upward spirals of success and opportunity. Believing you're lucky, capable and deserving opens your awareness to possibilities that align with those beliefs, and can lead to an abundance mindset.

However, limiting beliefs create equally powerful downward spirals, and can lead to a scarcity mindset. These can be conscious thoughts like "I can’t save money" or deeper subconscious beliefs such as "I'm not enough" or "I'm not worthy".

Whether conscious or subconscious, these beliefs drive how we show up in the world. They determine our self-worth and self-esteem, and these factors influence how much value we place on ourselves. Our self-esteem in turn influences the relationships we choose, our career choices, how we present ourselves, and ultimately, the reality we experience.

Transforming Our Reality

If we want to change our lives, we must change our beliefs. This process involves conscious awareness.

We must first become aware of the stories we tell ourselves, many of which operate below our conscious awareness. It’s estimated that 90-95% of our brain activity is in our subconscious mind, it’s essentially running the show and we have no real control over it. Which is why it’s so important to gain control of your conscious mind and the thoughts that you are aware of.

The first step is cultivating self-understanding, self-knowledge, and self-compassion. What stories do you tell yourself? What beliefs are limiting or opening up your potential? Are the stories you tell yourself aligned with who you want to become?

Maybe you're living with the narrative: "Nothing good ever happens to me. No opportunities come my way. I'm just stuck in this world. Life happens to me and I just have to accept whatever comes my way." These are limiting beliefs. And this story, whether you're conscious of it or not, is actively limiting your reality.

But what if you changed that story? What if you began to see yourself as someone who attracts opportunity, who notices the good things, who recognises that they have agency in creating their experience, who sees that they can design their life through simply believing it? By consciously reframing your narrative, you begin the powerful process of reprogramming your beliefs and creating an abundant reality.

When you change your beliefs about luck, opportunity, and your relationship to the world, you open yourself to seeing possibilities that were always there but filtered out by your previous belief system.

The neuroscience behind this involves your Reticular Activating System (RAS), a region in your brainstem responsible for filtering which information reaches your conscious awareness. In every single moment, the RAS processes 11 million bits of information per second and only 40 bits of information reach our conscious awareness. Not only does our brain filter out the majority of information it receives, it also filters the information that is not confirming our beliefs. This means, we are not consciously aware of a multitude of information, signs and opportunities that were presented to us.

When we learn to control our beliefs, and set an intention to remain open minded, suddenly opportunities appear 'out of the blue' and amazing experiences unfold.

This is what transforms your reality.

What’s truly fascinating, this is not because the external world has changed, but because your perception of it has.

Key Takeaways

• Changing your story, changes your beliefs, which changes your life.

• You hold the power of your own existence and can manifest your dream reality.

  
  

Self-Reflection

Take a moment to explore your own belief systems with these reflective questions:

1. In what areas of your life are you feeling stuck, unsuccessful, or dissatisfied?

2. What story do you tell yourself about that area of your life?

3. Can you identify any limiting beliefs that could be holding you back?

4. Where do those limiting beliefs come from?

5. Write down how you could reframe things and change your story to reprogram your beliefs.

6. How would your life look if you brought that new story into your life?

7. What could you create with this new belief system? How would you show up in the world? How would you hold yourself? How would you speak about yourself? What things would you be doing?

8. Try to tap into the feeling of living with this new belief. Feel it, visualise it.
   

Remember, your beliefs create your reality. Choose your thoughts and beliefs wisely, nurture them intentionally, and watch as your world transforms around you.

Enjoy creating your High Vibe reality! ✨