The underlying belief system
Written by Dian Herdiana on 10:11 AMMany of us do not consider the underlying belief system about money to be of any importance. You think it does not matter because what matters is what you do now—right at one level but not complete.
All ideas that we have learned about money in the past are coloring our actions today. These are ideas that you are unconsciously following because you are not aware of them.
It may be: “money is bad,” “there is never enough money,” “money does not grow on trees,” etc. The list is long and painful to read when you realize that this is actually a part of you.
I was thinking: How come these beliefs are so strong? Why am I blocking myself from financial freedom? I have been working on myself for six years now, and the beliefs are still there!
So, I went looking for answers in self-help books, personal development books, New Age books, and financial freedom articles, etc. I have also done psychokineseology and past life sessions, and I have been talking to a lot of people. The answer that I come up with so far is that the underlying beliefs are coming in as all other conditioning: from our early years.
Some people also suggest that past life experiences can have an influence. Our childhood conditioning mainly comes from our parents as well as from the rest of our family and the environment around us.
If the idea in the place you grew up is that money is scarce, you can be sure that this idea sneaked into your mind somewhere along the line, and it is probably stuck there without you knowing it.
You are just wondering why there never seems to be enough money around. So, if you can now grasp the idea of negative thinking patterns about money, I will tell you to move on.
If it is difficult for you to accept this idea and you are now thinking that this does not count for you because you have learned positive thinking, that is great!
But look at the reality and do a little checkup: Is my positive thinking really working?
I am asking you to do this because my experience is that positive thinking and a YES! mentality is not always enough.
The negative thought patterns I am talking about are deep; you can call them “root thought” or “sponsoring thought”; they are thoughts that are lying underneath and behind your conscious thoughts that you are thinking on an everyday basis. They are very strong—and strong enough to sabotage your new way of thinking that may be very positive and good.
I point this out very strongly because it is important that you are willing to look at your own thoughts and to work on them to change them into healthy sponsoring thoughts that are healthy for you and will bring you abundance and wealth instead of struggle and suffering.
To change these thoughts, you have to be persistent; you will need a burning desire to train your mind into thinking differently.
You will have to do a little brainwash and afterwards a lot of relearning with your new and healthy thoughts. To train your mind, I will explain to you the concept “Act as if.”
“Act as if” works the other way around of the normal creation process, which goes like this: thought, word, deed (action). An idea comes into your mind as a thought and takes shape and becomes clear. That is the first step in creating.
Then comes the next step, which is the word. In the gospel of Saint John in the Bible: “In the beginning was only the word,” there is a great truth—only that in the very, very beginning, there was also a thought; an idea.
The word is spoken or written and makes the idea more strong; more solid. This is already a big accomplishment in the creation process, but the idea is still not physical reality.
This comes in the third step, “deed”—or the action that you do—to give your idea physical form. Take a look at this practical example: I had an idea a long time ago that it would be great to have a practical how-to guide on how to create financial freedom; initially, I had the idea because many of my friends and people I met were complaining about the lack of money to do what they want.
As I talked with them, it seemed that the reasons for these problems often were similar, and I had a feeling that there had to be a solution for this. I wanted to find the solutions (step one: ideas and thoughts); write them down and make them clear as well as easy to understand when spoken in a seminar or written down (step two: word); and then in the end to create this article and make it available for everyone who would be interested (step three: deed and action). As you are now reading this article, you can see the practical result of the thought-word-deed process unfolding straight in front of you! Going back to where we started, with the concept of “Act as if,” we have to look at why and how to do it.
Why? It is because the process of creation does not only work with the conscious thoughts you have but also with your subconscious beliefs. So, if your underlying belief system always tells you that there is not enough money, then that is the reality you create.
To train your subconscious to think differently, you first have to become aware of when these beliefs kick in. For me, it works like this: There is a Salvation Army officer standing in the street, giving out a magazine, and collecting money.
When I see him, I immediately shrink and think: I hope he does not see me. Now, of course, he sees me and gives me a smile, and I think, okay, I'll give him some money.
After all I know that this makes me feel good. Then, for the same reason that I tried to avoid him, I also start having second thoughts about giving him the small donation. The thought goes like this: I don’t want to give away the money because if I do, then I will have less, and I do not have much at all. How can I just give away the little that I have (the root thought is that it is never enough money)?
In the short term, I will have less money if I give some of it away. In the longer term, this is not as true. What I do when I walk pass the Salvation Army officer without giving any money is to reaffirm to myself the idea that I cannot afford to give him money because there is never enough.
So, what I can do to change this root thought is to first give him the money I thought of, I know it is going to make me feel good and then think to myself: WOW!
I can afford to give him money, I know that there is more where it is coming from, and I trust that this will end up in my pocket and on my bank account, so I can happily share it with more people.
This action will then affirm your new thought: There is always enough money! Now you may think, this is a lie, but then take the new thought you have learned by “acting as if” and look again on the thought-word-deed process.
You may think this is extremely difficult and everything inside of you says NO! But still, try it out. You do not have to give away all your money; that is not the point.
The point is that you give yourself the feeling of abundance and that you can share. If you have very little money, you can give according to that. It is important that you get the feeling so you can start believing in your new thought. When you say to yourself that you always have enough money for everything you want and need, you will protest and say: “This is not true; fact is this and that and blah blah blah.” You are right! Fact may be this or that, but if you want to change, you better start here—right at the root cause of your money problems. This is a little bit of “Fake it until you make it.” You can make it easier for yourself by thinking thoughts that you can accept, such as: “I know there is more money out there, and right now, I am figuring out how to get it to flow into my bank account.” Then, you give yourself a feeling of security and that it is actually true: There is enough money! When you get your head around this one, you are a giant leap ahead on the road to financial freedom.
