Only Beliefs Have Power Over You

The difference between a thought and a belief is that you may have thousands of thoughts racing through your mind but none of them have any power except those that you deem to be true and accurate. Those thoughts and belief systems that you hold to be true with a great deal of emotion and feeling are the ones which control our circumstances.

There is a difference between emotions, thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Perhaps this will help you to understand the defining features of each.

• Beliefs are an acceptance of truth without any proof. It is your value system usually obtained by early experiences. Beliefs are thoughts you just keep thinking over and over again. They may rational and based in fact. They can also be irrational and based on something your parents, their parents and their parents believed.

• Feelings are how you feel in your physical body. It is much like an instinctive awareness. I put intuition in this category. Feelings are often felt in and around the heart and stomach. Feelings come and go. When you are feeling afraid you may think it will last forever. It won’t. Just like everything in life, there is an ebb and flow.

• Thoughts are ideas, plans, reasoning power and mindless chatter. Thoughts by themselves have no power until we incorporate action. You can change the belief by choosing to think another way.

• Emotions are a strong surge of feelings based on thoughts and beliefs that cause us to outwardly express those feelings, thoughts and beliefs. You are happy with a simpler life-style.

Confusing and Yet Clear

This may be confusing because there is a thin line between feelings and

emotions. I explain it to workshop participants by using the illustration of anger. You may have grown up with the belief that it is wrong to interrupt someone when they are speaking.

When you are on the phone and you keep getting interrupted, you may be irritated. If you become very angry at your child or spouse, but hold it inside, then it is a feeling. However, if you became angry and let yourself explode, either verbally or physically, the feeling of anger would then be manifesting itself as an emotion.

In other words, the belief that it is wrong to interrupt causes the thought that you deserve respect when you are on the phone, which is manifested in your hurt feelings, which are expressed by your emotional reaction.

Self-Awareness Quiz
1. Can you identify where some of your belief systems came from? Are they rational or irrational?
2. Have you seen your feelings change and develop as you mature?
3. How do you manage the emotion of anger?

Please feel free to claim a free ebook on the use of encouraging words and phrases. It will help you to manage your thoughts, feelings, believes and emotions. You will be glad you claimed it today at http://www.useencouragingwords.com Thanks, Judy Helm Wright, author/speaker