Thoughts and beliefs. What usually comes first, or leads to the other, a thought, or a belief?
By emptychair
@innertalks (23745)
Australia
May 1, 2018 6:30pm CST
"Our beliefs are tied to our thoughts, and so if we are having negative thoughts, then, for sure, we have negative beliefs, somewhere behind them, creating them for us, then."
I read something along these lines on the internet recently.
Is this always true, or only partially true, though, in that we can have thoughts not attached to any beliefs at all, can't we?
Actually, my own view is that our thoughts are completely separated from our beliefs, unless one (thought) becomes concreted over in you, by you not letting go of it, and then, it becomes a belief for you, then too.
Thoughts lead to beliefs, then, not the other way around.
Who is right here then?
What do you think about thoughts and beliefs?
"The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it's your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can't package stress, touch it, or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking."
The late great self-help writer/guru, Wayne Dyer (1940 to 2015), sounds as if he is in agreement with me here.
Photo Credit:
The photo used here was freely sourced from the free media site: pixabay.com.
If we have one track thinking, will this lead us to having one track beliefs too, or, perhaps, it is vice versa, if we are being limited by our beliefs, does our thinking become limited too then, being contained by the tracks of our beliefs, or is it really more a bit of both types of limitation that affects us?
What controls us more, our thoughts, or our beliefs??
5 people like this
6 responses
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
3 May 18
Of course, though, when do our thoughts begin?
Do we have thoughts as a baby, for example?
Some situations, like it crying, eating, sleeping, perhaps, are a part of some other process, other than conscious thinking processes.
If this is so in a baby, maybe, this mechanism, is still working in us adults too.
Maybe sometimes, thoughts arrive then in us, not from our own thinking of them, but from us more receiving them, from somewhere else, maybe subconsciously, from a dream, or even from outside of us, telepathically, for example.
Thoughts run around the melting pot, until the fire catches them and sets them alight inside our self, this is what it is meant that every possible thought already exists within God, but man just rethinks them for himself.
The rethinking is done in a new way for each individual, but the root of the thought is always within God.
The melting pot is the love of God, and the fire is that love inside of you.
Every thought, to be real, must originate in love, otherwise, you should know that it has become distorted by your own coldness of mind in some ways, hard to believe, but true, none the less.
1 person likes this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
5 May 18
@aureliah Yes, just about anything and everything can have an influence on our thoughts.
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@aureliah (24687)
• Kenya
5 May 18
@innertalks This is very well said. There are so many things that influence our thoughts
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@franxav (14597)
• India
2 May 18
The present dispensation in India have cultivated thoughts that have hardened into beliefs and they are making all out effort to make their population have the same beliefs. Here are some gems of their beliefs:
1. Internet existed in the Mahabharata times. Thousands of years ago in B.C.
2.Airplane was not invented by the Wright brothers. Airplanes existed in those days because it is written in the epics that characters were traveling in their flying vehicles.
3. Surgery was much advanced in those days. Ganesha, the elephant headed deity is the proof.
2 people like this
@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
2 May 18
Yes, I would have to say that these types of beliefs have come from thoughts, once thought, but never properly reexamined, because they are being now held as sacrosanct beliefs, enshrined in religious thought, and so preserved largely untouchable, in this way.
Yes, the belief can become so strong, and are then wrongly pushed down other's throats sometimes then too. This, to my mind, is the religious fanatic.
What you said supports my view about thoughts concreting into beliefs. Thanks, for your input here.
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@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
30 May 18
Yes, I would tend to agree with you, usually a thought comes first, and then beliefs are formed from the accumulation or compiling of similar thoughts into a belief.
Once a belief has already been firmly set up though, I think, that then it can then control us, as you say, and it can do this, by controlling the direction of our thinking, by sending us those old "established, accepted, owned" thoughts to think over again. We have a one-track mind then and we are being run and controlled by our beliefs.
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@Shiva49 (28397)
• Singapore
3 May 18
I keep an open mind and that reduces stress and anxiety.
I believe all beliefs have a basis and are prompted by our creator to encourage diversity in our lives.
When we are open to the inputs but are able to distill them to align with our comfort zones, then we move towards bliss.
Learn to let go - as the Buddha said. We should not get mired in the status quo.The underlying factor in creation is nothing is constant, Resisting change is the recipe for stress and anxiety - siva
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@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
4 May 18
Yes, thanks siva.
Anything that we set too firmly in concrete in our minds, be they thoughts, feelings, emotions, beliefs, attitudes, anything at all, prevents us from changing, and as you say, "resisting such change, is a sure recipe for stress, and anxiety", and prevents us from moving forwards, and so growing through God's love more, into our being of our real selves too.
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@anamika161088 (11866)
• India
14 Jun 18
Beliefs come from our parents and surroundings where we live. They may have inherited those beliefs from their ancestors and so on. I personally don't understand the logic behind.
For instance, India has a long tradition where married females are supposed to cover her head with some scarf like materials. In some other countries, females use hats and other things to cover the head. The logic that I deduced is that people cover head to protect themselves from sun and delaying greying of hairs.
But what this Indian tradition did is that elderly people connected it to the respect issues. Elderly people now force the young generations to do so else they feel disrespectful...
So beliefs are inherited form the place we live in. While thoughts are as free as bird.
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@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
14 Jun 18
Yes, I would have to agree with you, beliefs are often inherited, but sometimes ways of thinking are too. Often, while I am watching TV, or reading a book, or something, I will suddenly have the realisation that I am thinking in the same way as which my Dad used to think.
This could be because his beliefs are in me too, of course, but sometimes, I think it is just my thoughts, mirroring his thoughts, in this way.
As we get older, I expect this might be too, because we think similar thoughts then as what our parents did when they were at that age.
"I grew up thinking that my Dad was a fool, until I had children, and they then said (and thought) the same thing about me."
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@anamika161088 (11866)
• India
14 Jun 18
@innertalks You are probably right. Shaping of our beliefs and thoughts is relative and dependent too.
I am born and brought up in a small Indian town and so my beliefs and thoughts were more or less mimicked the beliefs and thoughts of the surrounding people unless I went out for higher studies. During college time, I was surrounded by mature, highly educated and intellectual people. There my thoughts and beliefs moulded in very different manner which made me totally different person as what I used to be earlier.
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@dgobucks226 (37621)
•
13 May 18
Thoughts come first and form our beliefs (in my view). Different people have different beliefs, different desires, different aspirations,and different dreams.
As we take in the many influences around us we shape in our minds what best fits our own belief system, and then implement it into our lives.
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@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
13 May 18
Yes, initially, I think too that our thoughts probably form our beliefs, but then once formed, I also suspect that these beliefs limit our thinking after that, if we allow them to do so. Perhaps strongly held onto beliefs only allow us to think thereafter along the line of those beliefs, until we become aware of how controlling some beliefs can be of us.
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@innertalks (23745)
• Australia
13 May 18
@dgobucks226 The consciousness of society overall changes over time, growing ever higher, I think.
This also acts to pull us forwards past old beliefs, and collective mentalisms, such as prejudice, discrimination, bullying, and the like.
It is usually society itself, or various religious beliefs that try to point out if any of our old beliefs are "wrong" and need to be changed to match the more understanding/loving/wiser collective consciousness that we are embracing, more and more, as we all take this ongoing life journey together.
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@dgobucks226 (37621)
•
13 May 18
@innertalks Yes, I see the point in your response. Men and Women of course do have free will to change their views/beliefs. It is a matter of conscience in some instances which brings about change in attitude in my view. Although, as stated I am sure other events can also contribute to changing one's beliefs.
And as you said, others are set in their ways (beliefs) and their minds are closed to new ideas, suggestions etcetera. Whose to say that is wrong?
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