Changing Beliefs
Introduction
Hey there Agents of Change!
Ready to start to initiate change? In this module we are going to look at the way that we can make use of what we know about belief systems to start initiating change. The first step in changing beliefs, is of course, identifying those beliefs.
Depending on which modality you are using there are various ways to identify the beliefs that has an individual blocked. The quality of the questions that you ask your client is where most of this information will come from.
The most important tip I can give a detective uncovering beliefs is to be aware that it is important to be writing what the client is saying and not your interpretation of what they have said. The importance of what comes out of our clients mouth is often underestimated. If you are able to keep an open objective mind, you will start to notice the embedded agreements found within the words of your client.
The words we speak come out as an automatic reaction to a belief that is held. Observing the words will reveal a great deal if we know what to look at in those words.
A common example is the following comment, “Traffic was really annoying today.” While this is a comment often shared… it also holds the clue that the individual believes that the emotion is determined or created by something outside of themselves such as the traffic. The individual may hold the belief that the traffic is what is making them upset, yet that would not be true.
The statement itself doesn’t represent what is happening inside the mind. A whole set of connections have gone off and the traffic is the object of what the individual is projecting onto the traffic.
The situation is just a trigger to a belief system. The true detective would then ask… what about the traffic was annoying? This is the point when being able to clearly record what your client is saying opens the door to the beliefs that are held. Identifying what has set the trigger off will allow you to be able to find out the client is stuck. Example: Using the same model above… answers from a client:
- It was making me late for a meeting
- I felt frustrated, powerless, angry, people in my way
- I start to get aggressive, I can’t change it, it stops me from doing what I want.
It is not the traffic making the person feel this. When asked “When was the first time or worst time you felt like this?”
- Watching my father, on the way to hospital… his wife in emergency.
When asked “What does getting frustrated, struck in traffic mean to you?”
- Powerlessness
Steps to Changing Beliefs
One way of doing this is asking the question in three or four different ways to get the answer and then starting the process of unlinking the meaning with the belief and relinking or anchoring a new belief.
1. Asking questions like; How do you know? Has it ever happened before? What does this mean to you?
2. Identifying a Pattern
3. Asking and uncovering any proof that match the pattern
4. Asking What does the pattern mean to you? What do the circumstances mean to you? Who would you be without it?
5. Looking at results… Finding the common thread
6. Checking if it resonates with the client. Or is this true for the client. However, what is often overlooked in many areas of change work is what is actually keeping the issue in place.
“The ability to effectively change a belief,
is largely determined by the
level of emotional investment in that
particular belief.”
Anonymous