Beliefs are much more than intellectual, philosophical, or theological concepts that one learns and agrees with.

Whether secular or religious, your beliefs are the main ingredient of your identity; they are the deeply held truths that you resonate with, trust, and cherish the most. Your beliefs always have a non-cognitive sensory component (that you resonate with) that determines how you perceive life and the world, and a cognitive component that defines who you are.

The cognitive component of your beliefs is the assumptions you make about the world, yourself, and the meaning and purpose of life. What you believe in from the bottom of your heart defines your identity and gives your actions their moral force and predictability. Your beliefs distort your worldview and cause you to see things not how they are but how you are. You do not believe what you see but rather see what you already believe. Thus, your belief system becomes your existential reference that you are not ready to negotiate.

Your belief system is a set of precepts that guide your daily life and modulate your perceptions, emotions, thoughts, words, and actions. Your belief system is the foundation of your pattern of behavior and your identity; it is your view of yourself, others, and the world. This vision will not directly impact your career, achievements, wealth, or social status, but it will affect the core meaning of all of the above and mainly the sense and purpose of life. It will have a significant impact on your health and the quality of your life.

Your belief system is a set of precepts that guide your daily life, modulate and condition your perceptions, your emotions, your thoughts, your words and your actions. Your belief system is the foundation of your pattern of behavior and your identity; it is your view of yourself, others and the world. This vision will not directly impact your career, achievements, wealth or social status, but it will impact the core meaning of all of the above and mainly the sense and purpose of life. It will have a significant impact on your health and the quality of your life.

Even though you inherit the rudiments of the emotional patterns of your primary beliefs, which will determine the patterns of your deeply ingrained attitudes and behaviors, your belief system results from an interplay between the inherited epigenetic factors and the environmental and cultural conditioning factors.  By the time you reach the age of critical questioning, your beliefs are already so ingrained that you no longer recognize them as beliefs. Instead, they have become your fundamental truths, your non-negotiable existential landmarks.

The models regarding "how" and mostly "why" the world exists are diverse and controversial. Also controversial are the few different available models of who you are. So in the beginning, most likely, you will catch from your social environment and "embrace" rather than truly "understand" the most critical assumptions about the world and yourself. But, then, everything else is built on these fundamental assumptions as a cognitive and logical process of "understanding".

Understanding an intellectual reasoning or argument means that it "makes sense" to you - not necessarily that it "is true." Understanding is an intellectual process of fitting and integrating newly-acquired information or knowledge into a pre-existing and validated model. By "understanding," you validate the logic and the consistency rather than the truthfulness of a given claim, reasoning or model.

This is why one is often baffled by such a wide variety of contradictory laic (secular) beliefs. For example, if you have a painful and debilitating condition, such as osteoarthritis of the knee, then according to your beliefs, you have several options to heal your pain:

• If you believe your pain results from your cells malfunctioning, you can try to address your pain with an allopathic approach by taking some pills or undergoing standard surgery.

• Suppose you sincerely believe your pain is idiopathic and unrelated to physiology or cellular wear and tear. You presume your pain is somehow "in your head," and therefore, you should be able to understand and control it rationally. In that case, you can try a psychotherapeutic approach. Hopefully, you will learn how to manage your pain with willpower. 

• If you are open-minded, have no preconceived ideas about your pain, or believe that your idiopathic knee pain could be an unpleasant sensation with a significant emotional component conditioned by your subconscious mind, then a "sham surgery" or Somatic Hypnotherapy could be your therapies of choice.    

As surprisedly as it can be, whatever your perception of pain and your therapy option, you'll always notice an improvement in your pain. "The patient gets better because, on some level, he expects to." "Our shamans wear white coats instead of feathers. You might have to wait months for an appointment, and they might charge you a lot of money - all of that creates a lot of expectation," said Dr. Amir Raz.

Somehow, the fo rce that is empowering your chosen therapy and that stands behind your improvement is nothing but your mind. Since you always draw your power from the most profound reality you are aware of, the best results always come from the therapeutic approach that you trust the most. This is why no therapy can push you beyond the limits of your beliefs! So, what if the healing path that your beliefs have led you to is far from producing the healing you need?

Could you pretend to have changed your beliefs and try another approach? Most likely, you have already done this. Disappointed with your first therapeutic choice, you have tried many other approaches ordered based on your confidence level. Unfortunately, your initial problems worsened after each failure. Each failure will confirm your suspicion that your problem is not curable - while adding a new layer of resistance to change.

Unfortunately, nothing will change in your life unless you will change. However, even if you have already understood this, how can you change your beliefs? They are the main ingredient of your identity, which you have forged over time by adding rituals, education, learnings, and propaganda to your epigenetically inherited luggage. At this point, reading or studying is unreliable because whatever you read or study, you will continue to see, hear and understand nothing but what you already believe.

Of course, you can actively control and reshape the perception of your reality. However, pay attention as this gift comes with a catch! Although you are the creator of your reality, it does not emerge from your desires. Instead, your reality stems from behavioral programs deeply rooted in your subconscious and governed by your beliefs. The mind tends always to create coherence between one's beliefs and reality. Therefore, even though no one wants to be unhappy or sick, there are unhappy and ill people everywhere.

In short, you can think whatever you want! Your life reality always springs from within you. Indeed, as long as you do not experience feelings, your life is governed by your intentional, rational thoughts. Yet, as soon as strong feelings arise, your feelings will most likely take over your thoughts, decisions, and, ultimately, your life. Because whether you like it or not, your life is guided by your emotional reflexes and behavior patterns anchored in your subconscious and governed by your beliefs.

What has the potential to fulfill or haunt your life is the emotional reading of your memories - not the factual content of memories per se. Thus, Somatic Hypnotherapy is not intended to overwrite your factual memories but will allow you to retrieve the most natural imprint of your personality, cleansed of pain, unpleasant feelings, or performance limitations you have developed over time. This process is possible by changing your subconscious's emotional reading of disturbing past experiences, not your memories.

Since your beliefs create your reality, most of your life's limitations are self-imposed. What you believe about yourself can keep you locked behind your fears, or open you to love, leading you forward into living your dreams. Your beliefs will always have a significant impact on your life. That is why, whether you believe Somatic Hypnotherapy can or cannot help you, you are right.

Fighting someone's beliefs is useless. When talking against someone's beliefs, you won't be perceived as a dialogue partner but as a threat. This will foster even more threats in response and will forge stagnation in your life.

Yet you can completely shift your belief system in the blink of an eye! Ask me how, and I will happily explain to you the shortest way to get there face-to-face.

The "No Results - No Pay" principle guarantees my integrity and applies to all my therapies.

Contact me and book your appointment today! Let this be the most exciting experience of your life, and I will be happy to help you on your journey.

Disclaimer: The above article may contain statements that reflect the opinion of the author. It is intended for general informational purposes and does not constitute psychological or medical professional advice. I don't diagnose conditions, nor do I interfere with any treatments given by your medical professional.

If you already are under the care of a doctor or under medical treatment, follow the advice and treatment recommended by your doctor. For any medical emergency, call the Info-Santé service by dialing 8-1-1

*The results may vary from person to person.

Somatic Hypnotherapy - 186 Sutton Pl, suite 104, Beaconsfield, Montréal, Qc, H9W5S3