One well known that quote about insanity is that it’s “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”. Now we do the same things that have been proven to make things worse. And we do them more and faster, over and over again. We do them more and faster while somehow expecting thing to get better. Until we lose hope completely and just keep doing things out of habit while we wait for death.
The good news is that there is a rather clear way out of this mess. Our lives, both on an individual and collective level, are the sum total of the circumstances we are born into, plus our thoughts, feelings, words, beliefs and actions. And all of these things go together.
Sure, things happen that we have no control over whatsoever, which are devastating beyond repair. But these things are a very small minority. For the most part, when tragedy strikes, it could either have been avoided all together, or we could be in a position where we could cope with it enough to get by,
So if life isn’t what we want it to be, this is where we have to look. At our beliefs, thoughts, feelings, words and actions. Today I’m going to focus on our beliefs. Because this is where it starts. Our beliefs are the lense that we view reality through and depending on what we believe, it will have a tremendous effect on our lives.
We can take a very prevalent belief in today’s society. If we believe that life ultimately is pointless, devoid of higher meaning, this will be reflected in what we think, feel, do and say. If you think that life isn’t worth taking seriously anyway, you might as well stay an infant till the day you die and waste your life on fastfood and mindless entertainment.
This was where I was heading in my late teens and early twenties. I remember quite clearly when this destructive philosophy started to get hold of my mind. When I was seventeen I read The Satanic Bible by Anton Lavey. For those that don’t know, on the surface it’s ego-affirming atheism, even though I today believe that there is something more sinister behind its content.
I was an atheist and the idea that there are no such things as right and wrong or higher meanings appealed to me. I found it to be the logical conclusion of the belief that we seize to exist completely when we die. If this would be the conditions that we all live under, I still can’t see how it could be any different. Luckily I know better today.
If you want to know how much beliefs affect us, this whole single worldview shaped how I dressed, the music I listened to, what friends I hung out with and what activities I chose to engage in. And all of these things reinforced each other. And my choices twenty years ago still have an impact on my life today. Because even when you find abundant proof that God exists, that life doesn’t end with death and you therefore want to turn your life around, it’s not that easy. I’m glad that I didn’t form any addictions, except maybe occasional overeating. But I have an overwhelming load of habitual ways of thinking and acting that are not easy to let go of.
Have you ever noticed what happens when you try to act against an ingrained pattern? Anxiety will rise up inside. You will feel a tremendous pull to stay where you are and act like you’ve always acted. And this is if you’re lucky enough to realize that you are acting out a pattern that you wish to change. Many times you will just unconsciously assume that “this is how reality is and this is the only possible response to it.”
What I’ve found, which is something that I talk about a lot on this blog, is that we are not in control of our lives. Not left to ourselves and our own reason. Our thoughts may fool us that we are making rational decision, while in reality we are not.
This line of thought is what I will expand on in the next blog post.
Photo by Daniele Levis Pelusi on Unsplash
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