For my 21st birthday my boyfriend at the time bought me a 3 day Tony Robbins seminar as a gift. I was a tad thrown considering I was expecting jewelry and also a tad offended that my gift was a self help seminar. But, I am not one to turn down the opportunity to try new things so off I went to San Jose to join in the craziness otherwise known as a Tony Robinns seminar. I ended up loving it, he is such a force of energy! The man got me to walk barefoot over burning hot coals for an exercise in “mind over matter”. I still feel proud every time I catch a glimpse of my “fire-walker” t-shirt stuffed in my drawer.
When I returned from the seminar I bought his book “Awaken The Giant Within” and have carried it around with me ever since. It’s one of my very favorite books to get inspiration from. There is one chapter that I have been thinking about a lot lately because 365 til 30 has pushed me to see myself differently and change any limiting beliefs I may have had about myself like I’m horrible in the kitchen or couldn’t learn French blah blah blah. I keep referring to it as climbing out of my old “box” and into a new one. Hopefully that analogy makes sense! Anyways, here’s an excerpt from the chapter.
“Belief Systems”…
So often We are seduced into believing that events control our lives and that our environment has shaped who we are today. No greater lie was ever told . It’s not the events or our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.
The challenge with all these beliefs is that they become limitations for future decisions about who you are and what you’re capable of. We need to remember that most of our beliefs are generalizations about our past, based on our interpretation of painful and pleasurable experiences. The challenge is threefold: 1/ most of us do not consciously decide what we’re going to believe; 2/ often our beliefs are based on misinterpretation of past experiences; and 3/ once we adopt a belief, we forget it’s merely an interpretation. We begin to treat our beliefs as if they’re realities, as if they are gospel.
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“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives”
Tony Robbins
365til30.com 
Great post love, so very true…
The lady who was my dad’s assistant for my entire childhood went to work with Tony Robbins in 1998 and stayed with him for years! I wonder if she was there at the conference that you attended? Her name is Kecia, and she’s pretty fantastic.
Anyway, I have to say that I don’t think beliefs are as much as a problem as are systems, which are fundamentally rigid. The task, as I see it, is to focus on how to allow flexibility around what one believes. I prefer the word “idea” simply because semantically, it reflects movement, whereas “beliefs” offer a certain kind of unnecessary dogma. Reading Steiner’s “Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path” clarified a lot of those processes of thought for me.
Thanks for sharing!
I enjoyed reading “Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path Living”. It is not easy to read though. A new online “Philosophy Of Freedom Study Course” is available at http://www.philosophyoffreedom.com. Its free and includes videos, illustrations, observation exercises and diagrams to help study the book. In this book Rudolf Steiner gives his principles of free thinking and morality. It empowers one’s life through deepening scientific inquiry and living according to one’s highest ideals.