In my experience, it is my attachment to my old beliefs that are not rooted in the truth and reality.

Our beliefs can bring us joy and at the same time attachment to our old beliefs can bring us heartache and agitation. When we form a belief it may have a purpose at first. However, being attached to that belief and associated expectation after ten or thirty years will not allow us to experience our life fully. 

In order to sustain our beliefs, we have to feed them. Therefore we fed them with data points and expectations to re-enforce them. Also as part of the Universal love, beliefs that are not serving us any longer will come to surface in form of agitation and dis-harmony to be changed.

Let me discuss two example of beliefs:

- If I believe that life is beautiful, I look for beautiful things to re-enforce my belief and will ignore contrary data.

- If I believe somebody is a jerk, I look for all signs to prove my point and will not look for anything positive in that person.  

The issue with both types of beliefs is that we have made a generalized judgment and we have become hardened and biased to have certain expectation and will not experience anything different that is offered to us.

What do need to do to have less agitation and more life experiences?

The best way is not to come to a generalized conclusion, always be present and be open to new information irrespective of our beliefs.

For example let us take the last two beliefs:

"Life is beautiful" is generalization and a belief. 

"What I am experiencing today is beautiful to me" is a present fact.

"He is a jerk" is generalization and a belief. 

"He is yelling, I do not like it. I wonder what is bothering him" is a present fact.

In my experience when I am present with reality I do not suffer and when I am pushing a narrative that I want to be correct about, I suffer. 

What beliefs can you change to have less agitation and more life experience?

Copyright . 2017 by Shervin Hojat