Beliefs Tend To Not To Be Scientific

The first time I can recall questioning a belief I held, I was somewhat bewildered and this was decades before the compoments of personal development entered my life. There is extensive research that illustrates we humans behave in a way that is governed by what we feel which is more closely tied to what we believe as oppossed to what we know. There are physiological reasons for this and awareness of this is necessary to create the process to take what we know and turn it into what we believe. I stopped eating meat at a young age. It wasn't for any reason other than I somehow became ingrained with the belief that it would help my athletic performance. I was in high school at the time and a track and field athlete. After I stopped competing I would resort back to my carnivorous ways but would eventually make a plant based diet my norm for most of my adult life. There are reasons on both ends that support and are for against certain types of diets and both claim the support of science. But when I initially decided to make my change, it was not at all science based. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself about the beliefs you have that pretty much guide your life? Most of us have not because if we did, we would be able to see that a majority of our beliefs are simply monkey see monkey do beliefs. We were implicitly taught them at a young age and simply have looped them our entire lives. Change of any kind only occurs with change to a correlated belief system. It starts with the acquisition of knowledge but doesn't end there. We all know a great deal many things, we all know better but struggle to do and be better. Why? Beliefs are governed by the adaptive subconscious. We don't have conscious access to this so the first component necessary is self-awareness. After self-awareness we need acquisition of knowledge which is actually very easy in this day and age. The third component is something called downward causation. This is the process of consciously reprogramming the subconscious with something. (A belief, a behavior) This third component only happens in a few ways and is time consuming. Most of us just assume because we consciously decide something so, it will be. Our conscious power can manage this but only in very brief instances in the moment. It cannot do so long term. So how do we create beliefs through downward causation? By being consistent. Repetition is king. We have to utilize the law of repetition and Hebbian Rule. We manage our thoughts and feelings by meditating, by speaking out loud via affirmation, and by writing. We manage our behavior by doing. Doing something just once that is congruent with a new belief you want to create makes it easier for you to do it a second, then third time. This is how all of your initial beliefs came to be. You copied what everyone around you did when you were a child. It wasn't scientific. We all have love for our parents and caretakers. We know they did the best they could with what they knew and had. Like us all however, they are flawed humans and were wrong about some things. It is more than ok to challenge some of these things, these beliefs. It is in fact necessary if you want to step out and create change for yourself in your life. Beliefs are biological but we are born into them, we're not born with them.