Beliefs, Thoughts, Life

People have the potential to be more than just walking, talking, reacting bundles of randomly occurring hormones/chemicals, some have learned to manage their physical/psychological selves, proving that actual control is possible. These control methods are teachable and in the not-so-distant future, we have the potential to be healthier, higher functioning beings that will require much less external assistance. We will be on our way to mastering our own body chemistry and it is, all about chemistry. For now, there are functional and dysfunctional beliefs and thoughts.
I am one of the fortunate individuals who has progressed well on the journey of at least, health self- empowerment and I have been on this journey for many years. One of the first things I did, was to model those who were successful at attaining what I was working to, self-sustaining physical and psychological health. I dont use medically prescribed procedures, drugs or chemicals, so I may well be a good person to model and find out what I have done and am doing, health self-empowerment. My grandmother, who believed in herself, introduced me to empowerment by her use of folk and herb remedies. To me, medical doctors were not a necessity, so I have been learning of and using natural, non-medical healing modalities successfully for about 40 years. I still use herbs, nutrients, vitamins, for whatever challenges I may have and the only major challenge has been with a heart/cardiovascular difficulty that I managed well (what I did is well specified in several articles on my blog - see my bio for a link). Health, just one example of what thoughts and beliefs can do.
Our bodies are fantastic electro, biochemical factories, fully capable of producing everything they need, our nutrients, herbs, vitamins and thoughts are the fuel/raw materials used in the chemical production. Quantum Physics has shown how important our thoughts and beliefs are in controlling our lives. (Its all about chemistry, worth repeating) We are what we believe we are, or what we know we can be. Beliefs are learned and there isnt a shortage of people willing to share or teach us their beliefs and to help with beliefs they think we should have. It takes a reasonable amount of sophistication to determine which beliefs to adopt and many beliefs are internalized, to become somewhat permanent before these sophisticated thought processes are learned. Many never learn this and become non-empowering belief adoption sponges. I believe, watch out here comes one, that if I need to look outside myself to someone or something for actualization, the belief is dis-empowering and will cause me to be dependent on that outside source (a large red flag goes up when the outside source will make money from my belief). Questioning a belief is somewhat unusual, because after all it is a belief. I also find addictions dis-empowering and they commonly come from beliefs.
So, if I recognize a belief as dis-empowering, how do I change it(?), one of the questions of a lifetime. Beliefs dont have to be logical, they dont need to provable, people are willing to die and kill for them. Robert Dilts, in his great book, Changing Belief Systems With NLP wrote: The thing to realize about beliefs is that they are not intended to match existing reality. They are intended to provide a motivation and vision so that your actual behavior can begin to develop and rise to meet them, (read this a few times, it can change your life). The early works of Richard Bandler and John Grinder will also help with belief pattern changes with NLP. Beliefs cause thoughts, or do thoughts cause beliefs(?), add some environmental influences and the answer is yes (that should clear that up).
If you havent been living in a cave, you will know that Quantum Physics is proving that thoughts are energy and that they influence us, our lives and our physical environment. People who believe certain ways have thoughts that support those beliefs (this includes everything). I know something about staying healthy (I believe that), so I will use a health related example. A friend believes in the medical and thinks that the medical profession is wonderful, so when he had some heart/cardiovascular problems, he chose open heart surgery, prescribed drugs and now about three years later, he is experiencing other heart/cardiovascular challenges. I had like difficulties at about the same time (caused by dumb lifestyle choices), because of my beliefs, I learned the causes of my heart/cardiovascular problems, researched alternative therapies, used them and I am well, that simple and doable. My beliefs and thoughts facilitated the production of healing chemicals (with herbs nutrients, etc.) in my body. In these two cases, who had the empowering beliefs?
One way to end this for now, is to ask what are your beliefs, are they congruent with your actual values, do your beliefs make your values attainable, do they support your real values and what do you get out of your beliefs? RSBBrown