The Power of Our Beliefs
Linda Sanderville Our beliefs are so incredibly powerful in terms of creating many of the conditions of our lives. And this is good news! Read on to understand more
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In today's episode, I want to emphasize the power of your beliefs. Your beliefs influence so much in your life, shaping how you perceive your circumstances and how you react to them. They are the driving forces that determine whether you feel empowered to make impactful changes in your life. What you genuinely believe is possible often becomes your reality, not just what you say or think but what you hold deep within you.
For instance, you might declare yourself an excellent parent, yet, in the quiet moments, you might wrestle with self-doubt. In such instances, your belief in being the best parent might be tainted. To truly become the most nurturing and loving parent, you must address these inner doubts and nurture self-love.
In my work with both myself and other women, I've found that self-love is the fertile ground where our most empowering beliefs take root and flourish. When you possess a solid foundation of self-love, you can view yourself with clarity and compassion, which leads to more positive and empowering beliefs. These beliefs can propel you towards your goals and dreams.
Consider a scenario where you are pursuing a Ph.D., facing adversity from peers and professors who undermine your work or doubt your abilities. In such situations, your self-love becomes your anchor, providing the strength to endure. Self-love doesn't mean you do everything alone; it guides your choices about the people you surround yourself with and whose opinions you value.
Even in challenging situations, you can make choices that support your growth and self-love, such as seeking nurturing connections outside your immediate environment. These choices align with your belief that better resources and more positive people are available to you.
Belief is a powerful force. When you believe in something, your mind actively searches for confirmation of that belief. It's a fact that there are people who want to help, partner with, and support you. When you truly believe this, your mind will be more attuned to recognizing those individuals in your life.
I promise you I have yet and I'll hold my work with myself, all my work with my clients, I have yet to see an example of where that is not true. I have yet to see an example of where that is not true.
So when you have that belief, powered by self-love, then your eyes can be open to the possibility of something different than what's immediately in front of you.
Your eyes are open to the possibility of something more, something better and that makes you more willing to keep on trying, keep on trying new things, getting out of your comfort zone in order to have that thing that you imagine become your lived reality.
And let's not forget that most of the things that we now have in our lives were just things that we imagined at one point. I wasn't sure if I would ever get married and I was like, okay, I'm able to just be like that really cool auntie and I'll just keep on traveling the world forever. That's not so bad. I could imagine there were ways in which I could certainly be happy as a single woman but it was for me personally, it was my desire to get married and have children. I just wasn't sure if it was going to happen.
But when I revived that belief that it was something that could be true for me, it meant that I took different actions. I took different actions, I imagined the possibility and so I was able to engage in behaviors that made me finding the right partner for me much more likely and eventually I did and once I did it was like everything from there honestly was so easy. It was so much easier than the times before, the relationships I had before that were kind of a mess in one way or another.
And if I had based what I thought was possible for me just on the past, I would have been so limited. I would have been so limited and I would have settled maybe just not even tried because I was making my past the biggest determinant of my future. I was making my past the biggest factor that would determine my future and the truth is that wasn't the case. The relationship I ended up in looks nothing like my past relationship so if I had stayed stuck there, my eyes wouldn't even have been open to really anything else and I might not have even wanted to be in a relationship because I would have thought, well, if it's going to be like that, well, then I don't want it.
So another example of what it looks like when you change your belief and have belief that is rooted in self-love and how that can alter everything, like that can alter your entire future. There are now two little boys that exist in the world because I shifted out of thinking, oh, this will never happen to me to know maybe this can still happen for me and if it were to happen, what would I decide to do differently if it was possible?
So in thinking about this idea of the power of belief and how our past is actually not the biggest determinant of our future reality, I wanted to give a couple of examples that I found really inspiring of women who were not limited by what had happened in the past.
So the first example is Nadia Murad. Nadia Murad is actually, she's a human rights activist. She is from Iraq and she was born in 1993 and at the age of 21, she was actually one of a couple of thousand that were kidnapped by the Islamic State in Iraq, also known as ISIS. They were captured and sold into sex slavery and human rights trafficking.
So she was in this situation for approximately three months before she was able to escape. Okay, so I don't know how old you are when you're listening to this, but I know that someone who is of a mature age now, me at 21, I was basically a baby and I don't say that in a judgmental looking down on myself. I was highly capable, highly intelligent, but I was so young. But she was 21 and experienced three months of this horror. We wouldn't want to imagine one day of this. She experienced three months of being trafficked in sex slavery by ISIS, no less.
But shortly after escaping from this situation, she went on to immediately begin speaking out and speaking loudly about human trafficking and sexual violence, especially as it related to Yazidi woman, which is what her background is. So she eventually became appointed the UN and the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking. Mind you, this was just two years after her capture.
Just think about this, right? And then she was a co-recipient just a couple years after this, and again four years after her capture of the Nobel Peace Prize along with a Congolese physician, Dr. McGweaggy. So this woman who experienced this violence was not silenced by this.
Instead of being afraid, I mean, when you go through something like this, it's very easy to be traumatized, silenced, to the point of being almost mute, terrified for your life. You know, what if you say something and something happens to you, right? And she had been bought and sold several times, mind you, in the period where she was gone. And other women were marketed to other people while this was happening. And the men in the village where she was captured from, for the most part, were killed. About 5,000 men in all.
So you're talking about grief and loss. You're talking about trauma, sexual violence, like so many layers of grief and painful experiences put on top of each other. And yet her drive to see that this didn't happen to any other woman like her, it just lit this fire to have her talking and talking and talking about this to where it was literally her career immediately afterwards.
That is someone who has a huge belief in her ability to change the world, right? Despite what happened to her, she could have been crushed and it would have been understandable. Like, let's be clear about that. It would have been perfectly understandable. And yet she decided that the power of her voice was so important that she was not going to, you know, crawl into a ball and crawl into a black hole.
She was going to speak out and maybe just maybe save somebody else.That is someone who still loves herself despite what has happened. And out of that love also loves other people and then acts accordingly.
In my second and final example today, we have Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a Liberian politician who made history as the first elected female head of state in all of Africa. Her presidency began in Liberia in 2006 and continued until 2018. This remarkable woman's journey defied expectations, as she ascended to the highest political office in an entire continent, with diverse countries and unique challenges. Not only did she break the glass ceiling, but she also signed a groundbreaking Freedom of Information bill, a first in West Africa. She tackled a critical issue, the national debt, and signed a bill to reduce it, emphasizing her commitment to improving her nation's financial stability. Furthermore, she established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to address the crimes committed during Liberia's Civil War. Her focus on fighting dictators, corruption, and poverty was underpinned by empowering women and girls.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's life story is a testament to the potential of self-love, even when it begins as a small seed within us. Her humble beginnings as a young wife and homemaker, following her husband's career, didn't deter her from pursuing her own path. Over time, she acquired degrees and eventually separated from her husband due to abuse, asserting her independence and resilience. Her remarkable journey, like Nadia's, serves as an inspiring example that we all possess the potential for self-love and the belief that transcends societal norms and personal circumstances. We can look at these incredible women and say, "If they can, we can," reflecting on our own moments when we didn't let negativity and self-doubt define our potential.
The power of our beliefs is profound, and this is why I focus so much on transforming core beliefs with the women I work with. By shifting negative and disempowering beliefs, you can unlock your true potential and become unstoppable. The passion and fire within you have the opportunity to shine, allowing you to make an impact beyond your imagination. You don't have to carry the burden of self-limiting beliefs any longer; you have a choice. You can let them go and find ways to process and transform them. If you want to learn more about my process and offerings, check out my website linked in the show notes for self-love skills. Keep listening, stay inspired, and ignite your belief in yourself for more significant personal and societal change.
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