had edges. If they sailed too far from shore they would fall off,
which prevented them from discovering what lay beyond the
horizon.
Our beliefs can help us or they can mislead us. Fortunately,
when we discover we are holding a misleading belief, we are not
stuck with it forever. But often, we find ourselves holding onto
our beliefs long after we have good reason to change them. In the
above example, most people held fast to their belief in a flat earth
long after evidence emerged that it was round. And who can
blame them? After all, it was much easier to ignore a few
obscure scientific details than to adjust to an entirely new reality.
Our beliefs about inanimate objects (like needles and doors
and even the planet Earth) tend to be fairly straightforward. But
our beliefs about human behavior and feelings are sometimes
convoluted, especially our beliefs about ourselves. Often we
form such beliefs based on powerful emotions. We form them
unconsciously, without carefully examining all the evidence.
Therefore, our beliefs about ourselves and about people are
often less than completely reliable. Sometimes they are out of
sync with objective reality.
Such mistaken beliefs can limit what we see and cause us
to act against the best interests of those we love and ourselves.
And because distorted beliefs are largely unconscious, we tend
to focus on the wrong thing when we try to correct the prob-
lem. We might try to change our actions, when often it is our
mistaken belief that is causing that problem.
For example, John has a problem with motivation. No mat-
ter what the situation, he has a hard time working up the emo-
tional energy required to make a real effort. He cannot get
going in the morning. He is late for almost everything. He for-
gets promises he has made and postpones every task until the
very last minute, even when he knows that doing so causes him
to make errors and perform sloppily.
Because of the many disappointments John has experi-
enced, he is well aware that he has a problem. And he has tried
to solve it by changing his behavior: setting alarms, putting
“He who knows others is
wise; he who knows
himself is enlightened.”
Lao TzuUsing Movies to Release Negative Beliefs 59