How Thoughts and Beliefs Shape Your Reality

Thinking is a mental process of forming associations to make meaning of the world which is nothing but a bunch of electrochemical reactions. When a single neuron is fired it implies no meaning but when many are fired it forms a thought. As the density of this firing increases, it forms ideas, concepts, and beliefs. A belief is nothing but a thought, thought multiple times. Beliefs then go on to influence our reactions to stimuli or situations as a result of the patterns formed due to associations.

The link between thoughts and their influence in shaping reality is emotions. What you think influences the way you feel which in turn influences your actions thus creating patterns that very soon become the accepted norm or idea of your life. When you believe in something you subconsciously look for proof to support your beliefs and unless you become aware of it your life runs in an auto-pilot mode. For instance, you may have a belief that you are not intelligent and any time you make a mistake you associate it to the belief of intelligence you have about yourself. This kind of association is universal for all your perceptions and is the basis of identity formation. And there is nothing wrong in it except for the way you have been associating meanings to events in your life which unfortunately at most times is self-deprecating. 

Pygmalion effect is the idea that others, as well as an individual’s high expectation of oneself, leads to high performance. Managers’ and teachers’ high expectations of employees and students respectively, eventually become self-fulfilling prophecies writes J. Sterling Livingston in his 1969 article. He also suggests that managers pay special attention to new employees and match them with the right superiors to set the right expectations, thus rooting the base for increased productivity in the long run.

The well-known placebo effect beyond a shadow of doubt proves that believes do shape our reality. Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer conducted a study among hotel maids whose work involved physical activity and found that about 67% of these women believed that they did not get any exercise. Though they exceeded the criteria for daily exercise, their body did not reflect any benefits. So the experimenter divided the women into two groups, one group was educated about meeting the daily exercise standards while the other was not. The informed group exhibited low blood pressure, reduced weight, and a proper waist-to-hip ratio. In another case, a woman suffering from nausea was presented with a magical, potent drug that claimed to cure nausea. In fact, it actually did cure it but the drug given to her was ipecac which is known to induce nausea instead of curing it. Rather than the drug, the way it was presented to her by an authoritative figure with a strong suggestion of curing nausea induced biochemical reactions as a response to these stimuli. Thus, we can conclude that your perception does influence your reality.

The mind does not know the difference between reality and imagination. The neurological pattern formed in your brain when you think of a particular stimulus is the same pattern that forms when you actually come across it. That is why so many law of attraction teachings focuses on imagination, visualization, and feeling the emotions of the fulfilled state of desires. The logic is when you imagine something enough times it turns into a belief and by some mysterious force it manifests into reality.

If you can change your beliefs by training your brain to think differently you can indeed have all you want. When you believe in something a hundred percent like in the case of the lady whose nausea was cured with a nausea-inducing drug, you expect it. When you focus on something you give it enough attention to increase the probability of its occurrence in your life. For instance, you want to make more money so naturally, you focus on taking up opportunities that will increase your income. Like they say, where focus goes, energy flows. The beauty of this is you have the choice to discern what to focus on. Contrary to the common belief that life simply happens to flow and things just happen, reality is indeed malleable.