What do you believe about your beliefs? How often do you stop to consider what your beliefs allow in your life? Are your beliefs expansive, or are they intrinsically constricting? Our belief systems create our states on a moment-to-moment basis. Whether we are strict, playful, committed, or scatterbrained, the interplay of our character joined with our belief system creates the fabric of how we live our lives.

Many people live with some pretty awful, unhelpful, and downright depressing beliefs every day. Just the other day, a friend of mine honestly confessed that she felt ‘fat and pathetic.’ Not surprisingly, she is neither in my eyes, and I’m a fairly objective person.

That’s what bothers me so much about beliefs. No matter what I might say to cheer, negate, or influence her beliefs, they are deeply held and will likely not budge by any of my ‘opinions.’ Beliefs come from the way we are raised, the experiences we have had, and in many cultures, the inherited energy of our ancestors’ experience. Beliefs ripple up through our thoughts, then into our actions, and then cycle back to either shift or enforce those beliefs. That cycle is where the magic can happen.

Beliefs can change. We can influence them. In many instances, like my friend’s, beliefs really must change. Here’s the place where personal choice comes in. For life to be wonderful, wonder-filled and fulfilling, beliefs must be fully life-affirming and expansive. Chances are that all of your beliefs do not fall into that excellent category. Life has perhaps jostled you about, given you some aches and pains from the hurtful actions of others (who acted from their own crappy beliefs), and now you have some pretty jaded, edgy beliefs. That’s okay. But you don’t have to stay in that state.

Have you ever found yourself wondering about someone: ‘Gosh, they’re always so happy,’ or ‘I wonder why they are so positive all of the time?’ or ‘Life isn’t as easy for me as it is for her. I have no reason to be so happy all the time’? Most of us have, at some point or another. Those are beliefs inside of us affirming that ‘Life is full of struggle’ or ‘To succeed you must sacrifice hugely’ or ‘People will only take you seriously if you act serious all of the time.’

I beg to differ. Some of the most successful, influential, and responsible people I’ve known have also been the most relaxed, pleasant, and open-heartedly generous. Their belief systems allowed that to happen, and they simply proceeded accordingly. Their beliefs were trained and molded to support their roles of responsibility and still keep them open to the expansiveness of life. As T Harv Eker says, rich people have different beliefs about money, and their bank accounts reflect that.

I also grew up around many devout religious people. I cannot tell you how many wonderful, fun, and warm-hearted people I’ve known who cared daily for long-ill relatives, had little money, and worked very hard to simply survive. They didn’t carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, they just enjoyed their lives and got on with it, best they could.

Some of us are certainly predisposed to happiness more than others. It’s proven that about seventy percent of your happiness is genetically coded for you. However, thirty percent is a pretty high percentage when talking about your daily joy. Shifting the deepest state of your beliefs can make a huge impact on that thirty percent.

There is a marvelous book that I hope you will go out and read immediately called Bliss, by Raphael Cushnir. It is all about experiencing full-blown bliss in your life every moment of every day. And the formula is astoundingly simple. Cushnir says that it is nothing more than this: joy+love-cause=bliss.

Choosing to embrace joy and love each moment while choosing to do so without any actual cause can create a state of pure bliss. Stop and imagine for a moment what staying in that state might do to shift some of your unfortunate, unsupportive beliefs. Remember that movie Pollyanna? Not such a bad state to be in, huh?

What could you get done in a state of moment-to-moment bliss? What could you achieve? How much more energy might you have? How much more creativity might you invite out of yourself – it’s all there within you all of the time anyhow! How often will you call upon the creativity, joy, and bliss in others to shine forth? Do you sense how the fabric of the world could shift, could open up, could envelop decisions globally and, certainly, locally. What does your role in that look like? Live in the moment and choose bliss. I dare ya!