NO ONE LIKES TO CHANGE THEIR PRESENT LEVEL OF AWARENESS
We find it difficult to change our present level of awareness because—
- What we are picturing and imagining in our minds is based on what we now believe is the Truth, regardless of how faulty or distorted it may be. Our minds control our actions and reactions.
- It is easier to give excuses or, as we prefer to call them, “logical reasons” why it isn’t necessary, or even possible, to change.
- We seek only those experiences that support our present values and avoid, resist or, if necessary, forcibly reject those which areinconsistent with our existing beliefs.
- We have built and programmed into our subconscious minds and central nervous systems the wrong responses to life situations that cause us to respond the way we have been programmed. In other words, we respond to the way we have been conditioned to FEEL and ACT. This “system” is one of our own creations and only we can change its basic patterns.
Intellectually, we may agree that there are things in our life that we should change, but we almost always feel that our situation is different from everyone
else’s. This causes us to avoid, resist and, if necessary, forcibly reject any idea that threatens our beliefs. Take, for example, the alcoholic.
From his viewpoint of life, it seems rational to continue drinking. The drug user, the compulsive gambler and the compulsive eater all feel the same way about
their respective additions.
They rationalize their actions based on their present level of awareness, however faulty it may be. The major stumbling block to changing our awareness is that we reuse to recognize that our “mistaken certainties” have distorted our perception.
This is why it is important, from time to time, to challenge our beliefs to see if we may be operating from the wrong viewpoint. The beliefs of a person who has a normal, wholesome personality undergo a constant process of reorganization, but the neurotic personality clings to his beliefs, false and distorted though they may
be. Usually the only way the neurotic will change is when a major crisis forces him to alter his old selfdefeating habit patterns.
If your mind has been programmed or conditioned to accept false and distorted concepts and values, you will develop a lifestyle to justify them. You will assume that something is true, even though it is false. Then, seeking to prove you are right, you will collect and make the facts fit. You become like a dog chasing its tail. One false belief leads to another until you can no longer function rationally