Everyday Wisdom: Articles about The Power of Belief

This month we present the first in a series of articles designed to help you uncover and change the beliefs that hold you back. The article below is by Dr. Gene Nathan, pediatrician, Wisdom Group Mentor, and long time apprentice of Don Miguel Ruiz, author of The Four Agreement.

"Each day rushes on with more to do than there is time to do it. A perpetual merry-go-round that never stops so you can get off. What would happen if you suddenly stopped the world even for just a few moments? Better yet, what would happen if you stopped your personal interpretation of everything, allowing yourself to observe the world without your habitual lens of belief? What you might see is a new world of possibility without the story. Your story.

To stop the world is to practice awareness, and for just a moment, surrender your description of everything that keeps your attention occupied."

-From The Power of Belief by Ray Dodd, Hampton Roads Publishing

Silence is an enormous act of power. To refrain from comment, reaction, stating the obvious, voicing our opinion, informing, forewarning, or continuing the conversation, is an act of courage in our society. When silence occurs, it is often an uncomfortable pause. There is the urge to SAY SOMETHING.

If someone gives us a conversational opening, it beckons us; it seems to have a magnetic force over us to respond. If someone complains, we feel compelled to offer sympathy. If someone empathizes with us, we must make some acknowledgment. If someone offers us information, or tidbits about someone we know, we are expected to ask for elaboration. If someone asks, if the phone rings, if someone says hello, it is an unwritten law that our first act is to respond.

Silence is hard. It takes an enormous effort for most of us to maintain it. And yet it is a very powerful tool.

Just not speaking for an hour, a day, a weekend, except to clarify instructions or directions is incredibly freeing. You can feel the freedom almost immediately. You don't have to respond. You have laryngitis, you have taken a vow of silence, your doctor won't permit you. The freedom you feel is immediate. And then the awareness begins. You begin to truly HEAR what people are saying, and why they say it. You can begin to notice what is behind the voice. The fear, the loneliness, the mindlessness, the boredom, the expectation, the poison, the hurt. All of it.

And one more thing. You notice how you aren't so silent yourself, even with your outer voice turned off. There is a conversation, many conversations, going on all day, and all night in your mind! Sure you quieted down outside. But what about inside? Internal silence is needed if we wish to find the space between the conversations.

But after practice, space opens up at last! There is breath in and out. There is silence. And after a while something arises in that silence. Something that wasn't thought of. Something that wasn't predicted. Something genuinely new at least for you. An act of creation.

Ray Dodd, author of the new book The Power of Belief, is a professional life and workplace coach, teacher and Toltec mentor personally trained by don Miguel Ruiz, author of the best-selling book, The Four Agreements. As the co-founder of everydayWisdom, he helps both individuals and businesses forge new beliefs and agreements to affect lasting and positive change. Ray can be reached at ray@everydaywisdom.us .