Belief & Emotion

Tom Hill

Description

This book is about how your beliefs and the emotions linked to those beliefs have the power to make you happy or miserable. It is about the tremendous power of these two factors in your life, how you obtained them, why you keep them and how to alter them. It is a self help book with practical suggestions on how, by conscious thinking linked to feelings and emotions, you can change your sub conscious thought patterns and emotions and release your self from 'loop tape' thinking, negative feelings and behaviours. About twenty years ago I became ill and it was four or five years before I felt totally well again. Looking back it was the worst time if my life. My problem was what is today classed as anxiety: a dreadful illness brought on, I believe, by stress, poor nutrition, grief and the type of hectic life-style we all tend to subject ourselves to in today's society. This helped me to understand and formulate a plan that is outlined in this book. By understanding how events in your life affect 'the inner you' and by re-assessing your beliefs and the emotions linked to those beliefs you will gain the power to release yourself from negative and destructive patterns of thinking and behaviour. The only thing we can be sure of is 'change'. By using 'change' constructively on your beliefs and your emotions you can restore your inner power, your 'Chi'. This will help you to put 'the power to be happy' within your own control.

Sujets

• Assertiveness

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 27 juin 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781908354204
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title Page



BELIEF & EMOTION
THE POWER TO BE HAPPY





by Tom Hill
Bahon, 6 th Dan




Publisher Information






Published in 2011 by
GA&P ePublishing

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Digital Edition converted and distributed in 2011 by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com

Copyright © 2011 Tom Hill

The right of Tom Hill to be identified as author of this book has been asserted in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1988.




Introduction
Your goal in life - the search for wisdom

Your first task in using emotion and belief to improve your life is to decide what your goal is.
Unfortunately, this first task is the most difficult, but without it you have no firm purpose in life. Your goal should be the “goal of perfection” the person you wish to become. Only you can decide this. Let us call this goal our “definite purpose”.
Only after deciding on a “definite purpose” can you achieve a “calmness of mind” that will assist you in your task.
Only after achieving a “calmness of mind” can you discover “rest and peace”.
Only after discovering “rest and peace” can you begin to really “think”.
Only after you have learned to “think” can you achieve knowledge and wisdom.
There is a formula, a sequence of events in the acquiring of wisdom. It has a beginning, middle and an end. To understand first of all, the proper formula and sequence of events is the beginning of wisdom.
(Adapted from Confucius)



The Worst Time of My Life
Anything that does not kill you makes you stronger

About twenty years ago I became ill and it was four or five years before I felt totally well again. Looking back it was the worst time if my life. My problem was what is today classed as anxiety. A dreadful illness brought on, I believe by stress, poor nutrition, grief and the type of hectic life-style we all tend to subject ourselves to, in today’s society.
It is difficult to describe anxiety to someone who has never suffered it. A sort of dreadful depression with feelings of panic that last for hours. With the illness sometimes lasting for years. Your heart palpitates, you feel ill, you sweat, and you imagine you are contracting, or already have, all sorts of other illnesses.
It started when I was about 35 years old, I had for some months been renovating an old Victorian property out in the country. It was a difficult job all the usual pressures: time, money, tiredness, overwork, and overload. On top of this I was self employed as a Designer, ran a local Martial Arts club and a Property Business in the North of England. On moving into our new house we had to acquire a bridging loan until our other house was sold. It was an enormous sum and the weekly interest alone was three times an average person’s salary.
Although we had a buyer for our former house there were problems on the day of moving and the sale looked in jeopardy. We had no choice but to move into our new home, I had managed to install a bath and toilet but the rest was plaster off the walls, doors off, wires hanging, a cement mixer in the dining room and a constant trail of mud from the surrounding garden. As well as trying to sort out our domestic situation I was also trying to set up my studio so that I could continue to earn some money to try and finance my enormous undertaking.
I was obviously pressing the stress button big time.
On the very night we moved into the property. I had a phone call from my brother in law informing me that my father had died that evening. I was about 35 years old at the time. My father meant a great deal to me, although at the time, I like every son since time began, did not realise it. Nor did I appreciate him enough. It has been a lesson I learned the hard way and these day I always advise my younger Martial Arts students to make the most of their Dad. I realise that not every one has a good relationship with their father but if you ask yourself the rather morbid question ‘How would I feel if he died tomorrow?’ or ‘What should I do before he dies? Then you may take some action that will help you resolve your feelings in the future. The same applies to your Mother and everyone else you care about.
Burt had always been a good Dad, I loved and respected him and had tremendous admiration for what he and his generation had been through. Born 1910 and died in 1987 he had been brought up during the First World War, fought in the Second World War - D-Day, Juno Beach and the hell that preceded and followed it. He drove an Army truck and was wounded in action by enemy aircraft.
We all worry today about our circumstances but compared to his generation we have had a very easy time of it. For several weeks after my Fathers death I experienced a nagging tooth ache and I now believe it was a physical manifestation of the mental pain I felt at his loss. It is interesting that mental anguish can and does create actual physical symptoms.
It was shortly after my Fathers death that I felt my resolve snap like a dry twig. It happened while working on a particularly difficult and frustrating job trying to get my studio ready for work. It was an interesting feeling looking back on it. It was obviously a feeling or a mental thought but it felt physical, as if something had snapped inside. The break took a long time to mend.
Much later I began to realize that your beliefs and your emotions are the two most powerful influences in anyone’s life. I also realized that emotion or feeling was the stronger.
Your beliefs could be classed as strongly held thoughts. Possibly based on religion but perhaps based on no particular religious creed. You can have for instance a cultural belief: that it is a good thing to work hard. You may have various beliefs about sex, about right and wrong about race, about the law, about politics, about almost any subject you consider. Your beliefs are not set in stone they can be changed, they can be modified. There may be no need to change them if you feel good and they cause you no undue problems. But they are the motivators that make you what you are. If you wish to change, then you must first take a long analytical look at your personal belief system.
It is worth some time to deeply consider your strongest beliefs and try to remember how you picked them up. Was it from your parents your teacher someone you respected. Were they passed on with knowledge and sympathy or drilled into you. It can be great for your self understanding to spend time considering how you acquired your beliefs and whether they are worth keeping or modifying. Do they empower you or disrupt you. Do they make you feel good about yourself or fearful and miserable?
Your emotions are a little more mysterious and are generally harder to understand. While your beliefs mainly occupy your conscious mind, your emotions dwell in your subconscious. While your beliefs can appear reasonable, sometimes your feelings can appear unreasonable. Problems arise when your feelings conflict with your beliefs.
To me this became apparent when I was easily able to reason out my problems of the time. I was fine I could work out all my problems in a perfectly reasonable and logical manner. There was nothing wrong with my rational reasoning powers. I would sell our first house, reduce the bridging loan. I would finish the work on the house. I could come to terms with my Fathers death; it would just take time and so on and so forth. I could resolve all my problems with a little thought and logic. So why was I worrying?
The problem was I didn’t feel good, I was having panic attacks, I was depressed, and I was exhausted at the slightest effort. I told myself to stop worrying - that everything would be OK! Telling yourself or anyone else for that matter to stop worrying is probably one of the most pointless statements anyone can utter. If I could have stopped worrying, believe me, I would have. It was causing me some immense problems.
In some ways the feelings I was suffering were not helped by my family’s history. My mother had endured many years of mental illness and had been hospitalised several times. Beginning in and throughout my teenage years I had seen my Mothers mental health deteriorate. There were many visits to the Psychiatric Wards of the local hospital. It was a very difficult time and put my Father and sister and myself under the most enormous emotional strain. My Mother even underwent the Frankenstein procedure of Electro Convulsive Therapy several times. This is a therapy were an electric current is sent through the brain in the hope of shocking the patient out of their morose mental state and although a horrific procedure – it did seem to work. Although she never fully recovered to the mother I remembered. Those years were another testament to my Fathers enormous strength in that he managed to keep himself and the family together.
My Father had just died but my Mother was still alive and still unwell she was just about coping with a lot of help from my sister. I lived 200 miles away from them both and could not offer much help. I was worried that I may be starting to suffer the same problems.
My wife was also suffering. Along with a share of our mutual stress she was obviously worried about me. She started to loose the hair on her head and had bald patc