One Apple A Day #216
The philosopher Immanuel Kant described human behaviours and their connection to underlying thoughts or beliefs as follows:
1. I see a tiger (perception)
2. I believe that I am in danger (thought)
3. I feel afraid (feeling/emotion)
4. I run (behaviour)
So, our behaviours are not based on reality (there is a tiger, I run) but on our thoughts and emotions connected to the perception of reality.
Most of the time the steps from 1 to 4 happen so fast that we are not aware of the process. It is part of our survival imprinting. When even the smallest delay in taking action is critical for survival, we can’t waste time thinking about what to do. So our brain is wired to go from the perception of the action without conscious thought.
This path connecting the perception to the behaviour is what form an underlying belief. A combination of thoughts and emotions that we activate to respond to a situation. Most of the time, our underlying beliefs are invisible to us. We created them during our first years of life, and they became part of who we are. And they are great when they serve us. They make us very efficient and effective. When our goals in life are aligned with our underlying beliefs, we move faster and get things done. But what happens when we want to do something but it looks like we can’t. In these cases, there is probably an underlying belief working against your goal. Your conscious mind wants to do something, but your underlying belief makes you behave against your goal.
Becoming aware of our underlying beliefs can help us in adopting strategies to overcome our own limitations and achieve what we desire.