Leigh D Wilson
When I rediscovered this old camera from my childhood, it got me thinking about the beliefs that I formed at that young age and how such beliefs can either empower or disempower us.
So, how does my old childhood box camera relate to beliefs? I agree that it might not be obvious.
This is a camera I was given, I think, probably for about my ninth birthday. My brother gave it to me the other day after coming across it when going through a chest of my parent’s things.
I must say it brought back all sorts of memories. In fact, with that camera I’ve got photographs that I took at the time that are still precious to me, capturing that part of my life, my childhood.
And, perhaps it played a part in my future, because when I was at university, I worked part-time to help support myself by working as a photographer. And then, after graduating, for some years, I had a small photographic business, so I’ve always had an interest in photography, although it’s not that I’m died-hard photographer who reads all the magazines and keeps up all the latest trends. However, I do whip out my mobile phone and take a photo whenever I see something that appears to be a good shot.
So, thinking about when I was aged nine, I was reflecting on how innocent I was. Now the age of nine is in the range from 7 to 14, which is known as the Modelling Period in child development. Before that, we have the Imprint Period, which is from years 7 to 0. During the Imprint Period, as babies or young children, we take on board everything that we are told is being true and factual and we do not analyse it critically at all. This is because our brains have not developed sufficiently to enable us to do that and, for our safety, it can be critical for our safety that we believe the things that our parents or caregivers tell us.
Whereas, in the Modelling Period, for ages between seven and fourteen, we do develop a Critical Faculty so that we are able to weigh things up and decide whether things are suitable for us. We’ll also try all sorts of personas at that time to work out which way of being fits with us best.
Now, it’s at this stage of life that we form the whole lot of beliefs. Beliefs are guidelines that help guide us through life, which can be very important. On the other hand, beliefs can be so powerful that wars are fought over them.
When you look at it closely, a belief is really only an opinion, that is stated as being a fact. It’s frozen in time. So a belief is simply an opinion stated as fact and the person that holds that belief acts as if it’s a fact and conducts their life according to that.
Now, our beliefs can add to our INNER STRUGGLES, which is something that I help people with, particularly with respect to disempowering beliefs. People can have beliefs such as that they are not good enough, or that they are not attractive, or that they are not good with people and so on. These beliefs actually disempower the person holding them.
For example, at the age of nine, I had the disempowering belief that I was a not very good at arithmetic or maths. In fact, my schoolteachers had the same beliefs, if you look at my old school reports. 🙂
Fortunately for me, my parents didn’t accept this belief especially because they thought arithmetic and maths were very important and so they hired a tutor for me. As a result, my grades improved markedly and I ended up getting honours, doing three years of engineering maths as I did my civil engineering degree and had a lengthy and successful career as a structural engineer, which is very much dependent on maths.
So, by dispelling that belief, my life changed massively, in fact, entirely! So, whether we accept our beliefs or not can have a big impact on our lives.
Of course, these beliefs are formed with the immature mind of a nine-year-old, or a 7- to 14-year-old, and so, although they might suit us at the time, they may not suit us later on in life. Furthermore, if you consider that some of those beliefs will have been inherited from our parents or caregivers, which might in fact have been inherited from their parents, these beliefs can be very old.
As a result, it’s important that you make sure that your beliefs aren’t back in the era of the old box camera and that they are more suitable for the current age like a modern digital camera. Because, when you think about it, this box camera is really not fit for purpose any longer. I doubt that I could get film for it, and even if I could it might be hard to get it processed, and so on.
With that in mind, I simply encourage you as you go about your day to notice your beliefs and simply check that they are suitable for you, that that they are still appropriate and belong in the modern digital era. Otherwise, they could well be disempowering, making life harder for you, which would certainly contribute to your INNER STRUGGLES.
A lot of the work that I do with people, is helping them overcome limiting beliefs.
Anyway, I hope that this has been of interest to you. Thank you for watching
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