{"id":2411,"date":"2010-05-08T10:55:21","date_gmt":"2010-05-08T18:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=2411"},"modified":"2013-09-30T07:36:07","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T15:36:07","slug":"is-that-all-there-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/is-that-all-there-is\/","title":{"rendered":"Is That All There Is?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

<\/a><\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Reckon<\/a>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Many years ago a pop singer named Peggy Lee recorded a song titled, \u201cIs That All There Is?\u201d \u00a0She sang about how her life had turned out, ending each verse with the plea: \u201cIs that all there is?\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately those words could sum up the lives of millions of people today whose lives have not fulfilled the promise they felt as children.\u00a0 Our romantic relationship (if we even have one) is okay, but \u201cis that all there is?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 We go to work (if we do) but the excitement about our jobs (if there ever was any) seems to have dimmed.\u00a0 We get by financially (if we do) but there never seems to be enough.\u00a0 And life in general is okay (we don\u2019t need a therapist), but life would be so much more fulfilling if only\u2026.\u00a0 Is that all there is?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to suggest that there is a simple explanation why this feeling is so common and that there is a simple solution also.<\/p>\n

Imagine that as a child you formed several beliefs about life, including There’s never enough, Nothing I do is good enough, No matter what I have, it\u2019s never enough, No matter how good things get there always seems to be something missing, I\u2019ll never get what I want, <\/em>and I\u2019ll never have enough money\/love\/friends\/success<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If you held beliefs like these, how satisfied do you think you would be with life?\u00a0 \u2026 Wouldn\u2019t you be feeling, Is that all there is?<\/p>\n

Ultimately all of our thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and perceptions are the result of the beliefs we formed earlier in life.\u00a0 So if you want to change your experience of life you have to change the beliefs that determine your view of life.\u00a0 When limiting beliefs are eliminated, new possibilities open up and we quickly discover that there is a lot more we can do and have than we ever thought possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me give you another example.\u00a0 Assume you had the beliefs: I\u2019m not loveable. Relationships don\u2019t work.\u00a0 Men\/women can\u2019t be trusted.<\/em><\/p>\n

With these beliefs, you\u2019d never form a really good, nurturing, long-term romantic relationship, would you?\u00a0 And you\u2019d be thinking about the absence of such a relationship in your life, wondering: Is that all there is?<\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s assume you completely eliminate those beliefs.\u00a0 Can you see you have just created the possibility<\/em><\/strong> of a good, nurturing, long-term relationship that literally didn\u2019t exist before<\/strong>? There is no guarantee you will ever find such a relationship, but the possibility exists now that didn\u2019t exist before. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one of the most powerful consequences of eliminating beliefs: You not only change your behavior and feelings, you actually change the reality you live in.\u00a0 And you realize that there is a lot more to life than you ever thought possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The possibilities that exist in your reality are defined by your beliefs.<\/strong> When you say something is impossible it actually becomes impossible for you<\/strong>. If you believe Life is difficult<\/em>, you will experience things not going the way you wanted them to go as upsetting obstacles rather than exciting challenges.\u00a0 If you believe I\u2019m not capable<\/em> or I\u2019m not competent<\/em>, would you likely try to do something you thought was difficult?\u00a0 And if you tried, do you think you would succeed with these beliefs?<\/p>\n

About 25 years ago I developed the Lefkoe Belief Process (LBP) that has helped over 13,000 clients eliminate many limiting beliefs.\u00a0 Let me explain how you can use it to eliminate some of your own negative beliefs.<\/p>\n

To get a sense of how the LBP works, please try the following mental exercise: Assume your parents were very critical of you most of the time and rarely acknowledged you for your achievements.\u00a0 No matter what you did, they focused on what you didn\u2019t do and how you should have done better.\u00a0 If this was the pattern of their interactions with you, there literally would be thousands of them by the time you were six or seven years old.\u00a0 What would you have concluded about yourself by this time?<\/p>\n

If you were typical of most children, you would have concluded that There’s something wrong with me<\/em> or I’m not good enough<\/em>. You would have experienced these beliefs as \u201cthe truth\u201d about you as a child.\u00a0 Today, as an adult, even though you might consciously realize the beliefs were silly and illogical, on some deep level you still would experience them as the truth about you.<\/p>\n

If you were to recall your childhood, it would seem to you that you could \u201csee\u201d that I’m not good enough<\/em>. In other words, when you visualized your parents being critical, it would seem as if you also were visualizing I’m not good enough<\/em>. It\u2019s as if your parent\u2019s behavior inherently meant I’m not good enough<\/em>. It would be so real to you that you could see your belief in the world that it seems you could say to someone: \u201cIf you were there watching my interactions with my parents, you also would see I’m not good enough<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if you looked carefully at the events that led to the belief, namely, your parents\u2019 behavior, you would realize that their frequent criticism and lack of acknowledgement could have a number of different meanings, each one as valid as the one you chose. For example:<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My parents thought that being critical would motivate me to excel.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My parents had lousy parenting skills.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My parents may have thought I wasn\u2019t good enough, but they were wrong.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe I wasn\u2019t good at doing certain things, but that doesn’t mean I, as a person, am not good enough.<\/p>\n

\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe my parents were dissatisfied with my behavior<\/em>, but they didn’t think I<\/em> wasn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

If you now tried to visualize I’m not good enough<\/em> \u201cout there in the world,\u201d you would realize you couldn’t, because you really never did see<\/strong> it. All you actually saw was your parents’ behavior. And if that behavior could have a number of valid meanings, it has no single inherent meaning. \u00a0In other words, the events\u2014as unpleasant as they might have been\u2014had no inherent meaning.\u00a0 You can\u2019t draw any necessary conclusion about yourself as a human being based on the way your parents treated you as a child.\u00a0 Therefore, you would be forced to conclude that the only place that meaning has ever existed has been as a belief in your mind.<\/p>\n

When you reach this point, the belief has been transformed from \u201cthe<\/strong> <\/em>truth\u201d to \u201ca <\/strong>truth\u201d and is no longer a belief.\u00a0 If you were to state the words of the belief, they would sound silly and meaningless.<\/p>\n

This short exercise explains why it usually is difficult to get rid of beliefs: We think we \u201csaw\u201d the belief inherent in our observations.\u00a0 It is difficult to talk someone out of something they think they \u201csaw.\u201d\u00a0 As soon, however, as we realize that we never saw the belief (i.e., the meaning) in the events,<\/strong> that the meaning existed only in our mind,<\/strong> the belief disappears.<\/p>\n

Try eliminating a few of the beliefs that make you feel, Is that all there is?, and discover that much more is possible in your life than you ever dreamed.<\/p>\n

Morty Lefkoe<\/a> blogs about how the Lefkoe Belief Process <\/a>quickly and permanently eliminates the crippling beliefs that cause virtually all our problems. <\/em><\/p>\n

Don’t Forget To Follow PickTheBrain on Twitter<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

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Imagine that as a child you formed several beliefs about life, including There’s never enough, Nothing I do is good enough, No matter what I have, it\u2019s never enough, No matter how good things get there always seems to be something missing, I\u2019ll never get what I want, and I\u2019ll never have enough money\/love\/friends\/success. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[455,46,280,453,454,66,4639,4629,4640],"yoast_head":"\nIs That All There Is?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ultimately all of our thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and perceptions are the result of the beliefs we formed earlier in life. 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