There are people who consider themselves lucky and there are people who consider themselves unlucky, and some people do not believe in luck at all.

Your beliefs determine your views about yourself and your world.  And in this case if one believes that one is lucky, or unlucky it can have an impact on your action, emotions and overall life satisfaction.  In situations like these, you may end up in a loop, which could become a self fulfilling prophecy.

In one of the Harry Potter movies, Ron is anxious and uncertain about his ensuing game of quidditch.  Harry pretends to mix a drop of liquid luck in Ron’s drink. Ron believes that he has drunk the liquid luck potion and hence believes that luck favours him.  It is his belief (that he is lucky)- that makes him feel confident and makes him successful in the game, though he hadn’t consumed the luck potion actually.

In a study by psychologist Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, author of the 2003 book – The Luck Factor, he compares people who consider themselves lucky or unlucky.

In the study the participants are given a bunch of newspapers under asked to count the number of pictures printed on the newspapers.  Most of the people who consider themselves to be lucky were able to determine the answer to the question very quickly, when compared to most of the people who considered themselves unlucky.

The reason for this was that, on the second page he had placed the answer to the question saying there are X number of pictures in this newspaper.  Most of the people who considered themselves lucky, were able to find this entry, thereby finding the solution of the task given, when compared to most of the people who considered  themselves unlucky, who didn’t find the solution in the second page, and so continued to count the pictures in the rest of the pages.

Our thoughts, emotions, behavior are all interlinked and influence one another.

So if you believe that you are lucky, it can generate positive emotions in you, like feeling motivated, energized, excited, optimistic and forward looking thereby enabling you to be more aware of your situations, environment, opportunities.

On the other hand, if you believe that you are unlucky, you can make you feel demotivated, unenthusiastic, not in control, pessimistic, and thereby you might not be alert, vigilant, unaware of the situation and may end up losing many opportunities. This creates vicious cycle that makes your belief even more strong that you are not lucky.

It does not mean that, by just believing that you are lucky, you will be able to accomplish the goals that you want to.  You would still need to put in the effort that is required.  But it enables you to put in your effort in a better, smarter and focused manner. It doesn’t mean you take unreasonable risks but calculated ones.  It keeps you positive, motivated and energized, increasing the possibility of identifying opportunities and probability of success.

About the Author:

Kala Balasubramanian is certified Counselling Psychologist/Psychotherapist with a Masters in Counselling and Psychotherapy, Diplomas in Counselling and has further certifications specializing in couple/marriage/relationship counselling and family counselling.  She provides a supportive, understanding, professional and confidential environment to work with clients – Individuals and Couples explore their emotions, help them understand and manage their challenges, relationships and stress better.

The post Does luck play a role in your success or failure? first appeared on Inner Dawn Counselling.

If the answers to these questions are ‘Yes’, read on.

First Step – Awareness. Be aware of your thoughts and their strength. Be aware that you look at your world through the lens of your beliefs. Your beliefs define your perception of your world.

Second Step – Question your beliefs. There are many different techniques to question your beliefs. Reality testing is a technique to keep asking for “Real” proof to substantiate your beliefs. For e.g., – I am no good. Question yourself – is it true that I cannot find even one thing about me that I am good or good at?

Third Step – Once you are convinced that the belief is untrue, construct a belief to replace the untrue one. The new belief needs to be realistic and true.

All these steps are easier said than done. If you have significant emotions associated with your earlier belief that has stemmed from your childhood or other experiences, you would need to resolve some of those emotions before you attempt to work on your beliefs.

Counselling can help you identify your unhelpful beliefs, help you question them and incorporate helpful beliefs in their place in a warm and safe environment.

The post Can I change my Beliefs ? first appeared on Inner Dawn Counselling.

A thought by itself may not have significant power over you. But a thought that has significant emotions associated to it, that you regard as true, a thought that has been ingrained into you as a belief has a lot of power.

Beliefs about yourself, have a lot of say about who you are, what you become and how you feel about yourself. Beliefs about others define your behavior, attitude towards others. Beliefs regarding life situations define how you get impacted in everyday life. Your beliefs define your perspective, the way you perceive yourself and your world around you.

Your beliefs could have been formed based on your own experiences in childhood or later, from the cultural aspects of your upbringing or surroundings, from observing your parents during your childhood etc.

Some of your beliefs may be confining you. Some of them may be unhelpful to you even hurting you. Though you may realize that some of your beliefs are not helping you but hurting you, yet it is fairly difficult to challenge your own beliefs.

Why is it so difficult to challenge your own beliefs or to change your beliefs? It is because you consider your beliefs to be yourself. When you try to argue against your beliefs, you reckon you are arguing against yourself. To even consider the possibility that you may have to admit that you are wrong is so painful. Some times your beliefs give you comfort and helps you avoid the pain of admitting the reality.

For eg, “I will not succeed”. This belief may help you avoid the guilt that you will need to face if you have not put enough effort into your work. But the resulting failure will act to reinforce your belief that “I will not succeed”. The belief is unhelpful to you that it influences a string of failures in your life.

The post The power of your beliefs first appeared on Inner Dawn Counselling.