How Portable are your Beliefs?

If someone asked you which beliefs you always carry around, would you laugh?

I mean what a stupid notion is that really? Beliefs are in our mind and part of our character set. So location is not an issue because you carry your beliefs wherever you go. But are you sure? Really?

I came to the realization that this is not so, or not always the case.

Being 5,000 miles away from home (when I wrote this draft), I started giving the hypothesis that some beliefs are more portable than others, a serious test.

First of all, traveling and being out and about is an opportunity to expand your experiential horizon in a short period of time.

Traveling brings about change in perspective, a cocktail of new experiences but most of all the openness to traverse some mental parameters and revise old borders of behavior. I know you have a clear idea of what I am talking about.

Beliefs that are Locally Bound

We all have a set of beliefs – beliefs in our daily influences, the relationship between things and ideas which stretch over many areas of our lives.

Do these change over time? Some of them certainly do.

Do they change over place? I think so too.

This boils down to a relatively simple fact. If you are living over the same repeated life situations, more time does not equal more experience. But if place is changed in the equation, there are more chances of expanding your experiential borders.

Traveling happens to give you such an avenue of opportunity.  More than that it is an experiential window which adds enough experiences to revise some old beliefs or completely replace them with some new ones.

When beliefs are changed when experiencing a new place, that is, a new culture and way of life, it means that the beliefs you previously held were not that portable since they are either relative to place or somehow flawed and dispensable.

The earliest historical example of this is found in Greece. Ancient Greece was a very sophisticated civilization for its time. So much so that anyone who came outside the Hellenic colony was referred to as barbarian. The Greeks used to believe that their system of ethical morals and laws was absolute. When wandering teachers known as sophists used to travel outside the Greek territory they started encountering different cultures with different laws and rules of ethical conduct. Hence they also learned that such things are not absolute after all but relative. So were some of their beliefs.  They were discarded somewhere along their travels. They were not portable enough.

Space-time Independent Beliefs

There are beliefs on the other hand which are not dependent on time or place. Experience does not brush them off but rather reinforces them. These are the beliefs which come in handy in any given time and situation.

They are the core armor of our mental framework. They are indispensable to our well being and at an extreme, to our survival.

In moments of crisis or when we enter a world completely foreign to us, they are a shining beacon that guides us into safe waters.

Do you know which are those beliefs? Did you ever had the chance to test them out?

Portable Beliefs

A few examples in my case are:

• The belief that everyone wants to be happy and has the right to be so. Don’t break those rights.
• Actions have consequences, whether good or bad and we have the responsibility to consciously choose some as against others. Don’t forget this responsibility.
• We all carry a spark of divinity inside of us because we are part of it. Recognize it and nourish it and it will grow inside you no matter where you are.
• There is always another view on ‘reality’. You always see a fragment of it. Don’t take your view as absolute.
• Be calm at any time. A calm mind will always foster the right decision, the wisest choice and biggest harmony with yourself and others. There is really no greater tool than a calm, clear and sharp mind.

There are certainly other beliefs aside the examples above that I would term ‘portable’ but I will not list them all for practical reasons.

Travel Light

The relevance of this mental workout is not futile or mere curiosity. It helps us identify those beliefs which are untrue, narrow or superficial since they are only applicable to one place (or not even there if we dig deeper).

So, it also means that those beliefs are dispensable and limited. So why carry them around as dead weight? Wouldn’t it be better to replace them with more useful and empowering beliefs?

Stay light and only carry those beliefs which are portable since chances are that they are the right ones.

By time, change and inner growth should follow the natural progression of replacing limiting and redundant beliefs with beliefs that are positive, life-affirming and practically applicable in all given situations through time and place – hence as portable as possible.