Chimi Kyo

Suppose your spouse is late. You believe that the reason s/he Is late is that s/he does not respect your time. In other words, s/he does not respect you. You begin to simmer and when you see him/her, you are not going to be happy.

What if the reason you believe s/he is late is that s/he may have been involved in a car accident (especially after hearing a news report of massive pile-up near his/her workplace). There is no answer from his/her phone. S/he is seldom late. This time you feel worried. Concerned. Your heart races. Finally, you heave a relief seeing him/her from far. S/he is safe. You are happy to see him/her this time (though you also thought of strangling him/her for not answering the phone)

What you thought and believed created two very different sets of feelings and motivated how you behaved.

How powerful is our thought life!

Two similar activating events being filtered by two different belief systems produce two different consequent behaviors as illustrated in the proceeding narrative.

Another example
Two shoes salesmen from two different companies went to a new town to do a market survey, on called up the company and said, “Cancel all the orders. People in this town do not wear shoes.” the other salesmen called his company, “Double the orders! People in this town do not wear shoes, so it is our golden opportunity to be the prime mover.”

Same event, but produces different behaviors and different results. The key lies in our belief system.

A glass can be half empty or half full, depending on our belief system, our perspective. (One smart guy even said, “if the glass is half empty, then use a smaller glass.” Clever)

The Inward Journey of live well, love much, laugh often by Apelles Poh.