@cmc, sorry, you have lost me. The belief is that nothing changes and the evidence shows that. So, if the belief is that beliefs can't change, then how can you change the belief that beliefs can't change? That is the dilemma.

That is not to say you will necessarily need help with all the tricky ones- you have one example now, that should make it easier to spot others.

@cmc, I was about to argue, but deleted my comment. I am not sure how to find this. It feels very locked-down. Like a prison. Like I am trying to see the outside from the inside and I'm not sure there is an outside. My brain feels totally frozen.

@cmc, you were right, underneath that sits "if anything were to change, it would only get worse". Not sure how to shift that. Again, my mind is showing me all the evidence of why that is true. And honestly it feels really scary. Thank you so much.

@Antheia Thank you, I know!

You don't have to shift that- you discovered it, it's gone. Congratulations!

Experience doesn't mean anything, so it's not evidence of anything at all. It's just experience. It only seems like evidence when you have- guess what- a belief about it. Keep going. When your mind shows you these things- what would you have to believe in order to feel that way?

@cmc, here is the thing, though. I uncovered the belief that things will just get worse, but now that is not gone. That was why I was confused about what Bashar said. I am not finding that the beliefs go when you find them. They become conscious, which is good, but they don't go.

Thank you for the insight on this. My mind really wanted to fight you on the first point! Thank you again so much.

@Antheia Thanks, I know! It takes bravery to allow strangers on the Internet to analyze your beliefs.

I have a somewhat different interpretation- I think the belief is gone, but you may still have similar ones. Look closely. Keep going.

@cmc, thank you - you are very kind to keep helping.

@Antheia Absolutely! And thank you for letting me, it feels great to be helpful.

@cmc, when you say keep going, do you suggest going back to the original belief that nothing can change and see if there are similar beliefs to the one that things will just get worse underlying it, or do I start with the latest one I uncovered?

I don't know how to explain this, but since starting to work with this, it feels like my brain is foggy and frozen and doesn't want to let me get to the stuff underneath. Is this usual? How does one overcome the brain's reticence?

@Antheia You couldn't go back to the original belief if you wanted to- once you uncover it, it's gone. You can recreate it- and that's what happens by accidnet when you assume a similar belief is the original one.

So when you think the belief came back, assume it's a similar one. It might be almost identical, but it also might lead you to other, similar beliefs, that you also can uncover and consider gone.

Do you notice the word assume here? That is your power. You chose your assumption.

Fogginess and frozenness is just a habitual reaction of resistance. You don't overcome it, you uncover the beliefs it is based on, one by one, and it will disappear.

As you may have noticed, this is not like waving a magic wand- this is like digging a hole with a shovel. You keep going until the job is done.

@cmc, I edited my question to add a bit. This has been a powerful experience and I am hoping to work with this more. Thank you for the help!

@cmc, " Experience doesn't mean anything, so it's not evidence of anything at all. It's just experience. It only seems like evidence when you have- guess what- a belief about it." This is brilliant :) and changed a lot of things for me. I would like to ask you a question about this conversation that has to do with what @Antheia is asking on her edit - I would like to know your opinion about this: in the book, the author said that to uncover all the negative beliefs would almost impossible...

@cmc, @Antheia - If the person keeps pursuing all those negative beliefs, it may be a road without an end. The author proposed the following: suppose you have a jar full of candies, and you have yellow candies for negative beliefs and red candies for the positive beliefs. Instead of taking out the yellow candies, we should be adding lots and lots of red candies, until the candies overflowed out, and the yellow candies would fall out of the jar, letting only the red ones...

@cmc, " Experience doesn't mean anything, so it's not evidence of anything at all. It's just experience. It only seems like evidence when you have- guess what- a belief about it." This is brilliant :) and changed a lot of things for me. I would like to ask you a question about this conversation that has to do with what @Antheia is asking on her edit - I would like to know your opinion about this: in one book, I read, the author said that to uncover all the negative beliefs...

@cmc, @Antheia - would be almost impossible; that it could be a road without an end. He proposed this: suppose you have a jar full of candies, yellow ones for the negative beliefs and red ones for positive. In order to take the yellow ones from the jar, you should add red candies until the jar overflows, until all the yellow ones get out from the preassure of the read ones...

@cmc, @Antheia - Which means that, by adding positive beliefs, the negative ones would diminish and disappear. Would you agree with that?

@VitoriaRegia Oh thank you so much! Oh, what I said is brilliant!!! I'm blushing now, but do keep talking... ;) I do know it is true.

I think the candy analogy is great! Well, except that you keep filling the jar with different colored candies because what's positive for you changes over time.

A sticky negative belief happens when a candy melts and gets stuck to the wall, and to each other, until there is a kind of net of stuckness. Then you need to gently dislodge them by noticing the seams.

@Antheia If it's not too much to ask, could you edit your followup question back out, and put it into a new question? This Q&A format works best one at a time, I have found, and you get more karma points to boot, which is a fun game ;)

@cmc, will do! And I love the way you explained about the candy getting stuck to the wall and to other candies. That is such a good analogy!

Thank you for the help.

@Antheia Oh thank you so much!

When you are examining your beliefs, what you are doing is prodding the candies with your thoughts. The candies are thought too, after all, so they respond to prodding. When the bonds weaken, the candy starts to flow.

It's nice to have a good candy flow! ;)

@cmc, thank you for sharing your point of view :)

@cmc, you said that if the belief comes back, it is probably similar, but not the same. I felt so much relief after finding the underlying belief and the endless ruminating pretty much stopped - bliss! And then it came back, and it is the same old refrain. Is that a different underlying belief, or an echo, or what could cause it to come back again? Any thoughts would be so appreciated.

@Antheia Bliss! Oh isn't that nice.

Stop assuming it came back, start assuming it's a different but similar belief, and repeat the process like you would for a radically different looking one.