Message from the President
Dear HKICC Friends,
In my coaching practice, one of the issues I like to review with my clients is their belief system. I ask my clients questions so as to explore what beliefs drive them and what beliefs are holding them back. It’s always very important to review our beliefs from time to time to see what is serving us and what is holding us back. We may be inadvertently holding on to irrational beliefs, which we have accumulated from past experiences, whereas these beliefs may no longer be serving us, or worse, may be holding us back from living a full life.
Several years ago, I read a story in a book about beliefs, which really drove home the point of how we can be completely shackled by irrational beliefs and not even realize it. In this story, there’s a man (we’ll call him Jack), who works as a photographer for a publication somewhat like National Geographic. His job takes him to remote lands and countries, looking for unspoiled lands to photograph places and people. One day, his travels take him to the deepest, darkest parts of Africa. He takes a guide with him and to get to the destination they have to travel by road, then by kayak, and then by foot. They reach this village, where there are no phones, no TV, no radio, no internet, where basically the people are completely cut off from the developed world, and are still using fire for their energy.
In the center of the village, Jack notices a man, slumped down on the ground, and there is a circle drawn in the dirt around him. This man is slumped on the ground inside this circle. The man is crying, pleading, and generally very distressed. People are walking past him, either taunting him, throwing stones at him, or ignoring him completely, but no one is going up to him to offer any assistance.
Jack is disturbed by this scene, and asks his guide what is going on. The guide explains to him that in this village, when someone commits a crime, the villagers go after him, and when they catch him, they pin him down to the ground and draw a circle around him. Then the village elder comes and performs a little ritual around him and says a few words somewhat like putting a curse on him, after which the man cannot leave the circle. Jim asks the guide “But what is stopping him from getting up and walking off, out of the circle?” And the guide, looking serious and alarmed at the thought, answers “If he does, bad luck will befall him and his entire family for generations to come!”
Jim is amazed by this revelation. Watching the man weeping and pleading to the passing public, he asks the guide “When will the man be set free?” and the guide explains that when the man is remorseful enough, and when the villagers are satisfied and convinced that he will not commit a crime again, they will call the village elder who will say a few words again to release him. This could take days, it could take weeks, maybe months it just depends on what exactly he did and how remorseful he is, and how convinced the villagers are that he will not commit an offence again.
Jack finds this almost unbelievable! This man is imprisoned for an indefinite amount of time in a prison that has no chains, no walls, no bars, and in fact, nothing physically restraining. So what is his prison made of? His prison is his mind! His belief system! And nothing more. He believes that by getting up and walking out of the circle, disaster will befall him and his family for generations.
How many of us are holding on to beliefs that are imprisoning us, or holding us back? How may of us are prisoners of our own thoughts (and don’t even realize it)? These prisons we create can feel very, very real, just as for the man in the circle.
Now, imagine if the man in the circle was able to view his world through Jack's eyes for a brief moment. Imagine the clarity he would experience from that perspective. He would be able to see that his suffering is all in his mind, all created by his culture and his belief system.
Sometimes it’s important to be able to step out of ourselves, and review our own internal belief systems to determine whether they are serving us, or imprisoning us. We may be surprised to realize that our suffering is not real, but only a creation of our own beliefs.
Anita Moorjani, President, HKICC
president@coachinghk.org
