Belief is so powerful it actually alters your perception of reality to reinforce your belief. Belief drives the way we think, the actions we take, and the outcomes we face. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy to some degree.
CBT Cognitive Behavioral Therapy delves into some of this in more depth. I highly recommend it.
As for the state of affairs we find ourselves in now, divided, unable to understand each other, seeing each other as the enemy, this is due to how we have been taught to believe. The power of media, social conditioning, upbringing, environment, all play roles in what we come the believe, and how we see the world, which reinforces those beliefs.
Unless we open our minds, discover our beliefs and question them (where did they come from, what purpose to they serve, how do they make me feel, do I like the life they have given me?) Will won’t begin to understand our beliefs, lets alone choose them consciously for ourselves.
As children we absorbed everything in our homes, at school, on TV, and learned to belief a certain way about the world. We didn’t know this what happening. It’s just what was happening. It was what was normal.
As we grow up we our building our lives upon these beliefs and it can take work to see how are life’s were constructed upon the foundation of our beliefs, and how our beliefs helped create our reality.
I spent decades practicing honest self reflection on every aspect of my life. I have gained some self-awareness around my true underlying motivations, and the beliefs that give rise to them. I have only begun to scratch the surface.
If we are to understand anything beyond what we learned to believe we must question it with an open honest mind and do so over time until it becomes the most valuable tool we have, access to our root code, where it all began, and what everything is build on. Our beliefs. Not really ours. Just what we picked up along the way.
Our beliefs are what we consciously choose from the self-awareness that comes from understanding the beliefs we unconsciously chose, where they came from, how they affected us, and what purpose they played.