Vered’s Blog

People say that we live in times of change. I say we live in times of transformation. There is a huge difference between change and transformation. What we need today is not just change we need transformation.

Transformation happens when you choose to question your beliefs, opinions and point of view. It is that simple!

Most of us grew up with an immense assortment of rigid, inflexible, and permanent concepts. We learned them at home, in school, and within our society and culture.
We were taught that maintaining strong beliefs, opinions and points of view makes one a powerful, reliable, grounded, serious, and intelligent person.

Well, is that so?

Let’s imagine that you have to cross a river. You look everywhere, until finally you find a boat. Happily you row the boat to the other shore. There, you find a desert, which you need to cross, in order to get to your destination. You put the boat on your shoulders and start crossing the desert.

Smart ha? As funny as it sound, this is how we regularly deal with issues in our lives.

We find a belief, a concept, a principal that works for us in a certain situation. And then we try to forcefully apply it to any other situation coming our way. When it doesn’t work, therefore becoming a burden on our shoulders, we don’t even question it. Instead, we blame the desert, the sun or the government, but we never question our need of the boat.

In today’s economical climate, environmental climate and health care climate, we MUST transform our beliefs. There is no time anymore just for change

One of our limiting beliefs is that it takes time to change, or that it is a process. Let’s get clear about it.

Change is gradual (growing old). Transformation happens in an instant (growing up).

Change is local and temporary (losing weight). Transformation is wider and permanent (becoming healthy).

Change is in the outside circumstances (avoiding fearful situations). Transformation is in the inner world, which creates the outer circumstances (transforming fear into excitement).

You cannot create transformation, only the conditions for it to occur. You need to question your concepts and be open to the answers. Allow whatever answer that comes, to be there.

On the surface it appears that there is no risk in questioning your old beliefs, opinions and points of view.
If after questioning them, they seem to support you, then reclaim them. This time they are yours (not your parents’, teachers’, society’s, church’s, etc…)

If they are not supporting you then dropping them becomes an enormous advantage. A gift to yourself.
But if it is that simple, why is it that we usually need a major crisis (heart attack, divorce, accident) in order to do it?

There is one risk!
The risk of discovering that for a longer or shorter while, we held onto concepts that were false. Meaning, we made a mistake. Which we translate as ‘I am stupid.’ And we don’t like to admit that? Do we?
For some people this realization comes with the old monopoly metaphor: “it is like going back to square number one!”

My reply? “It is better than spending the rest of your life in jail!”