While riding in the backseat of a taxi recently, we stopped for a red light. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a man in a hooded jacket, holding up a torn-edged piece of cardboard. I glanced over at the sign and, to my surprise and delight, read the words, Smile – it’s OK.

That’s all. No requests for money, food or anything else. All this man wanted to receive from strangers driving by was the warmth of their smile.

The Universe shows up in strange and wondrous ways to shake us off our complacency, to wake us up to the Truth of our lives.

The lesson I received this day was about judgments. Where do these judgments come from? Obviously when we are born, we arrive with a clean “database” so to speak. Then stuff starts getting programmed in. We observe, feel, taste and sniff our way in the world until we can speak, then we begin verbalizing. All the while, we are adding information to our files. Along the way, others also begin inputting data. If held in our brains long enough, this raw data turns into something called a belief.

My dear friend Abraham says that a belief is the same thought that we continue to hold. Aha, a clue to unlocking the mystery of beliefs. Change your thought, change your belief. OK, got it! But is it really that simple?

Another teacher/mentor of mine was recently discussing beliefs. He said we have file cabinets in our heads that are full of little cards. Each time someone proclaims something as a definitive statement, we put it on a card and file it away. Then whenever an event happens, our minds go to the specific file, pull out the cards and bring up all the things we were told about a subject. Interesting way to put it, don’t you think?

So, in my file card drawer under people standing on the corner holding up pieces of cardboard, there must have been the opinions I’ve collected that declared… homeless, wanting money, wanting food, wanting work, really scam artists playing on your sympathy, etc. I already had a visual created in my head for this man even before I saw what he had written on the cardboard.

Who put those cards there? I’m sure I have to own some of them; the others were handed down to me from people I respect and admire.

The interesting thing for me was the realization of how much of what makes up our beliefs are not really our own. We have taken on all kinds of opinions and attitudes from others, placed them in our database and now claim them as ours. Although at once, we may have held the same or similar thoughts, do these beliefs really align with who we are now at this time in our lives?

It may be time to start editing our files and clearing out what no longer fits or resonates. Some thoughts may have served us for a while. But if you are one of those people who seeks to improve their life and keeps moving forward (and you wouldn’t be reading phenomeNEWS if you weren’t), you may want to do some weeding out. If beliefs pop up automatically about certain situations (like my man on the street corner) and these things don’t make us feel good, perhaps this beckons us to take another look at why and where they originated. It may be time to revisit our file cabinet and clean out our database.

Beliefs are not carved in stone. They can change as quickly as the thought changes. Once we see something clearly, from a different perspective or from a different place than we were before, we form another opinion, another thought, another belief. These beliefs, created out of higher thought become the seeds of true compassion, understanding and growth.

So, how do we know when an old belief has changed? When we can look at a situation and NOT have an unpleasant feeling, thought or judgment. The moment we view something and feel uplifted, inspired, grateful or thankful, we know we have made a change that is truly in alignment with who we are right now.

I am ever so grateful for lessons provided through the willing accomplices that cross my path daily. Through the joyfulness of their inner guidance, they help re-connect me back to mine. Keep a lookout for them in your life. Every day provides a new perspective.

What’s in your database?