Ever wanted to convince yourself of something that, deep down, you know isn’t quite true? We all have those little lies we tell ourselves to make life a bit easier or certain situations a bit more palatable. The good news is, with a little effort, you can absolutely make yourself believe something, whether it’s that a new job is the right choice, that cute guy at the coffee shop is into you, or that you’re going to win the lottery this week.
The human mind is highly malleable, and you have more control over your own beliefs and perceptions than you realize. With some simple mental techniques, you can overcome doubts and manipulate your views. The key is repetition, visualization, and avoiding contradictory evidence. While self-deception may sound like a bad thing, a little of it can actually help reduce stress and open you up to new opportunities. The truth is often overrated anyway. So if there’s something you want to believe, something that will make you happier or more confident, or just help you achieve your goals, give these methods a try. You might be surprised at how easily you can make yourself believe almost anything.
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The Power of Belief
Believing something—really believing it—is an incredibly powerful force. When you truly believe something, your brain actually makes it your reality in many ways.
Let’s break down how you can harness the power of belief to reprogram your mind:
Recognize your existing beliefs. Take some time to reflect on what you currently believe or don’t believe to be true. Your beliefs likely fall into a few buckets, like your abilities, your potential, and what you deserve in relationships and life. Don’t judge the beliefs; just acknowledge them.
Decide what you want to believe. Choose 1-2 core beliefs you want to change. Make them positive, empowering, and aligned with the future or life you desire. For example, you might decide, “I believe I can easily attract loving relationships” or “I believe I deserve abundant prosperity.”
Collect evidence to support the new beliefs. Search for credible proof points that reinforce the new beliefs. These could include case studies of others manifesting what you desire, motivational quotes, passages from books or articles, or any verifiable data showing your belief is realistic.
Repeat Affirmations of the New Beliefs Verbalize, write down, and repeat the new beliefs to yourself throughout the day. Affirm with conviction that this belief is already your reality. The repetition signals to your subconscious mind that this new identity is who you are.
Act according to your new beliefs. Walk the walk—act as if these beliefs are fully true. Make decisions and respond to circumstances aligned with someone who possesses the new beliefs. Acting ‘as it helps shift belief from the conscious to the subconscious domain.
Implement these steps, and you’ll unlock incredible power to shape yourself and your world. The limits of what you can achieve start to dissolve when you master the ability to adopt empowering new beliefs. Why not start rewriting your beliefs today?
Why We Sometimes Struggle to Believe
Convincing yourself of something can be tricky business. Even when presented with clear facts and evidence, our brains often resist changing beliefs we already hold or accepting ideas that seem too good to be true. This tendency is natural, but with some mental strategies, you can push past it.
When trying to believe a new idea or claim, your brain’s first reaction may be skepticism or doubt. After all, it wants to protect you from false information. This serves an important purpose, but it can also prevent you from expanding your thinking. Several factors contribute to this resistance, including:
- Confirmation bias: We gravitate toward information that fits our existing worldview. New claims that contradict our beliefs face an uphill battle.
- Distrust of the source: Consider why your mind rejects certain messengers. Then look more objectively at their reasoning.
- Fear of disappointment: big goals or promises can activate our fears of failure. Focus instead on small, incremental progress.
- Information overload: getting bombarded with data paradoxically makes it harder to absorb. Take it step-by-step instead of all at once.
When you feel doubt creeping in, don’t despair. Try these tips to encourage more receptiveness and belief:
- Visualize your beliefs regularly. Imagine details that support the idea.
- Verbally repeat supportive mantras about the belief.
- Seek nuance; few things are 100% true or false. Find the partial truth.
- Question the reasons for your resistance. Are they fully rational?
While believing something overnight is rare, small doses of receptivity can gradually open your mind. With consistent effort, even firmly held convictions can shift. Your brain simply needs. reassurance that it’s safe to accept new possibilities.
Why We Believe What We Want to Believe
Have you ever wondered why people cling to certain beliefs, even when faced with irrefutable evidence to the contrary? Why do some refuse to accept facts that challenge their worldview? It turns out that our minds play tricks on us in ways that allow us to believe what we want to believe.
As humans, we don’t process information objectively. We perceive things through the lens of our existing assumptions, expectations, and emotions. Our minds actively filter out information that contradicts our beliefs. This is called confirmation bias—the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of our existing beliefs or theories. We seek out information that confirms what we want to be true, while ignoring or discrediting anything that challenges our preferred narrative. This unconscious bias affects everyone.
Related to confirmation bias, many of us also suffer from overconfidence bias. We tend to overestimate the accuracy of our judgments and beliefs while underestimating the chance that we might be wrong. Essentially, we think we know more than we actually do. This breeds a false sense of certainty. In the face of disconfirming evidence, we might double down on our existing views rather than questioning them. Our ego protects our established perspective.
Cognitive dissonance also comes into play when our beliefs and behaviors don’t match up. This inconsistency causes mental discomfort. To reduce dissonance and discomfort, our minds actually change our perceptions, often without us realizing it. We twist facts or reframe situations to better align with what we want to believe about ourselves or the world around us.
In short, human psychology predisposes us to deceive ourselves in order to preserve our desired beliefs and self-image. Our minds play defense to protect our worldviews. This self-deception feels more comfortable than facing reality. Of course, recognizing these pitfalls is the first step to overcoming them. An open and discerning mind can overcome bias with great effort.
Cognitive Biases That Distort Reality and Shape Your Beliefs
We all have certain mental shortcuts and biased ways of thinking that distort our perception of reality. These “cognitive biases” act as a kind of mental filter, causing us to see what we expect or want to see. Understanding how these biases work can help you recognize situations where you may be fooling yourself into believing something that isn’t objectively true.
Confirmation bias leads you to seek out information that supports your existing beliefs.
Confirmation bias causes you to look for and favor information that supports ideas you already believe in. You’ll often disregard or avoid information that contradicts your beliefs. This bias leads you to reinforce existing beliefs rather than challenge them. Be aware of how this colors your thinking. Actively look for evidence on multiple sides of an argument.
The Illusion of Truth Effect Makes Repeated Claims Seem More Plausible
When you’re exposed to a statement over and over, your brain starts perceiving it as more truthful, even if no evidence supports it—this is the illusion of truth effect. Watch out for situations where repetition makes you feel something is factual when it may not be.
Emotional reasoning means your feelings are equal.
If you feel like something is true, your emotions can trick you into believing it’s a fact. But your feelings and reality are separate. Be skeptical of gut reactions. Logically analyze if the evidence truly supports them.
Motivated Reasoning Causes You to Arrive at Conclusions You Want
You tend to find arguments more compelling when the conclusion aligns with your existing beliefs and values. That’s motivated reasoning. Be aware that it may shape your views on things like politics, religion, and even diet choices. Make sure you apply consistent logic.
By understanding how these mental shortcuts distort your thinking, you can start to recognize situations where your beliefs may not match up with reality. Approach new information objectively. Seek out opposing views. And be ready to challenge long-held assumptions.
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How to Make Yourself Believe Something
To make yourself believe something, you need to use a combination of logic and emotion. Logic helps you evaluate the evidence and arguments for your belief, while emotion helps you feel confident and motivated by your belief. Here are some steps to follow:
1. To Manipulate Your Own Mind
Tricks for manipulating your own mind can seem counterintuitive, but when used judiciously, they can help you change your attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions in positive ways. Here are a few tips for “brain-hacking” yourself:
Imagery and visualization: Close your eyes and picture yourself already having achieved the belief or goal you want to program into your mind. Make the images extremely vivid, in full color and detail. The brain can have trouble telling the difference between visualizing something and actually experiencing it.
For example, if you want to believe you can easily tackle a challenging project at work, visualize yourself effortlessly completing tasks, impressing your colleagues, and feeling on top of everything.
Self-Affirmations:Write down short, positive statements about the belief or trait you want to cultivate. State them as if they are already true. Some examples: “I am confident and self-assured,” “Challenges energize me,” “I am worthy.”
Repeat these affirmations to yourself several times a day with conviction. Say them out loud or quietly in your head. Over time, even skeptical self-talk can be reprogrammed.
Journaling: Writing about your desired beliefs reinforces them. One study found people who journaled for 15 minutes a day about a life goal achieved that goal at over twice the rate of those who did not journal.
Describe what your reality will be like once this new belief is firmly entrenched. How will you think, feel, and behave differently? Be specific and thoughtful.
The key is repetition of visual, verbal, and written cues until your mind embraces the new outlook as truth. Approach the process positively, be patient with yourself, and understand that fundamental changes in self-perception happen gradually, not overnight. But don’t underestimate your brain’s incredible capacity to be shaped and molded if you consistently apply the right kind of pressure.
2. Understanding the Subconscious Mind
Your subconscious mind is like an iceberg; the conscious part of your brain is just the tip sticking out of the water. The much bigger, hidden part below the surface is your subconscious. This powerful part of your mind controls things like:
- Your beliefs
- Habits
- Emotions
- Behaviors
Without you even realizing it! Here’s the thing, though: You can train your subconscious to believe almost anything if you know how.
Why your subconscious matters
Your subconscious mind has a huge influence on what you do. Here’s why it’s so important if you want to make yourself believe something new:
- It determines what you consider to be real or true.
- It drives your spontaneous reactions and gut instincts.
- It’s constantly running in the background, controlling your thoughts and behavior.
So if you can change what your subconscious believes, it can literally alter your reality!
Tips for Reprogramming Your Subconscious
Retraining such an automatic, invisible part of your mind is challenging, but possible with some techniques. Try these to embed a new belief:
- Use affirmations. Repeat positive phrases about your desired belief over and over.
- Visualize scenarios where your belief is already true. Make it vivid!
- Do-it-til-you-make-it is an act of what someone with that belief would do.
- Listen to hypnosis recordings about that belief while being very relaxed.
The key is repetition—you need to feed the subconscious the same message in various ways, over and over. It takes time and effort, but eventually the roots of that belief will sink deeper until it becomes part of your new reality. With practice, you truly can trick your brain into believing anything is possible!
3. Let go of doubt and skepticism.
Believing something wholeheartedly can be challenging when doubt and skepticism get in the way. But you can train your brain to have more faith in a concept by letting go of negative thoughts. Here are some tips:
- Question the source of your doubts. Often, skepticism comes from past experiences or societal conditioning. Examine if these reasons are rational when applied to your current situation.
- Focus on the potential benefits. Imagine all the positive outcomes that could occur if this new belief were true. This builds motivation to move past doubts.
- Fake it ’til you make it. Even if you don’t fully buy in yet, act as if you believe it anyway. Say affirmations, visualize success, and behave confidently. This sends signals to your brain that the concept is credible.
- Limit the consumption of opposing views. If your attempts to believe something keep getting disrupted by others questioning or denying it, minimize that contact. Surround yourself with those who share your new belief instead.
- Challenge concrete thoughts with abstract ideas. When faced with definitive evidence that contradicts your desired belief, counter it by emphasizing the intangibles—things like faith, intuition, and self-determined truths.
- Focus less on the what and more on the why. Doubts often stem from getting stuck on details rather than meaning. Connect the new belief to your values, passions, and greater purpose.
- Allow some uncertainty. Having absolute certainty about a novel concept isn’t realistic. But you can still believe in its general merits or possibility. Certainty may come later.
With an open and persistent mindset, you can train your brain to have confidence in new ideas, adopt untraditional perspectives, and trust in things that once seemed improbable. By letting go of doubt and skepticism, you make room for growth, discovery, and so much more.
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4. Focus on the positives.
If you want to trick your brain into believing something, one of the most effective techniques is to focus your attention on positive information that supports your belief. Our brains tend to pay more attention to evidence that aligns with what we already think is true and ignore contradicting facts. You can use this to your advantage.
- Actively seek out confirmation. If you want to believe you will ace that job interview, look for evidence that supports that belief. Think about past interviews that went well or times when you felt extremely competent and confident. Bring to mind positive feedback from colleagues about your qualifications.
- Reframe any contradictions. Let’s say a friend tells you the company has very high standards. Rather than seeing that as a bad sign, reframe it to confirm you are an exceptionally strong candidate who will stand out. Our brains love making connections, so feed them links that boost your confidence.
- Be your own cheerleader. You know yourself better than anyone, so drown out self-doubts by focusing on all your assets. Make a running list of your relevant skills, achievements, and qualities that will help you succeed. Reread it frequently to combat nerves.
- Visualize the future you want. Close your eyes and imagine yourself nailing the interview and getting offered the job. Make the scene as vivid and detailed as possible, engaging all your senses. Studies show that mental imagery activates the brain similarly to real experiences, making ideas seem more attainable.
The key is controlling what information gets your attention. It’s natural for contradictory facts to also stand out, so have rebuttals ready to bat them down. Surround yourself with positive messages and images. With practice, you can coach your brain into believing almost anything is possible!
5. Visualize Your Desired Outcome
Visualization is a powerful tool to help convince your brain that something is true, even if it’s not objectively factual. By creating detailed mental images of your desired reality, you engage the creative parts of your mind, priming yourself to take actions aligned with that vision. Here’s how to tap into visualization to manifest anything you want to believe:
- Get comfortable and relax. Sit or lie down somewhere peaceful without distractions. Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths to calm your thoughts. Relax each part of your body until you feel loose and heavy.
- Envision your outcome. In as much sensory detail as possible, imagine what it looks, sounds, and feels like once you’ve achieved your belief or goal. Make it as vivid and lifelike as you can in your mind’s eye; the more realistic, the better.
- Engage all your senses. Hear sounds associated with your vision, smell any pertinent scents, feel textures, and taste flavors. The more immersed you become, the more your subconscious will align with this imagined reality.
- Repeat daily. Spend at least 5–10 minutes each day visualizing. Doing this over time cements new neural pathways, essentially “tricking” your brain into accepting this alternate reality. Be patient and persistent.
- Adjust your actions accordingly. Once convinced at a subconscious level, start acting as if your belief or goal is already true. Taking aligned actions reinforces the visualizations.
- Address contradictions calmly. When faced with anything that counters your belief, don’t fight it. Gently redirect your thoughts back to your visualization without judgement.
With consistent, vivid visualization and aligned actions, you can shape your own inner reality. Over time, your mind will accept even the most far-fetched beliefs as fact. Just be aware that this powerful tool can lead you astray if misused. Make sure your beliefs align with your highest good.
6. Act as if it’s already true.
So you want to trick your brain into believing something, huh? Well, you’re in luck because your brain can actually be surprisingly easy to fool. The key is something called the “fake it ’til you make it” strategy. Here’s how to put on your best acting performance and con yourself into believing just about anything:
- Visualize it in detail. Sit back, close your eyes, and really imagine that the thing you want to believe is absolutely, 100% true. Picture yourself living this reality in technicolor sensory detail—what do you see, hear, and feel? Make it as vivid as possible. These mental movies can reprogram your brain.
- Talk, walk, and act the part. Speak, move, and behave exactly as if that new belief were already real. Adopt the posture, gestures, habits, interests, and schedule of someone for whom that belief makes total sense. Eventually, you’ll embody that identity.
- Surround yourself with “believers.” Seek out friends, mentors, books, podcasts, or online groups that share and validate the belief you want to adopt. Their enthusiasm can rub off on you. Fake it with the tribe until you make it your own!
- Reward your new beliefs. Each time you catch yourself thinking or acting on this emerging belief, give yourself an internal cheer, praise, high five, or mental pat on the back. This positive reinforcement helps cement it.
- Question contrary thoughts. If old doubts, assumptions, or contrary beliefs creep in, treat them as dubious rather than valid. Ask yourself, “Is this definitely true or just my old belief system fighting back?”
With a dash of imagination and commitment to faking it, you can train your brain over time to take just about any new belief (within reason!) as its reality. Just pretend so hard that you fool even yourself.
7. Speak your beliefs into existence.
In order to trick your brain into believing something, you first need to speak your desired beliefs out loud as if they are already true. Here’s how to put this technique into action:
- Get clear on exactly what you want to believe. Write it down in simple, positive language. For example, “I am calm and relaxed” or “I am healthy.”
- Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted or distracted. Take a few deep breaths to relax your body and mind.
- Speak your belief out loud in a confident tone of voice, even if you don’t fully believe it yet. Say your belief 10–20 times slowly, giving your mind time to absorb each word. For example, “I am calm. I am relaxed. I feel peaceful.”
- Imagine what it would feel like if this belief were 100% true. Envision your life with this new self-concept. The more detailed, the better. Engage all your senses—see, hear, feel, smell, and taste.
- Repeat this process daily. Affirmations are like watering a garden; they need consistent nourishment. Over time, you will notice your self-talk and assumptions shifting to align with your intentional beliefs.
- Write your beliefs down and post them where you will see them often. Sticky notes on your bathroom mirror or by your bed are great visual reminders.
- Support your new beliefs through your behaviors, choices, habits, and environment. Adjust anything that contradicts your desired beliefs. Surround yourself with people and media that reinforce your new way of thinking.
With regular practice and persistence, you can truly convince your mind that a new belief is factual and permanent. Speak it into existence! The mind believes what you repeatedly tell it, so harness affirmations to create the identity and life you want.
8. Seek validation and support.
- Find people who share your beliefs and talk to them. Connecting with like-minded individuals provides validation and reinforces your own convictions.
- Join groups, both online and in person, that align with your beliefs. Surrounding yourself with people of similar mindsets makes what you believe seem more normal and widely accepted.
- Be wary of outright skepticism from others. Too much contradiction early on can undermine your attempts to adopt a new belief.
- Start sharing your beliefs with open-minded friends and family. Focus on those who will listen without judgment and offer thoughtful feedback. Their support helps cement your beliefs.
- Look for trusted mentors, teachers, and experts who can guide you. Their wisdom and perspective boost your confidence in your own beliefs.
- Read books and articles; watch videos and documentaries that bolster your beliefs. Consume media that consistently backs up what you want to believe.
- Avoid or limit exposure to conflicting messages that cast doubt. Staying in an echo chamber of corroborating information keeps alternative viewpoints at bay.
In essence, by immersing yourself in environments and relationships that reflect your desired beliefs back at you, those beliefs seem more valid and credible. Over time, reinforcing feedback loops help rewrite old neural pathways until you genuinely believe what you previously had to convince yourself of.
Surrounding yourself only with positive thoughts can bind you to potential downsides. Be thoughtful about also seeking balanced perspectives. And stay open and humble; beliefs that seem absolutely true today may evolve tomorrow as you grow in wisdom and experience.
9. Affirmations and Mantras
If you want to truly convince yourself of something, repeating affirmations and mantras can reprogram your brain over time. Think of your mind like a garden; you have to plant seeds of belief by watering them regularly with repetitive thoughts and words. Here’s how:
- Write down the core belief or message you want to ingrain. Make it positive, specific, and in the present tense. For example: “I radiate confidence and inner peace.”
- Repeat your affirmation out loud or silently to yourself at least 5–10 times per day. You can say it while looking in the mirror, during meditation or yoga, or even while doing mundane tasks.
- Visualize what your life will look and feel like once this new belief takes hold. Engage all your senses—see, hear, feel, taste, and touch—in your mind. This imprints the neural pathways.
- Record your affirmation and play it back to yourself when driving, exercising, relaxing, or falling asleep. Hearing the words said in your own voice is powerful.
- Write your affirmation on sticky notes and post them where you’ll see them often—your bathroom mirror, computer monitor, refrigerator, etc. Surrounding yourself with words bypasses your conscious, critical mind.
- Emphasize meaningful words in your affirmation with a sharpie, bold type, or color highlight. The visual impact leaves a stronger imprint.
- Combine your affirmation with calming essential oils, crystals, meditation music, or other sensory cues. Anchoring it to physical objects uses more of your brain.
The persistent repetition of positive affirmations and mantras can genuinely shift your self-perception, outlook, and beliefs over time. Be patient with yourself and realize that lasting change occurs gradually. But with consistent practice, you can train your brain to believe almost anything.
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10. Allow time for new beliefs to take hold.
Tricking your brain into believing anything new takes time and consistency. Remember, you’ve likely held your current beliefs for years or decades; trying to change them overnight is asking a lot. Instead, be patient and set reasonable expectations.
- Start small. Don’t try to make yourself believe something huge right away. Begin with small ideas or habits, and let these new beliefs sink in over days or weeks before building on them. Tiny progress leads to transformation over time.
- Keep an open mind. Approach new ideas with curiosity rather than rejection. Consider that you may not have all the information. Allow yourself to sit with seemingly unbelievable concepts before deciding if they feel true for you.
- Immerse yourself. Seek out books, podcasts, mentors, and communities that reinforce the beliefs you want to integrate. Surrounding yourself with support helps cement new ideas.
- Question your assumptions. Many beliefs are based on assumptions or limited experience that seem obviously true. Examine whether your underlying assumptions still hold weight.
- Repeat positive affirmations. Affirmations work by overriding existing beliefs through consistent repetition. Though it may feel silly at first, keep at it, and your brain will latch on over time.
- Fake it ’til you make it. Even if a belief feels out of alignment, keep acting as if you believe it. Science shows our actions influence our thought patterns and self-perception.
Remember, implementing new beliefs requires patience with yourself and consistency over time. Avoid all-or-nothing thinking. Meeting yourself where you are and celebrating small wins helps new ideas stick. Be compassionate with yourself in this process.
References
- Self-deception From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Cognitive Bias, A. Wilke, R. Mata, in Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (Second Edition), 2012: Heuristics and Biases: A Short History of Cognitive Bias
- Andrew Newberg (Author), Mark Robert Waldman (Author): Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth
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