BELIEF SYSTEM

I would like to clarify what I mean by "belief system." It is not necessarily related to "religion" per se. Your belief system is that which determines what you recognize/accept to be true. Your apprehension of all that transpires in your life is filtered through your belief system. You are motivated to take action because you believe such action is necessary, even if you may not be able to articulate why you believe it to be so. Your affective response to events in your life is measured by what you believe. Your concept of truth is essentially a function of your belief system.

You may not be very systematic in articulating what you believe. but you do have some belief system. The way you use language to articulate what you believe may or may not be congruent with how others use similar language. This is why communication is so important in relationships. Knowing what another person believes is not a simple matter. It may be very difficult, if not impossible, to discover what someone believes unless that person chooses to reveal such belief. Even with any revelation of belief comes the need for each person to clarify one's understanding concerning that belief; faulty assumptions lead to misunderstanding that can have quite a negative impact on a relationship.