Some days, I do not know what I am going to write until I sit down at my computer. I often put in random word searches and see what links and images come up. Today, I started searching “defining beliefs” and “challenging beliefs.” I knew there was a connection.
I discovered my spiritual beliefs at a very young age, and I think that is because I was exposed to so many options. When I started to pick and choose what I believed to be true, those beliefs where rigorously challenged by a mother who does not think the same way as I do. Each time I had to defend what I believed in, even if only in my own mind, I had to rethink the issue, maybe adjust my opinion just a little. These opinions where constantly infused with new information. With each challenge, I had to decide, once again, that what I believed was indeed my ultimate truth.
Of course, this process can also go horribly wrong. Sometimes you are immersed in negative, self-destructive options. Sometimes, the challenges are so aggressive it sets up an irrational, reactive belief that is incapable of evolving naturally on its own.
This idea reminded me of tempering steel. Sure enough, google lead me to the perfect metaphor for this idea. According to the website Integrated Publishing:
“After the hardening treatment is applied, steel is often harder than needed and is too brittle for most practical uses. Also, severe internal stresses are set up during the rapid cooling from the hardening temperature. To relieve the internal stresses and reduce brittleness, you should temper the steel after it is hardened. Tempering consists of heating the steel to a specific temperature (below its hardening temperature), holding it at that temperature for the required length of time, and then cooling it, usually instill air. The resultant strength, hardness, and ductility depend on the temperature to which the steel is heated during the tempering process.
The purpose of tempering is to reduce the brittleness imparted by hardening and to produce definite physical properties within the steel. Tempering always follows, never precedes, the hardening operation. Besides reducing brittleness, tempering softens the steel. That is unavoidable . . .”
Now, the thing I find so fastening about this passage is the connection between hardness and brittleness. The harder the steel the less useful it is. I also appreciate the idea that this hardness and brittleness develops from the internal stresses of extreme changes in temperature.
So there is the formula, my friends. What happens if you have developed some of those negative, self-destructive belief systems? Well, most likely the stresses of extreme heating and cooling created a belief system that is too hard, and ironically, too brittle to be of any use. You will need to be tempered. This means subjecting yourself to a little heat. It also means you will have to be willing to let go of some of that hardness. Sorry, you just can’t have it both ways: tempered and useful or hard and brittle. The choice is yours.
