I looked at this and and looked at this and found several angles from which emotional and spiritual relief could be found. Throughout our lives, we have played the "belief war" (a subject for a later article) with those around us.

"That's what you think!"
"What do you know?"
"That's only your opinion."
"Who cares what you think?"
"You can't seriously believe that!"
"How could you think such a thing?"

The list goes on and on of all the ways that we invalidate each other's belief systems. Depending on our degree of vulnerability at the time, we may lose confidence in the validity of our beliefs or even in our right to hold beliefs that are contrary to the "norm".

Actually, the beliefs don't necessarily stop. We may still hold onto them, but may not believe that they're worth anything, they're not as pretty and shiny and fancy as someone else's. We are thus discounting our beliefs, and thereby reducing their power. Remember, the only person who can affect our power is the self, and this is a very effective method of so doing.

Consider what this does to our affirmations and visualizations. We may know that we're holding the belief that we want to. We may be able to image it and embody it. But if we think that we are weak and useless in the quality of our beliefs, our efforts are being sabotaged.

Tell yourself, "What I believe, matters". "It has importance and validity". "My thoughts count".

Your beliefs don't have to counter or be stronger than those who have invalidated you. They are naturally stronger for you because they are your own. The other person, or TV personality or authority figure cannot have beliefs which overpower yours, because spiritually, this sort of domination isn't real. They have power in their own reality, just as you do in yours. You needn't allow their charisma to take the place of your own. Who you are, what you believe, matters.