Limiting Beliefs

What are the limiting beliefs in your life that are keeping you from living fully alive?  

Limiting beliefs are those negative thought patterns in our head that prevent us from moving forward in life.  Some of these thoughts are passed on to us by our parents, our religious affiliations, and our social environments while others are conclusions we decided upon through our life experiences. Whenever we have a life experience that comes with an emotional impact, we draw certain conclusions about ourselves, others, and life in general and store this information in our subconscious as a belief.  When other situations occur that trigger that same emotion, those beliefs are brought to the forefront of our thinking again.  The more attention that we give these beliefs, the stronger and more powerful they become.  If these beliefs are negative or limiting, they have the ability to sabotage us and keep us from achieving the things we want in life.

Some examples of  limiting beliefs are:

• I am not good enough (pretty enough, smart enough, skinny enough, etc.).
• This is just the way things are.
• I don’t deserve to be happy (loved, successful, wealthy, etc.).
• If people really knew me, they wouldn’t like me.
• Life is hard.
• I cannot do this.

I like to think of these negative thoughts and belief systems like a cardboard box.  Although we feel trapped by them, the walls that are holding us captive were actually constructed by us and can therefore also be torn down by us.

In order to begin to tear down the cardboard box we must become aware of our thought life and our self talk.  Our thought patterns and self talk will point us to what we really believe.  

1. Follow your negative thoughts until you come to the limiting belief behind them and write it down.  Stare it in the face and feel the emotion behind it.
2. Choose to acknowledge that this negative thought is a belief, not the actual “truth,”  even though it feels like the truth.  Understand that you have the power to either defend the limiting belief that is holding you back, or make a choice to challenge it and go after what you want in life.
3. Visualize what it would look like to live from a new belief; an empowering belief that aligns with your dreams and the vision you want for your life.  Dive into the emotions of this new belief; what would it look like and feel like.  (Because remember that any experience that embodies an emotional impact will get stored in our subconscious and become a belief that we live from.)
4. Now begin to act and speak as if the new belief is true right now in your life.

For more help with this, watch the video called “Getting Rid of Limiting Beliefs!”