You begin to fly when you let go of self-limiting beliefs and allow your mind and aspirations to rise to greater heights. ~Brian Tracy
Self-limiting beliefs usually have been created to keep us safe from perceived danger and are based on past experiences. And much of the time they are from our childhood or from our family of origin. The thing about self-limiting beliefs is they lie to us to keep us safe but really they just hold us back. Many of our self-defeating behaviors are keeping us alienated from others, not succeeding or living an authentic life. This week we will be exploring 5 ways that you can let go of self-limiting beliefs:
If you accept a limiting belief, then it will become a truth for you. ~Louise Hay
1) Ask yourself is this belief mine?
Many of our self-defeating beliefs come from ideas that have been taught to us through out our lifetime. Or they may even have been passed down to use from our ancestors. Some of those beliefs maybe:
- I am not good enough.
- I have to please everyone.
- I have to do everything myself.
- If I am vulnerable, I will get hurt.
- I don’t deserve love.
- I am a failure and will never succeed.
- I am a bad person.
Do you relate to any of these beliefs? Now that I have you started. What I would like you to do is to write down the 5 most limiting beliefs that repeat in your head. Then think about the first time that you remember having the thought. If possible try to remember if someone else told you these things about you or if they made a statement about themselves and then you related to them.
After you think about if this self-defeating belief is actually yours, then I want you to ask yourself, is this serving me any longer? Do I want to let this go? What am I gaining from continuing to keep this thought pattern? Usually we hold onto thought patterns because they serve something that we do not want to change in ourselves and allow us to stay in the status quo.
Chronic self-doubt is a symptom of the core belief, ‘I’m not good enough.’ We adopt these types of limiting beliefs in response to our family and childhood experiences, and they become rooted in the subconscious… we have the ability to take action to override it… ~Lauren Mackler
2) Use Affirmations to change what you say to yourself
A great way to stop saying the same negative self-defeating beliefs to yourself is to say the reverse for that thought. We will use the list from above to create the thoughts that affirm the opposite from them:
- I love and accept myself for who I am.
- I am a pleasure to be around people enjoy my authentic self.
- If I ask for help, I am taken care of.
- .I invite people who are trustworthy into my life, I am treated with love and care. by them
- I am lovable and loved.
- I am a capable person, I manifest my dreams through taking actions towards my goals.
- I am a good person, life supports me.
These affirmations may seem cheesy and you maybe saying how can these things work for me? Multiple writers including Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson and Carolyn Myss, all have done research about the power of affirmations. How they work is we are retraining our brains, so we will create new neurological pathways which are created through us having different thought patterns. Affirmations help you to have different thought patterns.
3) Learn where your blind spot is
Much of the time the self limiting beliefs are so woven into the fabric of our existence that we don’t even realize that we do it or we are in denial about it. Probably your friends, partners or family members see it. Think about the last thing that people talked to about changing. Is there a theme to what issues you have with your nearest and dearest? Do you have a problem with chronic lateness, do you cut off people when they are talking , do you not follow through on your intentions? Do you believe that it is not possible for you to change?
The thing about not believing in ourselves is that is not true. We are all capable of change. It is when set and create our own trap or limiting beliefs to live in when we get stuck. Then one day we ask ourselves, “How did I get here?” And we have difficulty find a way out. But there is a way. We just have to be willing to take the first step to make one small change and be willing to release our beliefs. The key is to letting go of the denial of what our patterns of coping and living are. When we are willing to look at these we are accepting this part of us and then we capable of taking action to change.
4) Change your relationship with your Inner Critic
Many of our self limiting beliefs come from our past but we have internalized them in our own voice as our inner critic. We tend to believe our inner critic more because, it a voice that you recognize. Most people believe that this is part of them. That is not true, our inner critic has been developed to help keep us safe and is bred out of fear of mistakes and being hurt. At some point in our lives our inner critic can hold us back from change and growth. This is when we need to work on identifying and listening to what it says, thank it for it’s hard work and telling it that we can take it from here.
5) Take time to work on releasing ideas that are no longer serving you
Here is where the true work lies. Releasing negative thought patterns takes time and energy. I suggest to my clients to identify what areas of their life are currently unmanageable. This can occur work through writing, art making and conversation with someone that you trust. This process will help one to discover what the under lying issue maybe, so that one can transform the self-defeating belief by using affirmations and EFT to help shift the thought pattern and the fear.
Are you interested in working on this more deeply? Come to my workshop this weekend on Saturday the 16th of July at 7:30PM @ Liberate Emporium. Please call: (323) 663-6000 or email info@liberateemporium.com to reserve your spot.
I hope that you found this article helpful. Please comment below and as always please contact me if you have any questions: celine@innergrowththerapy.com
Have a blessed week!
Best,
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