Exploring limiting beliefs

Your beliefs (positive and negative) are beliefs and decisions you make about yourself and the world that limits or empowers the way you live. They become psychological rules that shape your thoughts and filter your experience of reality. Your reality essentially becomes a reflection of your strongest beliefs.

We create our beliefs by making an interpretation of a situation, which then leads to us making meaning of a situation, and then carrying that with us in a way that prompts us to continue looking for more and more "evidence" of it being true. The more "evidence" you find, the stronger the belief becomes. But, beliefs are not facts.

When we are born, we enter into this world with a clean slate and without preconceived beliefs. We are incredibly impressionable and naturally inquisitive, so we look for meaning in almost everything. Our parents and environment play a big part in moulding our beliefs from a very young age. When we’re really young we’re unable to discern between truth and falsehood so we often accept what we are told as truth, and then we are greatly influenced by what we experience. Beliefs continue to be formed like this over our lifetime, and we can still form beliefs now as adults.

When it comes to personal and professional growth, your beliefs have the power to either stunt your development or propel you forward into unlimited possibilities. Once you are able to identify limiting and disempowering beliefs, you can then break down the walls around them in order to perceive situations, events or circumstances for what they really are, not what your limiting beliefs tell you they are.

Here are some examples of limiting and disempowering beliefs:

“In order to be successful, you have to work really, really hard”.
This will prevent someone from achieving a sense of balance in their life because they will always be on the go, probably striving for perfection, not having appropriate rest and relaxation which actually is an important part of allowing change to integrate. When we work really, really hard, we do not make space for enjoyment of the journey.   

“I can only be happy when _____ {e.g. I have lost 10lbs, I have a boyfriend, I have X amount in the bank}”.
This of course means they are not giving themselves permission to be happy NOW and are delaying their happiness based on rules and conditions that may not make them happy at all! After all, is it about having X amount in the bank? Probably not.

“I’m not good enough”.
This is the foundation of all beliefs in my opinion. If you don’t feel good enough, you will spend a lot of time and energy trying to become good enough. You may be an overthinker as a result of this belief and punish yourself regularly for perceived failures because you’ve fallen short of what you think you should be able to achieve.

To understand what your beliefs are about a particular situation, theme, or challenge in your life, use the following statements as prompts. Just go with what comes up, without judgement, and later you can look for patterns and themes emerging. Then, once identified, you can start to get curious about them and start to challenge them in order to shift your thinking. 

I am …………………………………… because …………………………………………….
I am not ……………………………….. because ………………………………………….
I always ……………………………... because ………………………………………….
I can ………………….……………….. because ………………………………………….
I  can’t ………..……………………….. because …………………………………………….
I will ………………………………….. because …………………………………………….
I won’t …………………………………..because …………………………………………….
I choose to…………………………….. because …………………………………………….
I choose not to ………………….. because ………………………………………….
I deserve …………………………….. because ………………………………………….
I don’t deserve ….……………….. because …………………………………………….
I like …………………..………………. because …………………………………………….
I don’t like ……………………….. because …………………………………………….
I am good at ………… ……………..because ………………………………………….
I am not good at…………….. because ……………………………………..….
I want ……………..………………….. because …………………………………..……….
I don’t want ………………………….. because ..………………………………………….
I’m not afraid of …………………….. because …………………………………………….
I am afraid of ……………………….. because ………………………………………….
It is hard to .. ………………………. because ………………………………………….
It is easy to ………………………….. because ………………………………………….
I can’t say no to ……….……………..because ………………………………………….
I can say no to …………………….. because ………………………………………….
I believe in ………………………….. because ………………………………………….
I don’t believe in …………………….. because …………………………………………….
I will always be ok ……………….. because ………………………………………….
I can handle anything when ..….. because …………………………………………….

If you'd like to share what has come up for you, I'd love to hear from you. Email me on [email protected]