Part of our job as humans is to move beyond what holds us stagnant in smallness and allow our lives to guide us toward greater fulfillment of purpose and expression. Our particular families will provide any number of challenges, experienced when we are small, powerless, and naïve about the greater workings of the world. What we assume from those challenges becomes the lens through which we view life, and ourselves – a lens we assume is universally true.
Once grown, we subconsciously still lug many of those assumptions along, where they influence our decisions, actions, reactions – long after our outer environment and the people within it, have changed. Our beliefs guide us in life.
Understanding Limiting Beliefs
Limiting beliefs are deeply held assumptions about oneself or reality which restrict our abilities and prevent us from realizing our full potential. These can show up as a lack of confidence in oneself, fear of failure, feeling unworthy, self doubt, powerlessness, hopelessness. Many may be so deep-rooted that we are not aware of them.
Our minds work by repeating known things over time. The constant repetition and reinforcement of thoughts and actions leads to the formation of neural pathways which serve as default thinking patterns later on in future situations involving similar thoughts or actions again. To break away from patterns requires intentional rewiring of the brain to establish new empowering connections instead.
In most cases, these types of convictions start developing during early childhood years since it is at this stage when we are easily influenced. They can arise due to bad experiences, negative comments made by those in authority positions over us such as parents/teachers among others or simply learning from others who carried their own limiting beliefs through life.
Feedback from people around us also plays an important role here according to Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, which states that individuals learn attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through observation. If someone grew up within an environment full of pessimism, then chances are high they will adopt similar views too.
Know Your Beliefs
Awareness of our beliefs is the first step toward changing our beliefs. If you want to become aware of your beliefs, here are some practices:
Keeping a Journal: Write down everything that comes into your mind without any judgment attached to it. You can set a time in the day, such as morning time, to sit down and write. You can also journal around specific experiences. For example, when you have an interaction with someone that has a significant impact on you, write down your feelings, thoughts, opinions.
Over time, you can become aware of themes that emerge indicating areas in life where you feel stagnant or unfulfilled.
Mindfulness & Meditation: Meditation helps us become aware of ourselves in a deeper way. It helps us observe our thoughts, emotions, and access our inner wisdom. We are used to thinking automatically, and most often we don’t notice how we think. Meditation helps us snap out of our thinking trance so we can observe ourselves. With experience, as we learn to quiet our minds, we can go deeper and gain insight into beliefs that are buried deep down.
Reflective Questions: Pose questions to yourself with the intention of understanding more deeply. While you may not have a clear response right away, it will emerge. It might emerge as clarity during your meditation practice, journaling, or as you go about your daily business.
Talk to Others: You can ask those with more success in areas that are challenging for you how they think and how they navigate those areas. You can expand this practice as well through watching documentaries, courses or other content that can help you understand different practices and beliefs than the one you have become accustomed with.
Therapy & Healing Modalities: Therapy, coaching or other kinds of counseling sessions can help you understand yourself better and give you a different perspective. In my sessions, I guide clients to connect with their deeper selves, helping them become clearer about their mental and thought patterns – and also helping them access their deeper inner truth about themselves and reality.
Challenging and Reframing Limiting Beliefs
Once you’ve recognized your limiting beliefs, you can work through them to reframe these beliefs. The process will be unique to you. You will discover that connected to your beliefs are emotions, habits and behaviors. The work of profound change takes more than rewiring our thoughts – but working on a mindset with healthier beliefs will help you greatly to achieve positive change.
One first step is to reframe your unhelpful beliefs. For every piece of evidence that you can find backing your limiting beliefs, you can find another one that challenges them. Your mind is always capable of summing up something to support your beliefs. Seek for evidence toward more healing and helpful beliefs. For example, if you always think that you are inadequate, try to remember instances where you succeeded or received compliments on what was done right. Doing so will enable one to see that such self-judgments are not universal truths.
Asking for another opinion can help you in this process of gaining a new perspective. Our minds are programmed according to the information that we feed them. Reflect on where your ideas might have come from – someone else’s perception or past event?
It takes some work to teach the brain something new. But the good news is that the mind will truly take in what you feed it.
Picture yourself achieving goals with no limitations imposed by current negative thinking patterns. This method helps reprogram the subconscious mind, thereby creating a new reality. This is not about becoming attached to specific outcomes or goals – but about training your mind to conceive of different possibilities and realities.
Neuroplasticity: A Power Beyond Measure
Changing our beliefs and programming works because of neuroplasticity. This is the ability of our brain cells (neurons) to rearrange themselves through forming novel neural connections. This implies that if only we persevere in trying, then it becomes possible to alter our thoughts and our behaviors. Taking action is a powerful way to rewrite old narratives into new ones.
Overcoming limited thinking involves going on a journey that demands dedication, perseverance, and self-kindness. We have no choice but to be intentional when we make these choices – otherwise, our brains will always default to our automatic patterns.
You have it in your capability to turn everything around. When starting out on this process, don’t shy away from trusting yourself into building a life around these values which are authentic to who you truly aspire to be. The journey towards becoming better might not be smooth sailing all through but certainly worth every step taken along the way. Allow for growth, appreciate milestones reached, and be compassionate with yourself.