Breakthrough – Overcoming Self-Limiting Beliefs

“We are limited by our beliefs, never by our potential.” – “Dr. Pallavi Bhurkay”

Just take a moment. Let that sink in. Affirm it. When I came across this quote, it evoked an immediate resonance with my being. There is a place in the center of each moment where freedom and compassionate truth lies within us.

When we dive into the pool of potential within us, we live a full-fledged life. A life without limiting our engagement because of our fears, sufferings, knowing that no matter what you walk into, you will not lose yourself. Beliefs play a huge unseen role in our lives. To understand how beliefs, get formed imagine your subconscious mind to be a garden, then your beliefs are the plants that grow in that garden. Unlike our awareness regarding the conscious mind, we are likely to be less aware about the working of our subconscious mind until we train ourselves to recognize the way it works. Our success and happiness, suffering and failure, life purpose and motivation is all linked to our believes in the subconscious. The power of subconscious in our life is inevitable and almost 90% of our daily lives are directed from our subconscious.

“Give me a child until he is 7, and I will give you the man.”- “Ignatius of Loyola”

Environmental exposure and parenting styles majorly contribute in solidifying out belief system. A major part of our subconscious mind is developed in childhood years. Studies have shown that until the age of seven, our brains are in a hypnogogic or dreamlike state where our mind is absorbing everything in the surrounding like a sponge. Rational and critical thinking is not yet developed at such an early age and that is why we process information without any filter to tell us what’s appropriate and what is not. It does not take us time to start imbibing the judgements and opinions of close ones and authoritative figures in our lives and living it as our reality. Core beliefs about worthiness and deservability formed in early childhood and might show up in our adult life affecting our love life, friendships, self-esteem, career. Hence these beliefs, tend to stay with us throughout our entire lives, until we decide to deconstruct them for our well- being. With all, it’s very imperative to ask ourselves what we believe in, not what we think we believe in and to what extent. To answer this question with brutal honesty is one step closer to deepen our understanding about ourselves.

Gregg Braden in his book, “The Spontaneous Healing of Belief” talks about how beliefs have an impact over the functioning of our bodies. “From regeneration of organs and skin, to the healings described in the placebo experiments, both conform to the template of our deepest beliefs.” Biologists have also done studies which show that genes respond to information from the field around them. Our beliefs – the electric and magnetic waves created by our heart are also within this same field. Epigenetics, which is an entirely new branch of biology, is defined as the study of hidden influences upon our genes. These influences can arise from various sources, also including our believes.

Self-limiting Beliefs

Self-limiting beliefs are assumptions or perception that we all have about ourselves and about the way the world works. These beliefs may hold you back from achieving what you are be truly capable of and place limitation on your abilities. Self-limiting beliefs might look like:

Bad things always happen to me
Fear of success, failure
I’m not good enough
I will be judged
I am not worthy enough
I don’t have the time to do….
I’m not good as them.

With self-limiting beliefs, we tend to confide into our comfort zones, hesitating to explore. Going beyond our comfort zones and our sense of identity can be scary and challenging.

To tap into our potential, it is essential to break the self-reinforcing cycle of these limiting believes that we have been functioning from.

Self-Intervention

To overcome your limiting beliefs, the first step is to awareness. To be conscious of what we believe in, to what extent, and how it affects our life choices. Acknowledge scenarios when these limiting beliefs surface and intervene it. Indulge into the process of self-talk by asking yourself questions like

What is the belief that I have identified?
What event, circumstance led me to have this belief about myself?
Is there anything I can do about it, once that I have been successfully aware of it?
Can I replace this belief, by formulating a new belief that helps me evolve?
Another question you might want to address is “What is the purpose of this belief?”

We tend to adapt self-limiting beliefs to protect ourselves, from any kind of hurt or to dodge the fears that reside within us. So, then the belief works like a defense for us.

Journaling can be an effective tool to address our beliefs and formulate new ones. Write down 2-3 beliefs that you consider to be limiting to your daily productivity and see how you can shift your perspective towards it.

A lot of these beliefs have a story behind them, an event or incident that might have impacted your self-image. Challenge that belief and look towards it with a sense of practicality, how much of it holds true. Have an honest evaluation of how much you’ve grown as a person throughout years, even if these account to little changes.

Another powerful tool is mirror talk. It creates powerful energy loop by sparkling powerful thoughts and emotions in your body through sound and vision. When you look at yourself in the mirror and affirm positive thoughts, it actively engages you to believe in those statements you say out loud. Once there is awareness, it becomes easy for us to change our patterns. With this knowledge we can equip ourselves with beliefs that empower us as individuals. Instead of getting conditioned to these beliefs and imposing it on our identity, we could see them as little bursts of organized energy. A energy that will benefit our way of living. Remember to never question your potential. You are unstoppable!