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Writer's pictureChrissie Mowbray

Challenge your Limiting Beliefs!




"If we find ourselves stuck and unable to move forward - we are wise to search for the belief we hold that is limiting our progress"

- Resilient Practice


We have written on many occasions about how to identify those obstacles that we place in our path to stop us from moving forward. Even when progress appears to come from an external source, it is usually not the external obstacle that halts us but our attitude towards it. This is a concept outlined for the modern world by Austrian Doctor and Psychotherapist Alfred Adler, but recorded to have been said two thousand of years before by Greek philosopher Epictetus.

Put simply, any obstacle to forward movement is either created or made more troublesome by our thoughts - and thoughts, whether conscious or unconscious, arise as a result of our beliefs.

If you set the intention to listen to your own narrative throughout the day, you will hear yourself say all sorts of things - to yourself:


I won't be able to do that because...

That's going to be really hard because...

Nobody will listen to me when I...

That project is going to take me a long time to finish...

This is going to have to be perfect to make the grade...

I'm going to need to work really hard if I want...

I bet I won't make it to that meeting in time...

Roadworks delaying me - typical...

I can't stop eating chocolate...

I have brain fog...

I suffer with...

I'm not great at...

I should do more exercise...

I really ought not to be eating this...

I shouldn't be thinking like this...

I shouldn't feel...

I ought not to be doing...


Every negative comment here is a thought and every thought is underwritten by a limiting belief.


As we have said on countless occasions - negative beliefs come from a place of fear. Fear arises when we feel threatened or unsafe and ultimately when we feel that our hard earned position within our tribe is at risk. We have learned right from birth that the terrifying risk of abandonment must be avoided at all cost and so to garner approval amongst out peers we have listened to authority figures from childhood and continued to speak to ourselves with that same voice of criticism so as gain acceptance.


Consider this... not all limiting beliefs will have been given entirely for reasons that solely suit our interests - because they are given by other humans - and life is messy!


For example you may hold the belief that a beautiful sunny day requires you to go outside and make the most of it even when you know that there are things in doors that you would be far wiser to be doing. Is this really true - or is it in fact possible that an adult regularly said this to you because they needed peace in doors and you did not factor in to that peace at that particular time?


In case of the above, is it not time that you examine the belief that is limiting you and re-establish what fits for you now? It is not after all, fitting for an adult from your past (with possibly questionable motives) to continue to have influence over your future - is it?



Try this:


When you catch yourself engaging in this type of thinking it is entirely possible to challenge those thoughts, seek truth and reframe them:


The most powerful question to ask when we have articulated a limiting belief is:

according to whom?

or

who said so?


When you ask either of these questions pertaining to any limiting statement, you can often be taken immediately, in your mind's eye, to the person who gave you the belief. This makes giving it back so much easier!


You can say something along the lines of 'thank you for giving me this belief that has helped to shape my model of the world up to now - I understand that you said it with the best of intentions, but, choosing to carry it is limiting for me and so I give it back to you so that I can decide what is true' - and then you can go on and create a new belief that resonates perfectly with what you want to achieve.


It is worth remembering that, because you have held this belief for some time, challenging it will feel odd and sitting with a newly framed way of seeing the world may bring doubt and discomfort, but this is the beauty of working in a conscious way!

It is possible to sit with discomfort and offer yourself compassion and support.


When crafting a new belief you can ask:

What is true?


But you can also ask:

What do I want to be true? - beliefs create thoughts - thoughts generate emotion - emotion drives behaviour - and behaviours....produce results!


Practise the above on a regular basis and track your progress. You will soon find that you are celebrating unprecedented leaps forward in your quest for a peaceful and fulfilling life and to become the best version of yourself.



For more insights and a host of tools and techniques for exploring the Self and improving your human experience see our book:



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