“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” — Tony Robbins
ELIMINATE LIMITING BELIEFS AND REPLACE THEM WITH BELIEFS THAT EMPOWER YOU
Limiting beliefs in a person’s life can have thick roots deeply planted on a subconscious level. Limiting beliefs are those habitual thought patterns that constrain us in some way, and if we hold a belief long enough in the mind, over time it will become the truth. This a guide to reprogramming the subconscious mind so that you can completely change what grows and blossoms in your life.
Here are 4 reasons to become excited about creating change within your subconscious belief system:
1. Limiting beliefs create a tainted lens through which we begin look through upon ourselves and our lives, distorting our perceptions and connections.
2. This lens keeps us trapped in life-limiting thought patterns and creates unhelpful habitual tendencies.
3. We begin to believe these limitations to be a reality and we continue to live within the confines of them; feeding that limiting belief and creating a reality that is not aligned with our full potential and highest self.
4. The limiting beliefs then create a recurring pattern of self doubt which leads to self sabotage.
Exploring Limiting Subconscious Beliefs
So, where do we begin?
Let’s begin at childhood. As I watch my daughter grow, I see all of her experiences writing on the slate of who she is and who she is becoming. Every experience from the day she was born has contributed to the internal hard wiring that creates automatic responses, beliefs, fears and reactions; all of which affect the decisions she makes, the way she conducts herself, the way she relates to others, what she tolerates and what she considers unacceptable. Of course, this applies to all of us. The majority of what is stored in the subconscious mind was recorded there in early childhood, at a time when the frontal, reasoning part of the brain was not sufficiently developed to allow decisions to be made based upon reason. By the time the brain is fully developed in adulthood, we have formed many beliefs that create a blue print of how we relate to the world. Because they exist in the background, we are often unaware of them but the hidden beauty is that we hold the power to bring them to light and let them go.
Therefore throughout the journey of life, the choices and decisions we make are based on an internal set of subconscious beliefs. These beliefs can be incredibly helpful in many situations, but they can also be very problematic by placing unnecessary limitations where they don’t need to exist. However, the beautiful thing about limiting beliefs is that they do not need to be permanent and we are more than capable of transcending them as soon as we conceive the notion of doing so.
The subconscious mind is like a bio computer monitoring the mind and helping the body. Amazingly, the subconscious mind is even more powerful than the conscious mind! It acts as a conduit for all our past experiences, past traumas and life impressions and can create unexpected feelings of anger, fear, guilt, resentment, sadness, grief and trigger pain whenever a situation or person reminds us of our unresolved traumas. This is why the sub conscious mind is like a control tower with the potential to block or uplift the flow of health, joy and abundance in our lives and not only shape the person we are in the present, but also impact who we will become in the future.
Reprogramming the subconscious mind and transcending limiting beliefs is definitely feasible but theres a catch! Since the core subconscious beliefs are hidden within our blind spots, it can feel a bit like trying to tidy up a room you’ve never been in before and which is pitch dark. But there are ways to bring light to those shadowy places within us and it’s worth the effort because if we don’t change our subconscious beliefs, our life will not change and we will be held back from the abundance and success that is possible in all areas of existence.
Unearthing and Identifying Limiting Beliefs
To change anything, you must first identify it.
Step 1. Make a list of the areas in your life where you feel challenged.
Allow a moment of stillness, follow your thoughts and emotions, put them on paper and notice what emotions they elicit in you. Consider how you are doing in the following areas:
Finances. Are you feeling financial pressure in your life? Do you have all the things you need or really want? Do you have the income you desire? Is that income secure?
Relationships. Are your relationships satisfying? Do you feel safe and held? Do you feel supported and cared for? Do you feel deserving of love and intimacy? Consider your intimate relationship as well as your relationships with your family, friends, and co-workers.
Health. Are you taking good care of yourself? Do you begin to improve and then suddenly have a flare-up of your emotional or physical symptoms? Do you find it difficult to help yourself when you know you need to? Do you give yourself permission to prioritize your health?
Fun & Adventure. Are you doing the things you really want to do? Do you dream of travel? Do you want to learn to play an instrument or learn a sport but find reasons not to? Do you give yourself time in nature? Do you try new things?
Any other aspect of your life in which you’re experiencing dissatisfaction. Think about any other areas of your life where you’re less than satisfied. If you’re not pleased with your life, a limiting belief could be the cause. Do you struggle with a pattern of self-sabotage? Do you feel like similar challenging situations recur without change?
How does the voice in your mind respond to these questions? Does self doubt manifest with words that sound like “I can’t”, “It’s not possible”, “I shouldn’t”, “I’m not worthy”, “I’m not capable”? This could stem back to a limiting belief weaved into the fabric of your being.
Step 2. Identify the beliefs that are contributing to your challenges:
Make a list of all of your beliefs, good and bad, regarding the challenges you identified above. Try not to filter them as positive or negative while carrying out this process, just try to unearth the beliefs that might be holding you back. One way to do this is to consider how your behavior would change if that belief were eliminated from your life. Acknowledge that these are beliefs, not truths! Here’s the place where choice comes in. Which are you more interested in: defending your limitations to the end or achieving your goals and desires? As author Evelyn Waugh wrote, “When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them.” You choose.
“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
Clearing Out Limiting Subconscious Beliefs
It’s time to begin cleansing. The key to making long term changes in our lives is persistence, patience and non judgement. I’ve found one of the most powerful tools for healing and cleansing the mind is emotional disclosure, which means to talk or write about what is rising within you so that you can allow it to release. From my own personal experience, I know that we tend to make issues worse when they stew in our minds. Have you ever held something in, gnawed on it internally until it felt worse? Then when you do finally let it out, you feel a sense of release and often realize that it wasn’t that big a deal.
Whether your experience of subconscious rise and release is achieved through talking, writing or internally processing your limiting beliefs, there are just a few parts to successful reprogramming:
Acknowledgment. Are you seeing a pattern here? We need to acknowledge that we have this limiting belief and that it’s not working for us anymore. Sometimes we need to acknowledge the origin of this belief— whether it be a specific event in our lives, something someone said to us, or another source.
Trust. Talk to your subconscious mind like a trusted, compassionate, kind companion. We need the subconscious mind to feel safe enough to relax and accept these directions to change limiting beliefs.
Replacement. Find a new or empowering belief you want to install or replace for the subconscious mind to use instead. We want to offer it another, more fulfilling option instead of leaving it void.
If you avoid taking any steps based on your new belief, you will just continue to feed your old limiting belief. Taking action, even the smallest step, will help solidify your new un-limiting decision. Your first steps don’t have to be perfect, just headed in the right direction. And be sure to acknowledge yourself when you’ve taken that step.
Here is a simple and gentle technique that I call the Rise and Release Practice which helps the process of limiting beliefs by gently liberating them out of the subconscious mind. The subconscious and conscious mind are designed to work together therefore the subconscious mind is open to influence from the conscious mind.
With Rise and Release Practice, we’re going to be sending directions to the subconscious mind that ask it to challenge those limiting beliefs that aren’t working for us. You can equate this to a focused meditation where we ask your subconscious mind to let old ideas be gently guided out and a new idea to be gently guided in. The phrase “I am now free,” which appears in almost every sentence, is key to the process as freedom is a sought-after, natural human desire.
Just take it slow, really trying to sink into the words. Just slow down to let your body process these limiting beliefs if you need to at any point. There is no need to hurry.
Step 1: Connect with Your Inner Being or Higher Power - You may place your hands upon your heart to connect with love to your internal landscape.
Step 2: Repeat the Rise and Release Practice - Simply repeat the following script slowly, no need to rush through this, as you need to do it in a way that feels inviting and safe to the subconscious mind. You might record yourself speaking the script and listen to it daily.
Sound to your Self….
Even though I have this (state the belief), I allow it to rise so that it may release.
I acknowledge that it is no longer working for me.
I give my subconscious complete permission to allow me release it, from all of my cells in all of my body, permanently and completely.
I am now free to gratitude for the lessons it has taught me in the past.
I am now free to release all resistance of letting go.
I am now free to release all ideas that I need this in order to stay safe.
I am now free to release all ideas that I need it for any reason.
I am now free to release all feelings that I don’t deserve to release it.
I am now free to release all conscious and subconscious causes for this belief.
I am now free to release all conscious and subconscious reasons for holding on to it.
I am now free to release all harmful patterns, emotions, and memories connected to it.
I am now free to release all generational or past-life energies keeping it stuck.
All of my being is healing and clearing this energy now, including any stress response stored in my cells.
Healing, healing, healing.
Releasing, releasing, releasing.
When you are finished, take a few big, deep breaths.
“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” ―Les Brown
It is now time to recreate an empowering belief that is the opposite of the limiting belief you are releasing; for example, if the belief was “I am too damaged to heal,” you could recreate the belief “I am perfectly able to heal.” Sound this affirmation to yourself, write down, think it, believe it and recreate your reality.
The time is NOW to dive deep into the shadows and the blindspots in the subconscious mind and transcend limiting beliefs that impact the body, emotions and way of relating to daily life. Allow them to rise so they may release allow the light within to shine and illuminate your path.