Limiting beliefs are thoughts that limit you from achieving your goals and reaching your full potential. That’s not to say they’re always bad, but limiting beliefs can lead to a lot of frustration if left unchecked. In this blog post, we’ll explore what limiting beliefs are, how they work against us, and how to overcome them once and for all!
What are limiting beliefs
Limiting beliefs can be categorized as either internal or external. Internal limiting beliefs stem from your own thoughts and feelings, while external ones come from society and other people in our lives. Internal limiting beliefs are the most difficult to overcome since they’re usually deeply ingrained into who we are as individuals.
To explain it further…
Internal Limiting Thoughts:
“I’m not smart enough.”
External Limiting Characteristics:
“People aged over 65 cannot apply.”
Breaking Limiting Beliefs and Thoughts
External limiting beliefs can be broken down by pointing out the limitations of their thinking. Internal limiting thoughts must instead be tackled head-on through a process called cognitive restructuring. Cognitive restructuring is about challenging these biased or false ideas in an effort to uncover the true meaning behind what we really believe deep down inside ourselves. It’s important not to lose sight of what our ultimate goal should be: finding peace within yourself so you can.
What are Limiting Thoughts?
Limiting thoughts stem from our assumptions of how things should be. They’re usually negative or pessimistic, and they contain words like never, always, too hard, not possible. For example:
“I’m unlucky because I failed my math test.”
How does Limiting Beliefs affect me?
If you have a lot of limiting beliefs in your life then it’ll cause feelings that lead to situations where we feel helpless and powerless. Some common examples include feeling anxious all the time for no reason (internal) or being self-conscious about everything you do (external). In these cases, people will often blame themselves when there’s really nothing wrong with them! When this happens repeatedly over an extended period of time, it can cause people to feel depressed and/or anxious.
There is so much power in changing your mindset though!
How do Limiting Beliefs form?
The more negativity someone experiences throughout their life or specific events in their lives, the stronger these negative thoughts become until it becomes almost impossible for one person to see themselves as anything other than those things around them have told them they were.
What happened when I changed?
If you’re struggling with any kind of limiting belief (which most people have at least one), then try challenging the thought by asking yourself if this really has anything to do with reality or what you deserve in life. If it does have to do with reality, then try asking yourself how you can make the thought more realistic.
It’s not always easy to change limiting beliefs on your own though so find someone who has gone through a similar experience and talk about it! You’ll be surprised by what they have to say because they’ve been there too.
The process of getting rid of limiting thoughts is different for everyone but one important thing that I learned along the way was that you need patience, persistence, and self-compassion when doing this. It does take time and effort which is why people often get discouraged from trying or give up before even making any headway (I know I did). One additional piece of advice would be:
“slow down if things aren’t going as you intended”
Listening to your intuition is a really great idea because it’s an immediate signal letting us know what we want in life. We’re all very intuitive beings so don’t ignore those little nudges!
How Limiting Beliefs work against us
Limiting thoughts and beliefs can take many forms. All of them are designed to limit you in some way or another, whether that be through fear of failure or by discouraging your success. Let’s say you believe:
“I’ll never get a promotion at my job.”
Well with this limiting belief being active, it will have an impact on how much effort you put into achieving higher goals – such as asking for promotions or accepting new opportunities within the company where there may not even be any available positions! It might also stop you from interviewing elsewhere because deep down inside, you don’t think anything better is out there waiting for you.
Breaking Limiting Beliefs
So what do we do when we find ourselves in a situation where limiting beliefs stop us from achieving our goals?
The first step is to acknowledge that you have them. It might be hard at first, but try writing down every belief or thought that feels like it’s holding you back and then look for common themes between the list. For example:
“I can’t do anything right”
may come up as one of your limiting thoughts/beliefs – this could stem from past mistakes which are hindering all future success until they’re brought out into the light! Once these limiting beliefs are identified, it becomes much easier to tackle them head on by proving them wrong in order of priority.
Another method I recommend is through journaling with affirmations; when we focus our mind on what we need to believe, it becomes easier to believe!
An additional way to overcome limiting thoughts or beliefs is through meditation; this allows for self-awareness which then facilitates change within oneself as well as self-actualization towards one’s full potential and purpose of what we were born here to accomplish. When we meditate regularly, our mind will feel more peaceful and open – making us less susceptible towards negative influences like people who don’t want us to succeed because they’re still living with limiting thoughts themselves.
Ways to overcome these limiting beliefs and live a more fulfilling life
Using a combination of exercises like journaling with affirmations, meditation and mindfulness; while taking care of your physical body by eating healthy food, exercising regularly (when one is physically capable), drinking plenty of water and getting enough sleep.
Many people feel that they are not good enough or deserving – this is the negative ego talking to us! We must identify those limiting beliefs which tell us we’re not good enough and replace them with thoughts that remind ourselves how incredible our gifts are so that we can create a life worth living that’s in alignment with who you authentically are.
How to stop yourself from recreating old habits in the future
Your ability to identify when these negative limiting beliefs begin to creep back into our thoughts and create doubts is crucial. When we catch ourselves holding on to limiting beliefs or allowing them to resurface after working so hard to eliminate them, we can call upon our belief in our self worth and go back into challenging the negative thoughts.
The importance of being grateful for what you have now instead of focusing on the past or future
Living in the moment, the present is where your power lies.
The processes listed above should be repeated until the unwanted emotions associated with past memories are gone completely. One-day at a time allows you to see how much progress you’ve made without being overwhelmed by the whole task ahead of you. This is why it’s so important to be mindful of your thoughts, words, and actions so that you can change them when needed. You can then move on with living life unencumbered, free and limitless!
