While you are questioning your ideology and beliefs about the world, it is a great time to identify and question the beliefs about yourself and your life, put into your mind by your parents, by friends, by society, etc. and decide if they are healthy/right for you. We are looking for limiting beliefs. These are beliefs that hold you back from doing what you feel compelled to do. Limiting beliefs are inherently negative. They are beliefs about what you are not, what you cannot be, what you are not capable of. Limiting beliefs might sound like the voice of your parents, siblings, or childhood friends labeling you as something negative.
Limiting beliefs can also come from watching your parents as a child. How did your parents act towards each other? What beliefs might this have implanted in you?
List any beliefs that come to mind. Then, decide what you will replace them with. For each limiting belief, make a supportive belief that will support your efforts instead. Then, read your new beliefs every day for at least a month or more to retrain your brain. You might consider using a spaced repetition flash card system app or posting your list where you can see it every day.
Limiting beliefs put in us as children can be VERY hard to get rid of. If you find that you have some limiting beliefs that you just cannot fully replace, try adding on to them instead, to make them positive instead of negative. For example, here is a list of common limiting beliefs and an additional phrase for each that makes it positive…
I am strange or weird…. unique and amazing
I do not belong… among people who hold me back.
No one will listen… if they are not ready. Don’t force them.
I am self-centered… centered securely in my own soul.
The way I want to do it will not work… unless I actually do it. So do it.
Nobody listens to women… who do not speak up. So speak up.
I am a silly child… playful and inquisitive like the purity of childhood.
What I want is irrelevant… until I decide otherwise.
So if you have some limiting beliefs holding you back and you can’t seem to get rid of them, try completing them instead. Remember to read it often to retrain your brain on the updated version of those beliefs to help it stick.
