How Limiting Beliefs Secretly Control Your Life. (And How to Change Them) Limiting beliefs are often the invisible filters

  Limiting beliefs are often the invisible filters that dictates how we see our reality.

  I began this work at Mind Pathways because I wanted to support those struggling with the weight of limiting beliefs. As someone who has navigated life with a disability and studied the depths of counselling, I know that many of the narratives we carry like shame or “not being enough “aren’t actually ours. They are simply patterns we’ve adapted to move through our personal reality.

For me, the shame I carried of being different with a disability wasn’t even mine. It came from a narrative passed down by my parents, and my fascination with human behaviour and body language became my way to understand who I truly was.

 My personal journey naturally led me to my professional one. I have my level 4 Diploma in Counselling and I’ve accreditation as a Life Coach with the ACCPH. (Accredited, Coaches, Counsellors, Psychotherapists, Hypnotherapists).

My training in theories like Carl Rogers (Person Centred approach) Eric Berne Transactional Analysis, John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory, Fredrich Nietzsche Existential Theory. Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of needs. Three-year volunteer work as a listener for charities has given me clearer understanding with empathy for other people’s struggles.

   I have a lot of understanding behind how our minds work, how our behaviours form, how early experiences shape us. Change happens when we understand why a belief exists, once a belief stops feeling threatening, it becomes much easier to shift.

 Over the past 3 years I have been a listener for different charities, And because of confidentiality, I won’t go into detail about that work, but what I will say is this, many people have suffered the label as being lazy or broken, but I am here to say the majority aren’t either, well it’s an old system we were taught, that involves limiting beliefs, a nervous system, RAS, and a change in patterns with a lot of patience and without the shame.

So, if we take a moment to understand our beliefs, we must begin these belief cycles can propel us up or keep us down, and most of us due to our societal conditioning, most of us are held back by cycles we didn’t even choose. It’s only when we have awareness with these limiting belief cycles and though insight is important, the main ingredient is taking action to begin change.

How Your Brain Proves You “RIGHT”

If you think of a currently held belief, it is always showing up but more in behaviour then words, which can be confusing because the brain proves you’re right without you evenly consciously noticing, the Reticular Activating System (RAS) for short, it downloads so much information than we can’t always process, , like you notice the toast is burning but not the phone ringing. The sensory input of the phone ringing was censored out.

 Which means your reality is coming from your perception, not as reality is. We look for references to believe we are right subconsciously projecting our internal map onto the outside world through interactions with ourselves, and others.

How to Change.

When we want to look at change of a belief we tend to rely on motivation, but as I said before, motivation alone isn’t enough on its own. The belief acts as a filter controlling your RAS, it decides what you notice and what your brain ignores, like a radar.

If we use these actionable tools like directed questions, affirmations, vision board journals, vision notebook journals, daily journaling & tracking and progress and these tools can slowly train your RAS to see new patterns and possibilities.

 Directed Questions

Our brains are irritated when questions aren’t answered. Instead of “I want to be happy” rephrase it to “What 3 things can I do today that can help me towards my goal?” “How can I do this better for my higher self?

Affirmations

So here, words create images, and with those images create emotions.

“I am ready and open to receive the abundance and love the universe has waiting for me.”

There are also affirmations cards that can support this practice.

You can use these cards daily by pulling one each morning and taking a moment to sit with it. Read it slowly, even repeat to yourself, taking notice how it makes you feel.

Vision Boards/Notebook Journals

Our brains process images so much faster than then a text. This in mind instead of a wish list of moving home, try this instead, write and picture about a new home you’ve been dreaming of. The smell of just made filtered coffee beans, in the warm sunlight kitchen, with your feelings of that cosy experience, a brand-new beginning, kids outside in the garden playing, the house looks like …summers day. What does the garden look like…

Daily Journaling and Tracking Your Progress

This is important as we are collecting all this new information, to prove this new belief is real. In your journal, daily consistency with writing one win of achieving your new direction with your new goal, you can add a photo, a quote, a few sentences of how are you feeling?

 You can also write the affirmation in your journal or keep it somewhere visible throughout the day as a reminder.