Following on from my previous post: What Are Limiting Beliefs and How Do You Know If You Have Them? , I've created some writing prompts to try and turning limiting beliefs around, or at least minimise their impact on daily life.
To begin with, you'll have identified some opinions or thought about yourself which you recognise as limiting. These might be things like;
'I can't cope in busy environments'
'My voice isn't loud enough'
'Nobody wants my input on that'
'I'm no good at flirting'
'Everyone else is cleverer than me'
'My body is too weak to do that'
Recognising that you have these restrictive opinions is a big step, so be pleased with yourself for identifying them. You can also feel a little bit sad, because they aren't nice things to hear. The good news is, that they might not even be true.
Write your name at the top of the piece of paper. (You can screw it up at the end again if you want to - writing about yourself always feels vulnerable and weird.) Below that, choose three of your limiting beliefs and write down the exact opposite of them; ie. 'I can thrive in busy environments'.
How does it feel to look at those labels underneath your name?
Write about how your life would be different if these opposites were true. Would more opportunities open up, and would you experience less of certain negative feelings? If you like, you can write yourself into a short story scene where your character acts according to the opposite belief. Spend some time imagining yourself under the 'opposite' and sit with that for a while.
Have you established that changing your limiting belief is a valuable thing to do, and worth some time and effort?
If so, then let's collect the evidence for both sides. Split your page into two and write your 'Current Belief' at the top of one column and the 'Possible Belief' at the top of the other.
If you'd like to alter your possible belief to be less extreme than a complete opposite, that's fine. It's got to be realistic for you.
Next, collect the evidence on each side. You will be probably be able to find lots of 'data' for your current limiting belief, because you've spent your whole life collecting for it. However, you can only write down concrete things that are not based on an opinion, and you can't write down anything that happened more than one year ago. Give yourself a chance.
In the 'Possible Belief' column, you can use more imagination. The evidence can be a little as a clue - an inkling in favour if this more positive way of being. It could be one occasion where you actually were really good in a crowd. It could be that your colleague really appreciated your input on a project recently, even if they didn't say so. This is the column that needs boosting - we need to help it as much as possible.
How does this feel to look at your beliefs objectively?
Keep these two lists going, and actively look for evidence to put in your 'Possible Belief' column. Our next blog post will look at balancing the two columns.