Addressing Limiting Beliefs & What You Can Do About Them
We already know how powerful your thoughts can be. Whether you believe in manifesting or not there is certainly some truth behind what everyone seems to be talking about. Your thoughts tend to control your actions and your actions then turn into outcomes, as our friend and beauty entrepreneur, MJ of Malaya Made says.
What exactly is a limiting belief?
I would encourage you to reflect on your thoughts. Try to remember any time you ever sat there and thought, “That would be so fun but I can’t because…” or “I would love to do that but…” These can sound like excuses to some and to me a lot of times the word “but” contains the limiting belief. I always say the words “but” and “can’t” are so powerful and should be used sparingly because these words automatically cause your brain to shut down and quit working.
As soon as you say “can’t” your brain stops working, it quits trying to problem solve and it just gives up. Instead, if we replace the word with “how can I…” it’s instantaneous that our minds continue to work to try and meet the goal we’ve set.
These are limiting beliefs, we all have them and I don’t believe it’s anything we ever get rid of. Life evolves, we grow as people, and although sometimes we hate it change is ever occurring.
So now that we know what a limiting belief is and how we can identify them what do we actually do about them?
Well MJ and I sat down to chat about this very thing and we came up with some tips that we use with ourselves when we face our own limiting beliefs.
Remember your “why”
“The way we spend our time is all a choice… if it's not something that I am aligned with, then I have to remember, what is my why?” -MJ
Staying focused on your intention is a big thing. Especially if you tend to be the type of person to take on a lot at once. The “why” keeps your focus and often times helps to refill your glass and fuel your fire. Asking the question, “Why?” I think is a great habit to get into, in my experience, it’s only provided clarity in all things that I do. When you know the purpose of doing things it can provide the guidance you need, the reason why you take certain steps in order to get you closer to what you want.
Recognizing your thoughts and letting them go
“The thought itself is just not serving me. You can feel it if you need to feel it, but don't hold on to it, just let it go.” - Heather
We all think a million different thoughts at any given time. If we give power to every thought that comes across our mind can you imagine how chaotic we would be? Or maybe you do give your every thought power and you’re over feeling like you’re being pulled in several different directions.
One of the best things you can do for yourself does not fall into the trap of believing everything your thoughts are telling you. The stronger you get at recognizing what is a limiting thought the more effective you become at combating thoughts that don’t serve you. Thoughts that bring you down instead of lift you up, spread doubt and negativity instead of optimism and positivity.
It’s absolutely normal to have limiting thoughts learning to identify and dismiss them is the key to getting through them. Yes if you need to feel them or work through those emotions tied to those thoughts do it, but don’t let those thoughts keep you in a limited mindset. Force yourself to search for the positive and opportunities for growth and exploration.
Finding out what the thought is rooted from
“I think fear is totally rooted in a lack mentality, afraid of you know, X, Y, and Z. But I think when you switch to an abundance mindset you explore all the different options and possibilities outside of what we know or what we can conjure up.” -MJ
When working with limiting beliefs it helps to find out where the thought or thoughts are coming from. I bet once you examine further you find that a lot of your limiting beliefs are steamed from fear. Fear of making a mistake, fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of judgment, the list can go on and on. Fear has the power to stop us in our tracks but it’s up to you to determine just how much you let fear control your life and your decisions.
I always like to ask myself what am I more afraid of? Staying where I am and feeling stuck or exploring what else life has to offer me? Yes, it may not all be good but I know at least for me it’ll be worth it.