Limiting Beliefs: How Do They Determine Your Life And What Can You Do To End Them?
Do you think you have too many limiting beliefs? Does your mind keep thinking about thoughts that limit you? Discover why these types of beliefs are in you and how to confront them.
Beliefs form the basis of how we see our reality. We all have beliefs that are based on our emotions and experiences in life. These belief systems They shape the vision of our world since:
“We learn our belief systems when we are very young, and then we move through life creating experiences that match our beliefs. Look back at your own life and see how often you have gone through the same experience.”
Louise L. Hay
This is how we end up having limiting thoughts They are based on our beliefs and all the experiences we had in the past. If we become aware of these limiting beliefs we can know what is really holding us back from being our best version.
It is very possible that you have once made the statement to yourself ‘I’m not good at math‘ either ‘I will never be a good dancer‘. These are examples of limiting beliefs with which you define yourself.
A good one definition of limiting belief is that this is a state of mind or conviction that you truly believe and that limits you in some way. In this way, the limiting belief can address something about yourself, your interactions with other people, and even how you believe the world works.
It is precisely for this reason that these limiting thoughts end up having many negative effects on the person. The limiting beliefs about an individual’s money, skills, and ways of being can leave someone trapped in a continuous negative state of mind that hinders them from living the life they really want.
Why do we have limiting beliefs?
Where do the limiting beliefs and how can they have influenced your life? Some researchers argue that there are genetic factors that influence people to have a more closed mind and only focus on negative information. But, there are also other causes apart from genetics. Among the most influential we find the following.
Family beliefs: The influence of parents is vital for the development of our personality. Therefore, many of our types of beliefs come precisely from their way of raising us and telling us how we are. Therefore, many of your limiting beliefs They were forged precisely in those beliefs that your parents invested in you.
Education: Education also plays a very relevant role in the development of a belief and its meaning in our lives. So much so that friends and teachers can be like our second family during the first years of life. This is because when we are little we are very influenced by those people who have a position of authority towards us. Therefore, many of the limiting and empowering beliefs will come from these environments.
Experiences: At the moment you make a decision for yourself or have an experience in life, it is common that you later draw a conclusion from its result. That’s where your limiting beliefs They take examples to make conclusions that you will later expand to the other areas of your life. In this way, it is important to remember that the conclusions or beliefs we draw from bad experiences are only temporarily valid.
How to identify your limiting beliefs?
Now that you know where they come from limiting and empowering beliefs, you must have come to the conclusion that we all have these two types of beliefs. For this reason, you must realize those that end up in limiting thoughts for your personal and professional evolution. In this way, according to psychologists, we can identify a limiting belief through the following.
Identify and write your beliefs: In order to identify a belief and meaning what this has had in your life, a good method will be to write it down in a notebook. In these cases, start by grouping the beliefs by specific examples and then try labeling them into categories such as finances, family, relationships or health. Once you have done this, examine which of them are helping you grow and which are giving you limiting thoughts for your life.
Evaluate your behavior: Another of the exercises to change limiting beliefs or to identify them is to try to see when your behavior is governed by these types of beliefs. In this way you should think about those situations in which you have acted in a negative or toxic way and then think about why. By closely observing your toxic thoughts or behaviors, you can discover what is the cause of your empowering beliefs and those that are limiting.
Write down the areas in which you feel challenged: If you have noticed that you have challenges in your life that are more recurring than others, this could point to a limiting belief. For this reason, you can point out those areas that you think are limitations for you in your life. This way you will be able to see what the types of beliefs are around these challenges.
On many occasions the limiting beliefs They can be too challenging to defeat with our own personal tools. Therefore, if you see that these limiting thoughts are holding you back, a good remedy will be to seek the help of a mental health professional.
How to overcome limiting beliefs?
Changing our beliefs is also changing ourselves. It is for this reason that the exercises to change the limiting beliefs They entail a very difficult process. Even so, with effort and will you can put more weight on your empowering beliefs before those that involve limiting thoughts. The tips we give you below can help you successfully overcome any limiting beliefs that hold you back in life.
Organize your environment: Although it may not sound relevant to your interior, the reality is that the environment greatly affects our beliefs. In this way, having a more spacious and better organized environment will not only strengthen your mental health but will also encourage positive thinking. When an environment is organized this gives you more space to think and have more mental clarity.
Use minimalism: Minimalism consists of trying to live with what is only essential. Although it is not necessary to live with the minimum, the reality is that we can apply minimalism to different areas of our lives. In this way we can see the limiting beliefs and their examples in our lives identifying those in which we do the opposite of what minimalism suggests. For example, if you have a lot of clothes in your closet, you may have limiting beliefs about your physical appearance. Therefore, it may be a good idea to work on it.
Explore more: As we have mentioned, the limiting beliefs They may be the result of a closed mindset. To help open our minds we must try to get out of our comfort zone. Try to let yourself be guided by your curiosity and your desire to learn.
Meditation: Meditation helps you explore what is inside yourself. For this reason it can be a great idea to try to establish this habit. The reason for this is that in many cases personal introspection helps us to more clearly identify the limiting thoughts that is in us.
Use positive affirmations: In the event that you are limiting beliefs and their harmful phrases go hand in hand with low self-esteem, it is important that you start reasoning about them or changing them for positive affirmations. Instead of focusing on what is negative for you, you should try to reaffirm yourself with empowering beliefs that you can establish yourself.
The limiting beliefs They can represent a barrier that prevents you from seeing beyond it. Changing these limiting thoughts for empowering beliefs is undoubtedly one of the ways that will lead you to improve inside and out.
