Episode #25: What Is A Limiting Belief?

Are you suffering from limiting beliefs? Newsflash: if you’re human, the answer is yes!

Limiting beliefs are at the core of MANY of our blocks and problems. So today we’re doing a deep-dive into finding out exactly WHAT a limiting belief is, HOW it’s holding you back, as well as two powerful practices for shifting your limiting beliefs for good!

In This Episode:

+ Find out exactly what a limiting belief is
+ Learn some of the ways common limiting beliefs might be negatively impacting your life right now
+ Get TWO powerful protocols for changing those limiting beliefs for good
Much more!

Listen Here:

What Is A Limiting Belief? | Episode #25 Transcript

Hello, Gorgeous and welcome back to the Self Worth Podcast.
It’s a girl Jenn, I am a coach, hypnotist and healer, and I am your guide today on your
journey to self healing and learning how to create a secure and confident mindset.
I’m so excited for today’s episode, but before we get into it, I just want to do a little
life update here.
I’ve had friends in town this week and I’ve been basically being a little tour guide most
of the days, which is really nice.
It can be really exhausting, not gonna lie, but it’s always a nice thing to take a break
from your normal routine and to go out and see the world in a brand new way.
Sometimes when you’ve lived somewhere for a while, you just get stuck in routines.
So anytime that you are being called to get outside of your little box is a good thing.
It helps you grow, it helps you to see things differently.
And also to show people things that I enjoy and to see them also enjoy it, it’s really
cool and it’s just nice to see the city with brand new eyes sometimes.
So my thought, my little mini thought for you today before we start the actual podcast
is what can you do to get out of your comfort box and to see some of the magic that’s already
there in the world around you.
Again, we tend to think that we get stuck in our routines and we go do the same things
and sometimes that little bit of magic is missing from our day.
And that is not because it’s not there is because we just get stowed so stuck in routine
and habit that we forget.
We can just take a little step outside and go do something differently and that just creates
a whole different perspective on our reality.
And of course in miracles, the definition of a miracle is learning to see the world differently.
Because when you learn to see the world differently, the world you see changes.
So if you need a little miracle, if you need a vibe shift, if you need a perspective shift,
this is just my little reminder to you that the best way to do that is to go out there
and go do something new.
It doesn’t have to be crazy.
It could be going to a new cafe, a new restaurant, trying out a new grocery store, trying
out a new workout class, whatever.
But just changing that little perspective and putting yourself in a new situation can
just do so much for your mindset.
So that’s my little mini tip for you today on the pod.
And now we’ll get into the rest of this week’s episode.

What Is A Limiting Belief?

And today I want to talk to you about limiting beliefs.
Limiting beliefs are something that I’ve spoken about so many times over the years.
If you know me, my original blog, the Align Life, it’s still going, it’s a manifestation
blog.
And it’s really all about mindset and about creating your reality.
Of course, limiting beliefs have so much to do with that.
This is one of those topics where once again, I only wish I could go back in time and explain
how this works to my younger self because I can tell you I was walking around suffering
from so many limiting beliefs in my life, like up until my 30s, like honestly, until I discovered
this work until I really started to do personal development and self healing work.
I just had these beliefs in my mind.
They lived there unquestioned and I never really did anything about them.
I just didn’t even see them.
And that is exactly the danger that we are all in, unless we know about how these beliefs
work, we’re just going to live with them and we’re going to suffer the consequences.
I’m also saying all of that with a whole psychology degree.
I always talk about how I went to study psychology and university because I wanted to understand
people better.
But I think really I wanted to understand myself better.
And even though I learned a lot about brain chemistry, brain physiology and about different
psychiatrists and their different theories, I did not learn a lot of practical theory.
And limiting beliefs are like something that maybe the psychology world doesn’t really
talk about, but for me, this is essential.
So today, I wanted to make a quick podcast for you to listen to all about limiting beliefs.
So if you were new to this work, you might be wondering right now, well, what is a limiting
belief?
And a limiting belief is simply a belief that you hold that limits you in some way.
So that is a pretty big definition, I know.
And it sounds a little strange at first, doesn’t it?
Because why on earth would I want to believe in something that limits me?
Why on earth would I choose to believe something that is harming me or preventing
me from being my best self and living my best life?
But again, the trick here is that because the unquestioned mind and the unquestioned
mind said that we all have, that is the danger.
That is where all of those limiting beliefs come from.
And most of those limiting beliefs are probably not things that you decided on yourself.
They are probably things that your family of origin told you that maybe you learned
on the school ground or that you saw in the media when you were growing up.
Most of our limiting beliefs come to us from a very young age, from the age of zero, from
when you’re born until about the age of seven, you are just your subconscious mind walking
around in the world.
And that subconscious mind does not have a conscious filter on it.
So things that are happening to you that we can think consciously about as adults, we
take those things very literally as children, especially when those things have a big emotional
impact or they are repeated to us over and over again.

How A Limiting Belief Is Created

That is how we all collect limiting beliefs about many things like money or love.
For example, the belief money doesn’t grow on trees.
That might have been something that your parents told you over and over again when you were
a child.
Anytime you asked for a toy or in my case, I remember I was always denied getting popcorn
at the movie theater.
We didn’t go to the movies very often and when we went, I wanted the popcorn, but I was
never allowed to get it.
And there was always some money excuse involved with that, which may have been very legit,
but I remember this very specifically for when I was a kid.
And you might have a similar story.
So this is your parents way of telling you that know that they can’t afford to buy something
for you, but that belief right there money doesn’t grow on trees is a money scarcity belief
and potentially a money limiting belief that might be impacting you in your life right
now.
Perhaps you grew up to develop money fears.
Perhaps you are paranoid about holding on to your money and you will not spend it on anything
quote unquote frivolous or maybe you suffer from an inability to earn money.
Maybe you have problems earning money in general.
That can also stem from money scarcity limiting beliefs because even though that’s not what
your parents were talking about way back then, those kinds of negative beliefs might haven’t
still been you a fear of money.
You think money is big, you think money is difficult and therefore you are walking through
your adult life right now repelling money from you without even knowing it.
When I talk about money, people are always going to bring up capitalism, etc.
And yes, there are other big huge factors at play here, but money mindset is a massive
one.
And if you have a poor money mindset, it is going to just be extra difficult for you to
create any change in that area.
So this is something that we can change, right?
It is hard for one person to change the whole system around money, but we can change the
way we interact with it.
We can change our beliefs around it.
And that alone is enough for many people to change their actual money reality.
Maybe it wasn’t money that you grew up hearing negative things about.
Maybe it was love.
Maybe your mother went through a series of dating people that weren’t great for her and told
you over and over again, all the good ones are taken.
And perhaps now as an adult, you are struggling in your romantic relationships because some
part of your brain really deeply believes that all the good ones are taken.
So of course, why would I look that hard for a good one if I already don’t think there
are any, right?
This is how one little limiting belief can impact your life in a major way.
One of my limiting beliefs that I had for a very long time, this was a limiting identity
belief that I held onto.
You see, when I was a child, when I was a little girl, I was so shy.
I hated speaking to new people.
I would dive embarrassment.
I would try to hide in my room when my parents had visitors over.
I was just incredibly introverted and I just didn’t want to talk to anybody.
And over the years, I carried that belief with me.
I went to school.
I went to university.
I went into adulthood still thinking this about myself and I have to say, even though over
time, it got better.
Like I had a retail job in high school.
So I was a cashier at a clothing store and that forced me to start talking to people like
that honestly really helped.
But I still carried this belief with me for a very long time.
I would say up until I actually moved to Berlin because there is nothing like changing
up your life entirely, throwing yourself into a whole new environment.
To see what you’re really made of.
So that was when I started to realize like, hey, like after I’ve been here for a while and
I started to make friends, it was like, hey, I’m not bad at this.
I actually have made friends and I made friends relatively quickly, like not within the first
week, but within the first few months.
And most of those friends I still am close to today.
So that really proved to me that I am not as socially awkward or painfully introverted
as I spent years believing because if I had been just an introvert and there was no hope
for me, then why was I able to go into this new situation and create a different outcome?
So I can’t tell you the impact that changing this belief earlier would have had on my life,
but I am so grateful that I have done the work and I know this about myself now.
As I note on there, I just said social anxiety and I still get social anxiety.
I still climb up a little bit when I walk into a room of new people.
I think that is normal and that may never go away.
But the thing I know about myself now is that if I am there for five minutes or ten minutes
that feeling does go away and I can relax and I can be a normal human in conversation.
And it’s actually a lot of fun to talk to people most of the time.
So that is another part of my learning journey.
I just wanted to throw that out there because social anxiety was very real and it still
is very real.
But the whole underlying belief under that was that I could not make friends or that I was
too shy to make friends.
That has completely shifted for me.
And I’m sure that there’s a similar belief in your life that can shift for you as well.
Okay, so now you know what a limiting belief is and now you can see how a limiting belief
that you picked up a long time ago or even last week might be affecting your life right
now.

Two Ways To Change A Limiting Belief

So the next question becomes a little how do I change a limiting belief?
Well, the best way that you can change a limiting belief is to challenge it directly.
So now I’m pretty good at noticing these little beliefs when they come up in my mind and
they do so come up all the time.
So it’s much easier now because I’ve done this so much to start to notice them and to
start to challenge them.
So the next time you notice a belief like that come up in your mind, you can just be
curious about it.
Like, oh, isn’t that interesting?
I think money is difficult to earn or I think dating is hard for this reason.
Whatever it is for you, right?
I want you to look at that belief right there and you don’t have to get into like how
that’s affecting you right now.
You can just notice it like this is a belief that is potentially impacting me and I just
want to get a little bit curious about it for a moment.
The thing is with limiting beliefs is that you probably have a lot of proof that proves
that belief correct, right?
If you think money is hard, you can probably think back to many incidences in your life where
money was hard.
But I want you to just turn that on its head for a moment.
I want you to challenge it directly and you can do this in two different ways.
You can look back and ask yourself, was there a time in my life where money was easy?
Where the complete opposite of money being hard was true and I’m sure that you can think
of a few times where that was reality.
Maybe somebody gave you a raise out of the blue.
Maybe you received a windfall of money out of nowhere.
There might be many times in your life where money was not so difficult but your brain is
just consciously filtering those out to hold on to that one belief that actually isn’t
even true, right?
Because if it was true, it would be true 100% at the time and there are very few things
that are 100% true all of the time and objectively true to an outside observer.
So that’s one way you can challenge it to look backwards and look for proof of the opposite
thing.
Another way you can challenge it is to challenge yourself to do the opposite thing right now
or to start to take action in a new way right now.
So if you have always thought money was hard and so that you didn’t do something, you didn’t
invest in yourself, you didn’t go after that new job or you talked yourself out of doing
something because of this belief.
I want you to change that.
I want you to do the opposite thing.
So in the past, you’ve resisted learning about investing.
So I want you to start learning about investing.
Maybe the story in your mind is that money is too difficult for me to understand.
I will never learn how to invest.
I will never understand the stock market.
Go find yourself a teacher and I guarantee you there’s one out there that you will vibe
with.
Go find yourself a teacher and start to learn and prove to yourself that this belief isn’t
true.
Perhaps in the past you had teachers that were not vibing with you, especially if you’re
a woman there.
So many, many money teachers that are just completely wrong for the way we think and our
reality, right?
So go and find a teacher that works for you and see if you can prove it wrong to yourself.
Okay.
So that is how you challenge a limiting belief.
You go look for evidence and try to focus on that evidence to prove to your mind that
it’s not true or you go and take a new action starting now.
What would be a different outcome?
What would be a different thing you could do right now to start to prove it to your brain
right now?
Okay.
Just give yourself that chance.
Don’t assume that you’re bad at money.
Don’t assume that you’re bad at dating.
Don’t assume that this relationship isn’t going to work out anyway.
So why bother?
What would happen if you took the opposite action?
You might just be surprised at how easy it is to prove that those old standard beliefs
that you’ve been holding on to for so long are actually not rooted in reality at all.
As you can tell, limiting beliefs are something of a passion of mine at this point.
And if you want to learn a little bit more about how to get rid of yours, I also have an amazing
powerful tapping protocol to help you reprogram any limiting belief that you want to.
It’s currently available on my aligned life site.
I will drop a link for that in the description box below.
Come on over, sign on up.
You get access to this video.
It is about 15, 20 minutes and I’ll take you through a tapping series, EFT tapping series
like my own unique blend of EFT tapping and we will reprogram any single limiting belief
that you might stumble across.
So that is another way you can get rid of a limiting belief for good.
Okay.
So that is it for today’s episode.
My beautiful friend.
Thank you so much for being here.
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful spring weather and I will see you back here in next
weeks episode.