You Deserve a Life of Great Fullness

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. This is a powerful time of year

to do the really important work of exploring your limiting beliefs.

Understanding what your limiting beliefs hold is a critical part of

growth & evolution. Clearing limiting beliefs is a lifelong process.

I’ve been working on finding ways to clear limiting beliefs for

many years and have found that Emotional Freedom

Techniques (EFT/Tapping) and Co-Creative Mandalas help you

to safely explore limiting beliefs, give thanks for the ways those

beliefs have served you in the past, while still being honest

about your current situation.


And ... you have to be brave enough to really look at those parts

of yourself–all those parts you want to hide & push away.

Uncovering and clearing limiting beliefs is your pathway to

Wholeness and peace—to a life of Great Fullness.

What are Limiting

Beliefs?


We all have limiting beliefs.

Most of them are hidden

within us.  These beliefs

are often so subtle that we

are unable to recognize

them. Like chameleons,

they blend in with the background. A belief is an idea about your

experience that you hold to be true. Such an idea guides your

actions, filters your experience, gives or denies you permission

to act and lets you know what things mean. Sometimes these

beliefs are useful and sometimes they aren’t. When they work

for us and bring us what we want we can think of them as

empowering beliefs. When they work against us they can get in

the way of our progress and make life much harder than it

needs to be. In these cases we call them limiting beliefs. Rather

than decide whether a belief is right or wrong it is more useful to

consider whether it is helpful or unhelpful, limiting or enhancing.



How Limiting Beliefs Are Formed?


So much of who we are now and how we perceive the world is

shaped by our early childhood experiences. This is particularly

true when it comes to our beliefs about our potential for success

and happiness, as well as our faith that we’re deserving and

capable of living a passionate life. As we grow up, traits

associated with “being good” are accepted, while others

associated with “being bad” are rejected. As children, when we

expressed certain parts of ourselves, we received negative cues

from our environment that threatened our basic needs for

safety, security, and/or belonging. We adjusted our behavior to

gratify those needs and learned to adapt to the external world.


As a child grows older, goes to school, and interacts with peers,

the carefree passion that was once natural and easy is now

tempered by social or peer expectations, subtle shaming, and

criticisms. As a child moves into adolescence, she may begin to

believe the negative feelings she has about herself. These

learnings form our beliefs and expectations about the world and

become the “writing on our walls” i.e., the longer we hold on to a

belief or fear, the more ingrained it is in our minds. These beliefs

once served a very important function: They kept us safe. They

protected us from experiencing pain. As adults, who are in

charge of our lives, limiting beliefs no longer serve us.

---

Benefits of Finding and

Clearing Limiting Beliefs


Talking about and working on

limiting beliefs isn’t a popular

topic. Who enjoys looking at

her limiting beliefs that show

up as procrastination or self-

sabotage? Focusing on our

strengths is more enjoyable and life-affirming.


Exploring our limiting beliefs, however, gives us tremendous

opportunities for growth and development, for noticing and

acknowledging those parts of our self that are afraid. So what

are the benefits?


1. You become more grounded, human, and whole. When you

can accept your own darker parts, it is easier to accept the

shadow in others and you won't be triggered so easily by other's

behaviors.


2. As you clear your limiting beliefs, you’re approaching your

authentic self. You’ll see yourself and others and evaluate

situations with greater clarity, compassion, and understanding.


3. You liberate a tremendous reservoir of energy you were

unconsciously investing in protecting yourself. This can improve

your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.


4. It unlocks more of your creative potential. Creativeness, as

psychologists like Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers found, is a

spontaneous occurrence in mentally healthy (integrated)

individuals.



Tips For Engaging in Limiting Belief Work


1. Center yourself. Before you begin working with your limiting

beliefs, you want to be in a calm, clear, neutral space. Focusing

on Co-Creative Mandalas and breathing into your heart will help

you be centered.


2. Cultivate self-compassion. It is helpful to cultivate a sense

of unconditional friendliness with one’s self. In Buddhism, it’s

called Maitri. Start by accepting your own humanness.


Remember that we all have limiting beliefs—everyone is in the

soup together, as Jung used to say.


3. Cultivate Self-Awareness. Foster nonjudgmental

awareness--the ability to stay aware of the present moment

without involving the inner critic.


This Co-Creative Mandala--"Great Fullness", invites you to

express gratitude, acknowledge the yin/yang of life, and 

honor all parts of yourself.

---

Embrace the joy and the suffering that is all of life.

Be still, notice and sit with the beliefs

that hold you and hold you back.

Dance with your human and

your divine nature.

Great Fullness Exercise:


Give yourself plenty of time to dive deeply into this exercise.

Meditate, journal, create your sacred space for doing this

exercise throughout this autumn season. Come back to this

exercise as often as you like. Make it your own.


Find a quiet place, without interruptions. Light two candles, one

for that part of you that is afraid and one for that part of you

that is courageous.


Close your eyes. Take a couple of deep breaths.


Now, open your eyes and take in the energy of the

mandala...focus on each part of the mandala--the center, the

colors, shape, and texture. Allow yourself to feel the vibration of

Great Fullness.


What about the mandala captures your attention? Notice and

Wonder--


Something in me is feeling:


I wonder what it wants me to know?


Now, begin asking yourself the following questions to

acknowledge the beliefs holding you and holding you back. This

helps train your brain to see yourself in a different light.



1. What is your most debilitating limiting belief?


We all have many limiting beliefs, but isolate one that really

interferes with your growth or impacts your ability to take action.

You don’t feel good enough? You don’t make enough money?

You’re not smart? You aren’t pretty enough? You aren’t

lovable?



2. Why do you have this limiting belief?


This is a question you should ask until you run out of answers.

Write down every reason you can think of, starting with the main

one that probably occurred when you were small. Write these

reasons down so you don’t forget them.



3. What evidence do you have that undermines your

limiting belief?


You might feel a certain way about yourself, but that doesn’t

make it true. And even if there were truth in the original belief

and feelings, you have lived a lot of life since then. There are

hundreds of reasons why you are smart, lovable, attractive, etc.

Write those down too.



4. What would you do with your life if you no longer had

this limiting belief?


Imagine the belief disappeared instantly. How would this change

your perceptions of what you can do and how you can change

your life? What goals would you set for yourself?



5. Would you be willing to write down your limiting belief on

a small piece of paper and seal it in an envelope for a

week?


Could you operate in your life by putting this belief “on hold” for

a week and act “as if” it didn’t exist? Write it down on a piece of

paper and assign a number to it between 1-10, with 10 being

“extremely limiting” and 1 being “not very limiting” based on how

you feel about the belief now.



6. What are 3-5 small, manageable actions you could take

on your goal this week while your limiting belief is sealed in

an envelope?


Acting “as if” you have no limiting belief around your goal, create

a few actions you will commit to take in the direction of your goal

and write them on a calendar.


Now that your limiting belief is isolated, undermined, and locked

in an envelope, use this time of freedom from the belief to take

action. Commit to the actions you outlined and marked on your

calendar.


You will likely see how taking these actions further loosens the

grip of this belief. Open your envelop and assign a number to

the belief again as you did in question 5. How has it changed

for you?


Continue working through your limiting beliefs this way,

acknowledging, addressing, releasing them, and taking forward

action in the direction of your Great Fullness.


You may have difficulty with this process. I know when I first

started exploring limiting beliefs they were subtle and hard to

find and let go of--kind of like trying to pin down Jell-O  Be

gentle with yourself and trust the process. You've been living

with these beliefs for a lifetime; they've protected you; they've

kept you safe. It's important to acknowledge and honor this.


One energy modality that I've found to be gentle and effective

for working with limiting beliefs is EFT/Tapping. By tapping on

meridian accupoints, EFT-Tapping sends a signal to the energy

system that you are safe.  It's a very effective technique for

clearing our energy system of the disruptions that happened

when the experiences we had that created the limiting beliefs.

When we feel safe, we can see our human experience through

a compassionate and loving lens.


I offer 30-minute complimentary EFT/Tapping Sessions. This is

a perfect way to begin exploring and releasing limiting beliefs as

you move toward a life of Great Fullness.


Peace and Joy to your seeking heart,