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No one is out to harm us or attack us personally. Help each other break our mental barriers. We are all strong, capable beings, with unique abilities. But we hold ourselves and others back from achieving our full potential. I do not at all agree with the training and conditioning of wild animals for our entertainment. The story was used to illustrate the power of our mind. Your email address will not be published. Sign me up for the newsletter!
Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. The invisible rope- Breaking down mental barriers. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.
As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free. What are mental barriers? A few examples of unhealthy thought patterns: I know so little about this subject. Beliefs about myself Mental barriers about yourself can stop you in your tracks, whether it is your career, a relationship you deeply care about, or personal development and leadership. Any of those sounds familiar? I am just not that clever. I am a quitter. I am too old for this.
Beliefs about others When we lack information about a situation or a person, we are proven guilty as charged to fill the missing information with assumptions. A few examples of limiting beliefs about others: He always asks so many questions. He has no interest in such things. She is not someone that can make tough decisions. Beliefs about the world around you We are born and raised with certain cultural values, that are shared through our parents, our peers, school, the city and country we live in, and the media we consume.
A few examples of mental barriers about the world: Always on their phone, not ready to roll up their sleeves and do the work. They just want to live the high life. They are only out to make stakeholders happy. They have no interest in me. We can only hire extraverts for this job. An introvert would never make a good leader. Breaking down mental barriers I want to leave you with three things to ask yourself every time you notice one of those limiting beliefs about yourself, others and the world around you to creep into your thought process.
What is your biggest mental barrier holding you back from breaking through to the next level? Your limiting beliefs often hide beyond conscious awareness. However, there are key signals you can look out for that will provide you with the clues you need to identify these limiting beliefs. These key signals will be evident when you confront obstacles and challenges along your journey toward your goals.
For instance, your limiting beliefs can potentially manifest in the following ways:. Take all of these things into consideration and list down all the limiting beliefs that come to mind as you work toward your goals. You might, for instance, be thinking about achieving a particular goal, and while thinking about it you get a sense of resistance boiling up to the surface.
The more internal resistance you experience, the more limiting beliefs are laying dormant just below the surface of conscious awareness. This is precisely where you will find your limiting beliefs. These are the beliefs you need to bring into conscious awareness. You can do so by asking yourself the following questions:. What negative and pessimistic thoughts do I tend to indulge in while pursuing this goal? Are my standards too low? Maybe, I should set the bar higher? How could this be causing problems? How is this of significance?
Before moving on, it might also be helpful to identify how these limiting beliefs found their way into your life. Understanding how these beliefs came into existence can help you work through them more effectively. Just maybe, these beliefs are linked to childhood memories and experiences that no longer serve your greater good. Unlocking these memories can help you to let go of specific experiences, and maybe, even forgive certain people that did you wrong. And possibly, you might also find the courage to forgive yourself.
And by understanding the origins of this belief you put yourself in a prime position to pinpoint the various references that have been feeding this belief. To help you with this identification process, ask yourself:. Many of these references may very well have been concocted in your own imagination. Other references may be based on false knowledge or assumptions. Then there might be some references that may actually be based on real-life experiences, however, over time the brain has a tendency to distort past experiences to protect you from the truth pain.
Therefore, what you now think happened, may not have happened the way you imagine it today. For this reason, it might be worthwhile spending some time digging into these experiences to unlock the truth behind your limiting beliefs. They are there because they protect you from something. What it does mean is that each of your limiting beliefs has good intentions, and these intentions are there to protect you from pain. However, frequently, when it comes to limiting beliefs these intentions can be misguided. They might protect you from short-term pain, which unfortunately often leads to long-term pain.
Otherwise, your new empowering belief must in some way fill this void. Therefore, you either fill this void or eliminate the void altogether. The choice is yours to make. Submodalities are ways in which you interpret and then represent your world using your five senses. The limiting beliefs that are most difficult to overcome are supported by very vivid and emotionally intense submodalities. However, you have this nagging fear of heights.
This is apparently a huge obstacle that will prevent you from reaching your goal. Everything becomes visually and kinesthetically intense when you think about heights. And that is the main reason why this fear is prevalent in your life. One way to make this belief less intense is to adjust the submodalities you use while thinking about this fear. Instead of picturing this scary scenario in your head about the dangers of heights, try instead toning things down a little and distancing yourself from your fear using your imagination.
That way the intensity of your limiting belief manifesting as fear is reduced, and as a result, you will be in a better place emotionally to overcome this mental roadblock. These beliefs are not based on assumptions but instead upon facts. They are in essence the physical obstacles that you must circumvent to clear the path to your goals. That one thing requires that you convince yourself of the following three things:. Only and when you accept these three beliefs as being your truth, should you begin working through the belief transformation process.
And this is unfortunately where most people stop.
They think that having an awareness of their limiting beliefs will now encourage them to think differently about their lives and circumstances. And there is undoubtedly some truth to this. Being aware of your beliefs will indeed encourage you to think differently about them. However, your limiting beliefs have the support of many references. A significant amount of these references probably have a lot of emotional investment behind them, which is where the problems lie. Whenever you have a high level of emotion invested in something it creates a barrier to change.
You will need to cut your ties, and this will require some work. You must be open to the possibilities, you must welcome new perspectives, and you must accept alternate viewpoints. Being receptive and willing to adapt to changing conditions and circumstances lies at the cornerstone of any change that you would like to make. This is especially true when it comes to transforming your limiting beliefs.
Your very first step is to choose your desired outcome. This will help you gain clarity about what it is you would like to change. Once you are clear about the limiting beliefs that are holding you back, you can move to step two of this process. Your limiting beliefs are only as strong as the references that support them. And, often your limiting beliefs probably have a plethora of references that influence your perspective on reality. Change your perspective and opinion about them, and you will likewise throw doubt on your limiting beliefs. You are going to throw doubt upon these beliefs from all possible angles.
Here are some questions to get you started on this process. This list will hopefully get you going, but you should certainly add your own questions as you move through this process. How would I think about this belief if I was Albert Einstein? Some of these questions might seem silly and strange. However, they are designed to help you expand your perspective and the possibilities of your situation.
These questions are designed to encourage you to think outside the box. They are designed to make you feel a little uncomfortable, and they are, of course, designed to help shift how you think about your limiting belief.
The more effort you put into answering these questions, the more doubt you will throw on your limiting belief, and the faster you will move through this belief transformation process. Really have a good long, and hard think about the following questions:. How will not changing affect me physically? In my relationships with others? The more pain you can associate with holding onto this belief, the more motivation you will have to make a positive change in your life. Feel the anger , experience the grief , think about the regrets , and even allow yourself to cry.
The more pain you generate, the more motivation you will have to change. The one guiding principle that you must follow here is to make sure that this new belief is believable. Now, consider the advantages of this belief and how it could potentially help improve your life and circumstances. The more reasons you can find, the more motivation you will have to change your old patterns of behavior and replace them with new empowering belief systems.
Strengthening a belief requires taking into consideration ways you could build upon the references that support this new belief. What about role models? Are there any role models I could turn to that could help me strengthen this belief? There are many ideas here that will help you strengthen your new belief. One of the most practical ideas involves simply finding a handful of quotes that support the philosophy behind your new empowering belief. Write these quotes down on a piece of paper and keep them in your pocket.
Then, whenever you feel yourself indulging in your old limiting belief, take some time to read over these quotes. This will help you get back on track. Likewise keep an eye out for stories, documentaries, and films that support the philosophy behind your empowering belief. Keep them listed on that sheet of paper as well, then turn to these stories for some added insight, direction, and inspiration. Working through the belief transformation process comes down to building solid references that help support your new empowering belief.
The more references you are able to collect, the stronger your new belief will become, and this will subsequently weaken your old limiting belief. Just keep building the evidence against your limiting belief and in favor of your empowering belief. Once the evidence begins to overwhelmingly support your empowering belief, that is when the tables will turn, and your mindset will permanently shift.
Moreover, you begin thinking proactively and taking decisive action toward your desired outcomes. They will influence your level of intelligence and impact the decisions you make, or the choices you fail to even realize are possible to make. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. These are the beliefs you need to bring into conscious awareness. For instance, your limiting beliefs can potentially manifest in the following ways:. Are my standards too low?
You must now make a firm decision that you will begin making the necessary changes to overcome your limiting belief. For this to happen, you must have the necessary commitment , self-confidence , and motivation to make the required changes stick. Go through each of these questions and rank them from 1 to And there are some ways you can do this. First of all, you can use the process of visualization to help condition this new belief into your nervous system.
Just spend time daily visualizing yourself in your imagination using this new way of thinking in your day-to-day undertakings. Take note of the actions you take, the decisions you make, how you talk to yourself, how you speak to others, etc. Think about your new attitude and the results that this new belief is helping you to manifest in your life. Everything first begins in your imagination and then gets transferred across into the real world.
Doing things this way will help you to develop the self-confidence you need to work with this new belief. Secondly, you can use the process of anchoring to condition this new belief into your nervous system. This primarily involves anchoring a physical sensation to your body that will automatically allow you to get into an optimal state-of-mind that is congruent with your new empowering belief. Thirdly, you can condition this new belief into your nervous system by making some helpful adjustments to your submodalities.
These modifications can help add more emotional firepower to your new belief. This will increase the strength of the references that help support this belief. This method works for some people but may not work for all people. This tapping process can help you overcome your limiting beliefs and habits. Finally, you might want to consider modeling or emulating other people who are actively living this empowering belief. Get to know these people and find out what makes them tick.
But what if these people are just not accessible? Then learn all you can about them from books, documentaries, films, interviews, etc. Find out why they do what they do, and also how they do it. Then emulate them and model their decisions and actions.
This will hopefully help you build even more references that support your new belief. Everything must align to support your new empowering belief. If incongruities exist, or conflicts are still present, then you will probably find it difficult to adopt this new belief. For this very reason, you must make the necessary changes to allow for a successful transition.
How must I alter my language patterns to match this new belief? Are there any other aspects of my life that need adjusting in order to integrate this new belief successfully into my life? When it comes to altering your language patterns, you might like to use scripted affirmations throughout your day.
These affirmations will help you to stay on track. Alternatively, you can turn these affirmations into questions. Questions are more powerful than affirmations because they focus your mind on solutions and on taking the necessary action steps to solve problems. You might, for instance, alter the above three affirmations in the following way:. What are my strengths? How can I use them to muster the self-confidence I need to get this done?
Moreover, you begin thinking proactively and taking decisive action toward your desired outcomes. Yes, you will make mistakes, but if you continue to ask proactive questions, you will quickly learn from those mistakes and make course corrections. Take action and get into the habit of using your new empowering belief as often as possible until it begins to feel comfortable and familiar. You may, of course, need to get through that initial awkward stage where you feel a little discomfort and uncertainty.
With persistence , dedication, and commitment you will get through it.