Beliefs that Limit or Empower – Your Choice!

A belief is a composite view or mindset that consists of a set of ideas or assumptions, theories we assume to be true. The belief you hold may be implicit and underlying expressed through our attitude and behaviour shaped by early conditioning – what we witnessed and observed in our families and internalized growing up as impressionable and dependent children; or what we absorbed from books, teachers or peers we admired and respected.

A belief can also come from a direct experience – an inner experience, insight, realization – a knowing that’s helped us make sense of or give meaning to our world. Many of our disempowering and limiting beliefs are often shaped through compare and contrast thinking, for example:

I see myself as fat and ugly when I compare myself to the models and celebrities that grace billboards and fashion magazines.

I think of myself as uninspired and uncreative when I compare myself to the great artists of all time.

I believe I’ll never succeed in life. I don’t know what I have to offer anyone so I won’t bother even trying. 

Beyond the Cage lies Freedom

Beliefs are memory circuits or loops that are based on past events and triggered by association that the brain assumes to be objectively true. We assume, for instance, that gravity is a real force and exists no matter what. However, when we pause to reflect and consider outer space, we know this assumed fact not to be true. Your mental paradigm or belief structure provides you with an inner frame or context that helps gives meaning and context to your life. Observing your thoughts and behaviours shed light on your underlying hidden beliefs which either limit or empower you.

Releasing out-dated, limiting beliefs and replacing them with beliefs you choose is an empowering process that coaching facilitates. It can be challenging, if not impossible to realize on one’s own as the beliefs we hold form neural circuits or mental grooves with deep structural connections. 

Attention Attention Attention

It’s by focusing on what you want, creating a new, empowering vision and building the daily self-care practices to sustain your focus that you manage your attention, for as the Universal Law says, “Energy flows where attention goes.”

In this empowering process of personal growth and stewardship you learn to create a new belief structure that gives expression to a new self-empowered life. The old belief structures weaken as they cease to receive energy through the attention you now selectively direct to beliefs and actions that empower and inspire you to take purposeful action.

Much like the dead branches of a living tree, the old beliefs begin to fall away to be replaced with new, more verdant growth. Traumatic past events (starvation, abuse, neglect, denial and struggle or any kind) cause deep mental grooves which are more challenging to heal. However, even these post-traumatic stressors can be effectively addressed and healed through sensitive therapeutic intervention and life coaching support. This process of healing and regeneration requires attention to daily lifestyle management practices which mindfulness coaching facilitates until you can do it on your own.

Give yourself a chance. Life is now. Get the insights you need to create the beliefs that are true for you and live your life on your terms. Lynn McCloskey writes,

“Coaching with Julia helped me realize the emotional pain my tribe has gone or is currently going through and showed me new ways to build rapport and connections.
I learned how to let go of guilt, self-doubt and the “Compare & Despair” mindset and how to be open, receptive, allow myself to be guided and to step up and live my full potential.”