Detox
When you see this word, what comes to mind? Do you roll your eyes and say, ‘not another post on a diet… I can’t handle that right now.’ Or maybe another thought comes to mind…
What I’m talking about is detoxing our limiting beliefs. What is a ‘limiting belief?’ It’s a belief that holds us back. It’s something we’ve made up, created a story around during a stressful time in our lives. We tell ourselves this story, we end up believing it, and it’s like it happened when it didn’t. Limiting beliefs are those which constrain us in some way.
How many times have you said ‘no’ to something you’ve always wanted to do or experience? When have you talked yourself out of something you knew you connected to deep down that would have filled your emotional tank? Limiting beliefs sound like this:
- “I’ll never have a body like that…”
- “I don’t have the time to…”
- “Food is a life long crutch; I can’t change that…”
- “I’ll never have that confidence…”
- “I can’t XYZ because of XYZ…”
- “I don’t have the money…”
Many of us have said something along these lines. We’ve all stopped ourselves from doing something that would have been amazing – because we’ve created this story in our heads, typically from childhood, that we used back then for protection, and now it’s just ingrained. We believe we are not enough in some way – and that perpetuates throughout our lives, and we end up being weighed down by it.
Taking time to unpack our limiting beliefs can free us up to live fuller lives with confidence and purpose. Once you find your real purpose and knock your limiting beliefs on the head, you can achieve more than you ever believed possible.
According to Nina Cook, Business Mindset Coach:
“Deep down, we know we are here to shine and play big. But the stories we tell ourselves mean we hold back through fear. We play it safe. We end up living only half a life. This is where stress and internal conflict come in, as we feel pulled back from the edge of our calling.
Often we blame external events and other people for our fear of playing big. When we change our stories to create a new truth about who we are, we start to feel happy and fulfilled.”*
How do we detox our limiting beliefs? Detox doesn’t happen overnight. But with awareness, we can start to shed this negativity so we can shine. Try these three steps next time you notice yourself saying a limiting belief:
Naming it helps to bring the prefrontal cortex back online, which allows you to get it fully into awareness and disidentify from the judgment, creating a bit of space and objectivity.
Tame: Take a moment to pause, take a couple of slow deep breaths and relax and soften any tension you feel in your body.
Self-judgment activates the fight-flight-freeze response and feelings of contraction and stress in the body. Step two is to take a moment to breathe, relax, and soften your body.
Reframe: Ask yourself, “What’s going well in my life?” or “what is something about myself that I appreciate or value?” Repeat it silently to yourself a few times. Whatever it is that you name to yourself, try repeating it slowly a few times.
Allow these positive thoughts to replace the self-judgment in the mind until you begin to feel the truth of these positive thoughts land in your body.
Try this step now and make a note of how you feel before you started and after you’ve completed the exercise.
Are you ready to detox?
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