Limiting beliefs are actually pretty interesting to me. A lot of the ones I’ve unearthed within myself have been so illogical and silly that I’m actually startled when I come across them. Bashar (check out the Resources page for links) says that limiting beliefs make so little sense that often just uncovering them and bringing them into conscious awareness is enough to release them.
I’ve found that to be true with quite a few of them, but some of them — maybe the really crafty ones — present themselves as more than beliefs. They project a solidity that makes them seem like inalterable facts of reality.
This used to be really discouraging for me. Coming across a belief that felt awful but seemed like a fact seemed like a dead end. Like I was stuck with whatever unpleasant situations in my life corresponded to it. After all, weren’t some things just true, regardless of whether we wanted them to be or not? I didn’t want to go too far and get rid of beliefs that ensured my very survival, did I?
But now I have a different perspective on these gnarly beliefs: the very fact that they seem so immovable, the very fact that they always come with a threat of some horrible consequence if you don’t keep them, is the indication that they are negative beliefs that aren’t serving you.
The truth is. Positive, unlimiting beliefs don’t need to come with warnings. They don’t need to keep the threat of death, bodily harm, or emotions like shame constantly hanging over your head in order to keep you in line. “If you don’t behave this way, people will shun you.” “If you don’t do this, you’ll be in real trouble.” “If you want to be successful, you had better do this.”
This is an infinite Universe. This isn’t just a nice saying. It truly is infinite. We accept the fact that no two snowflakes are alike (think about the millions of years that there has been snow on this planet. And the likelihood of finding two identical snowflakes is still extremely low). If someone challenged us to walk into a large forest and find two identical leaves, we wouldn’t take that challenge. What are the chances of there being identical leaves even with thousands of trees of the same species each with hundreds or even thousands of leaves?
The ways that Creation has of expressing itself are infinite. So, with that in mind, how could any belief —no matter how convincing it is — possibly be the only option available to us? How could one path ever be the only path?
Positive beliefs are open. They allow for change. They don’t ever lock you into one pattern or option. We keep positive beliefs because they feel good. They resonate with us and feel right at our deepest levels. We see the other options that exist, but we simply have no desire to choose them. We keep limiting beliefs because of fear. They feel awful when we think them, but they promise that if we switched to any other belief, we would feel much, much worse.
Don’t let your beliefs threaten you. 🙂 Call their bluff. You don’t have to immediately do something drastically different (in fact, you shouldn’t). Start from the inside. Start by considering what your world would look like if you released that belief. How would things be if a different, more positive belief was true for you? Would things be as horrible as the original belief is telling you they’ll be, or is there the possibility that your life could get better?