Self Esteem: Are Limiting Beliefs Sabotaging Your Happiness?

Do you know how baby elephants are trained? At an early age they are held in captivity and trained not to roam by tying one of its legs with a rope to a wooden post planted in the ground?

The rope restricts the baby elephant to an area that is determined by the length of the rope. At first the baby elephant tries to break free from the rope, but the rope is too strong. Eventually the baby elephant "learns" that it can't break the rope.

When the elephant grows up and is strong, it could easily break the same rope. However, because it "learned" that it couldn't break the rope when it was young, the adult elephant believes that it still can't break the rope, so it doesn't even try! Its limiting belief undermines its capacity.

Humans often operate in a similar way. We learn many things about ourselves at an early age and still believe it as an adult. Even though it may not be true today, we function as if it is. Some of these beliefs are conscious and many of them may be unconscious. Indeed, the unconscious beliefs are the ones that are more challenging to identify and root out.

When addressing your conscious beliefs, ask yourself what beliefs you’re holding on to that are no longer true and are likely to be limiting you in creating the physical, emotional, and spiritual life you desire. Making it a practice to take time every day to observe your thoughts, words, and actions will allow insight into your belief system. If these beliefs are not in line with the health and well being goals that you desire, make it a priority to change them.

Unfortunately changing our limiting beliefs it is not always that simple. The majority of our deep unconscious beliefs are hidden away from our awareness and we find ourselves repeating unwanted thought patterns that restrict us and keep us bound similar to the elephant that is still tied by its perceived “rope”. This is where gentle persistence and patience with yourself comes in. Developing a loving, compassionate relationship with yourself is the beginning of understanding the deeper beliefs that are driving unwanted behaviors.

I recently worked with a client who had been consistently sabotaging her happiness. Whenever she would begin to feel satisfaction, joy and freedom in her life, she would do something to sabotage it.

She found a way to create chaos and quickly become stressed and overwhelmed and as a result was again dissatisfied and unhappy. We began by looking at the pattern and as we addressed the various aspects and went deeper, we uncovered the belief “I don’t deserve to be happy”. WOW! This was an eye opener for her. In her mind she had all the rational reasons why she “deserved” to be happy. However on a deep feeling level she honestly didn’t believe this.

Her self-sabotaging behaviors were just reinforcing a deep unconscious belief.

Once we discovered the belief and tuned into the specific time she made the decision that she didn’t deserve to be happy, we were then able to replace it with a belief that serves her. She left my office that day with a bounce in her step and a smile on her face, knowing that she no longer had to sabotage her happiness and freedom. She had broken free of a limiting "rope" that kept her bound.

Changing your beliefs is all about you taking back your power, taking charge of and responsibility for your choices. Modern stress solutions offer tools that empower you to align your beliefs with the life you want to live!

If you are struggling with limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging behaviors call or email me to book a free consultation and discover what is holding you back and how you can be set free.