Are Your Thoughts Limiting You?
This past month, I’ve increasingly noticed how limiting people are of themselves and others. From what you need to become successful to how to heal yourself, it seems like everywhere I go, I hear someone else declare some form of self imposed limitation. Have you heard people think or say they have to go to college to be successful? Or they perpetually think germs will make them sick? Or that all men/women are somewhat the same? You can hear this across all sorts of topics, and maybe you’ve unconsciously spoken in a similar limiting fashion.
This post is going to explore these self imposed limitation, and for the sake of this post, I’ll be using health and the body as an example.
One of the increasingly frustrating things I’ve experienced recently is hearing the beliefs of others that are so limiting. A couple months ago, the topic of eye glasses came up where this individual believed that no one could improve their eyesight and glasses/contacts was an absolute must. But this person never stopped to think, why do so many people need contacts/glasses to begin with? Many people seem to just accept poor vision with age, but you see plenty of children and young adults with poor eyesight as well. These same people that don’t believe eyesight can be corrected tend to also have their eyesight worsen over time with the use glasses and routinely upgrade their prescription.
When I asked this person why he thinks people can’t improve their eyesight, the response was simply, “they just can’t.” Where does he get this self imposed belief from? Optometrists? Ophthalmologists? Because everyone else says so? So many people parrot the same thing, yet so few question why they believe that for themself. Our parent and grandparents can tell us that vision deteriorates with age, but why do we accept that for ourself? Perhaps that was their experience, but by accepting that as our fate, we draw that as our own experience.
On another occasion, someone believed that if multiple family members, especially generationally, suffered a chronic illness, then you were bound to get it too. Now what exactly would be the point in creating that kind of fate for yourself? It is a roundabout way of believing that no matter what you do or how you think, you’re going to receive the same experience. Why would anyone bother trying? How would anyone break generational experiences if every person drew in the same experience through their own beliefs?
Let’s first dig a little into where these limiting beliefs come from. There are three major categories that I repeatedly see: family/upbringing, the system, and consensus.
Our family and upbringing has the strongest and earliest influence on our beliefs. People often adopt the beliefs the people closest believe of them. If the parent(s) constantly say ‘it runs in the family’, or have superstitious beliefs, such as ‘if you use a green blanket, you’ll get sick’ (yes, I’ve heard that one), there is a part of the child that initially doesn’t believe this but as we get older (hello adolescence) and hear it repeatedly, we tend to accept them as truths and starting parroting it to our friends and classmates.
Then there is the system. This is a topic that I may have to dedicate an entire post to because of how deep it is. What I refer to as the system is the entire health care industry, the ‘studies’, the things that health care and medical professionals tell us, that we accept because we believe they know better than us and they’re a figure of authority. This isn’t to imply that everyone working in the health care industry is a liar and out to get us, not at all. People just have a tendency to believe what they’re told, and we’re constantly fed what to believe with some form of evidence to back up their claim. You see this constantly with different diets. Very few people think for themselves (because we have been conditioned to believe outside of ourselves - parents, teachers, the media, bosses, etc). Very few people pause and question what they hear before adopting it as their own belief.
Lastly, there’s the consensus of those around us. Many believe that if it’s what most people believe, then there must be truth in it. What most fail to realize is that those truths are their truths. It doesn’t have to be everyone’s truth. There is also a deep rooted fear of rejection, making people hesitant to think differently and question things. They fear being looked at crazy and labeled a conspiracy theorists, and they sadly often do.
Regardless of where they’re derived, all of these self imposed negative beliefs are done unconsciously since most people do not have the level of awareness to notice what they’re affirming to the universe/God, let alone what setting those limitations even does. What’s the harm of holding onto these limiting beliefs? It limits you. When you genuinely adopt a belief, it gets stored in your subconscious and manifests itself. If you believe you’re someone who frequently gets sick, you’ll frequently get sick. If you think your eyesight will never get better, it won’t. People will say they believe they constantly get sick because they have gotten sick a lot, but nothing says that the past will repeat, other than your beliefs.
The good thing is, the other way around is equally true. There’s a deep rooted belief within myself that I have super immunity, and this has repeatedly played out. Twice I’ve given hugs and was physically close with people who had COVID, and I couldn’t get it. Just a couple weeks ago, I sat between two sick individuals during an event. Two days later, I felt that tickle in the back of my throat, but there was a part of me that said, I probably won’t get sick. And I didn’t. If you can incorporate beliefs that benefit you, or replace the negative ones with positive beliefs, you’ve now worked your beliefs in your favor.
The things that we call miracles could be everyday normal manifestations, if we choose to believe differently. The unique thing about letting go of these limiting beliefs is that solutions unique to you will start coming forth. Sometimes the things that heal one person, can heal another, and sometimes they don’t because no two bodies are the same. Sometimes what helps you is specifically for you.
To conclude this post, I want to reiterate that this post calls for self responsibility in your thoughts and beliefs, but it is by no means aiming to blame victims. If people aren’t aware of what they’re thinking is doing to them, how could they have done anything differently? There are also times when we, as souls, choose to have certain experiences for a vast number of reasons. These experiences could leave some people permanently disabled or result in death (which is more scary for the living than those passing away). What is important to remember is that even if our brain didn’t choose it (because why would anyone), we still did. We are first souls and second human. There are plenty of things that even myself, at a human level, don’t understand why I chose. Sometimes it becomes apparent later on in life, and other times, it takes another that can hear, see, and know beyond the human mind that can help clarify.