Acknowledging Your Limiting Belief Systems & Outdated Programs | Bringing Awareness To Old Patterns
This blog includes a 2 part journaling activity to acknowledge limiting beliefs and the beneficial ones!
So how do we become conscious of the beliefs and programs we are holding, especially the ones that are limiting us? How do we break free from old habits and ways of being that are no longer serving us?
Firstly, in this blog, we will dive into how we have taken on certain beliefs and programs, what we may face when we identify the ones we are carrying that we don't wish to carry and do an activity to gain clarity on the ones we wish to rewire (and also celebrate the ones that are beneficial!)
Read THIS BLOG where I share my two methods for transforming beliefs after you have read through this blog post and gone through this process.
How Have We Taken On Certain Beliefs & Programs?
First let’s look at the ways how we could have taken on certain beliefs and programming starting from childhood up to where we are now.
We have:
Our parents
Our extended family
Our teachers at school
News and social media.
When we are very young, we didn’t think so much about the world as much as we felt about the world so we did a lot of observing, witnessing and feeling until we got older and started to react cognitively.
So what we encountered when we were a young child formed the basis of our beliefs, how we behave and what we think of the world.
I want to mention here... as a soul we chose to come into this lifetime on Earth at this time, we chose our parents, our culture and more, so to know at a deep soul level we wanted to come into the family situation we have come into, the particular society, whether it was easy and happy or whether it was a hard and difficult childhood and life.
It was all for our soul’s expansion and that of Source, to gain an understanding from a certain perspective. So know that any trauma, belief systems, programming that you experienced as a young child was not your fault at all, but on a soul level you knew that this challenge or experience was going to be full of growth and even though as a child things may have been out of your control, it is your responsibly now as an adult to give yourself permission to heal and to grow and to change and take ownership of your life from this moment on.
As a young child you adopted the consciousness level of your parents so that you could become the progression of their consciousness and by extension your entire ancestral line. Therefore, it is to honor those that came before you, understanding that they did the best they could with what they knew, at the end of the day you don’t know what you don’t know. The stories, beliefs and way of being may of served them during their time, or perhaps some of these could have been quite damaging, but you get to decide whether you want to continue owning them or not.
Ask Yourself If You Want To Keep Believing Them Or Not
Are these things you want to pass on to your children? Are these things having a positive impact on your life? This is how powerful you are, you have the ability to stop any further trauma or unhelpful patterns being continued on!
Some popular beliefs and sayings that many people hear their parents or grandparents say is:
“Life is hard, you have to hustle if you want to get ahead”
“Money doesn’t grow on trees”
“Children are to be seen but not heard”
Can you relate to any of these? Have you ever questioned them? Have you asked yourself if this is your truth? Is this something that is actually true for you? Or do you believe actually the opposite or have a different take on it?
These beliefs can range from what’s right and wrong, good or bad, acceptable or unacceptable. They can be around the topics of social or gender roles, your families money story, what success looks like, how you should behave in certain situations, how to treat others, what you should be aiming for in life and so much more.
Trusting Others To Perhaps Feeling Betrayed Or Confused
Often we grow up believing everything our parents, grandparents or caregivers taught us because we love them! It’s like every word they spoke was truth and was correct because we thought that they knew it all so we trusted them and what they had to say. I’m sure they taught us the best they could with the knowledge they had because there are no manuals for life and we all have our own unique experiences that shape us.
Often the first thing people can feel when they start to uncover truths that are different from what they had been told is that anger can arise. It’s like “If I only knew this then I wouldn’t be where I am now and I could of saved myself from so much unnecessary suffering”. Understand you are not a victim; your parents and caregivers did their best and remember you are here to go beyond the knowledge and the consciousness they had.
It’s okay to have different beliefs, we are not all meant to have the same beliefs or perceptions. This is a reminder for you to hold no judgements, just love, but also allow yourself to feel and process these emotions that may come up for you to move through.
This also goes for the programing that we have taken on from school, from the media and the news. A lot of marketing and information that is presented to us invokes fear, they present to us that we need this and that to be happy, if we want to find love, to look better and that this is what a happy family or person must have. The news shows us very particular things for instance it’s not often we see all the good that is happening around the world or any self empowering stories or knowledge to let us know we are powerful beings that can create our reality.
Activity – PART 1
Acknowledging Old or Limiting Beliefs That Are Ready To Be Rewired Or Dissolved
Here is an activity for recognizing and acknowledging the programs and beliefs from childhood that you have taken on that you realize may be limiting you or you wish to no longer hold moving forward...
I invite you to write down the limiting beliefs and programs that you are holding that you now recognize you are wanting to release. You could make separate categories highlighting where you have taken on these beliefs and programs if it helps you identify them more easily such as from family / school / media and write them below the headings. Or you can just write them down in a list as they come to you.
It is not so much important where they come from, just that you can become aware of them and decide if it’s making a positive impact in your life to continue believing it. Take as much time as you need to go deep into what has shaped you into the person you are today.
Know that there will be beliefs and programing that you are consciously aware of and some will still be unknown to you and be operating in your subconscious mind, but as you go through your life they will come up and be brought to your awareness for you to look at, so for now just looking at what ones you are currently aware of.
When you have done that, continue reading.....
I hope you found that practice helpful and insightful! You may have been like wow I never actually looked at this or questioned it but I actually realize that is affecting me in my life. It’s such a powerful step to become consciously aware of your current reality structure.
This is the first step to being the powerful human being that you are and to master your emotional and energetic reality as it all starts from the root beliefs and core programming that is operating within you. Certain beliefs and programs can keep us in fear and stop us from going after our dreams and desires. They can keep us small and repeating old unwanted cycles and patterns and it can feel like we are having this consistent internal battle and inner resistance.
Know it is okay to have some limiting beliefs or doubts but they do not need to be so strong as to hold us back from what we want and deserve, and some are just old outdated templates that it’s time to say goodbye to!
We also have beliefs and programs that are in full alignment with our higher self and timeline we want to be on. These impact us in a positive way and support us in creating a fulfilling life and embracing and embodying all that we are in the world. These beliefs assist us in reaching and embodying the best version of us and can support us in empowerment. They can make us unique and as we grow these can develop further and you can take on new beliefs.
Celebrate these and acknowledge these! Identify the beliefs that you are currently holding and that are really benefiting you and want to continue holding as you move forward in your life... in the next part of the activity.
Activity – PART 2
Acknowledging Beliefs That You Have That You Do Want To Continue Holding
Again this is another journaling exercise but instead of identifying the beliefs that you no longer wish to carry I want you to write down the ones that do feel true to you and are impacting you in a positive way and want to keep holding.
These beliefs can be about you as an individual such as your skills and abilities or certain behaviors you have. For example, “I am caring and a great listener which helps me hold space for others and I can really impact other people’s lives with this”.
Let these be beliefs that you know you currently believe in for sure and nobody can shake you from (we will get into the beliefs you would like to adopt in another blog). Other categories could be your beliefs about the world and society and what you believe is possible for you.
By celebrating, being grateful and having appreciation for the beliefs we hold that are affecting us in a beneficial way we are able to welcome in a higher vibrational state as we are seeing all the magic that we currently hold within us. We are able to see, acknowledge and highlight the positive aspects (or that which we deem as positive as really everything is neutral it is just what we assign as good/bad or negative or positive) and by consciously doing this you are working with the emotional energetics.
I invite you to really feel the feelings of celebrating and being grateful for the beliefs that you have, whether it has been adopted from childhood or from your own inner work!
Final Words
I hope you enjoyed that guided practice. Writing things down can really make it clear to us about what is going on within and really begin to transform it more consciously. Check out THIS BLOG to read about my two methods for transforming your beliefs which would be the next stage to explore.