What happens when we notice our limiting beliefs?
Before I started Being My Purpose, I had a very healthy sense of what was possible. In my mind, it was very normal to work really hard, get a great job that not only pays the bills but also gives me a sense of making an impact, and work my way up the ladder. Climbing the ladder was the typical route of expansion for me -- get more responsibility, get more staff, get a bigger budget, get a bigger salary or bonus, get a better title, and voila, more happiness.
But it didn't always work that way. Even with a better title or more recognition, I wasn't necessarily happier. That's because, I was still working within the same limiting beliefs and my soul wasn't growing. Sometimes, it felt trapped.
It took me a very long time to even notice that this didn't have to be the case. It took me years to even think that doing something different than the 9-5pm (or 9-7pm, 9-8pm) could be possible. Even though I was surrounded by entrepreneurs in my work and in my family, for some reason, I thought that having flexible hours, following my dreams, and getting paid for it was possible for OTHER people, but it wasn't in the realm of possibility for ME.
That was a self-imposed limiting belief. Any attachment to a belief that does not serve us will keep us in a holding pattern. It took daily soul-searching to realize what these beliefs were doing to me, how they made me feel, and that I was no longer being served in the best possible way by holding on to them.
In many ways, I felt like I had this "realm of possibility" for me that contained all the things I grew up thinking were true, or my own experience had "proved" to me that they were true:
Yes, I had to work really hard for my money because I certainly did! My whole family did. Everyone worked Mondays through Fridays and sometimes on the weekends and weeknights, because we believed we had to. I was grateful I didn't have to work more than plenty of other people, but the 4-hour work week was something out of fiction for me. Yes, everyone would have pay raises if they were lucky but it was like an asymptotic curve. It would plateau, and then never reach the line that I wanted.
So, one day, I noticed that my "realm of possibility" needed to be changed. I needed to break free of the ceiling that it held for me and allow my mind to embrace all possibilities that were beyond that ceiling. That meant, I could dictate my own hours. I could express my purpose and go all out and talk about spirituality and inner empowerment all day long. I didn't have to pretend I was someone else. I was the only one standing in my way.
A mentor once told me that it was my own responsibility to care about my life. No one else was going to do it for me. If I don't care about how I spend my time and what I prioritize, then no one else will, nor should they. Thanks to her, it kicked me into high gear.
Anything became possible.
My mind started noticing every time I had a limiting belief, and switched it to a mantra of all possibilities. I slowly and steadily expanded my realm of possibility so that it became larger and larger. Now it embraces all possibilities, most of the time. I still have moments of limiting beliefs (we always will, because we're human, and that's the ego!), but the more we can fully know that there are infinite ways to solve anything, and then see all the amazing and unimaginably beautiful ways that they unfold, then the more we can finally embrace the fact that we are beings with unlimited inner strength.
In future posts, I'll tell you how I got to that point. But, in the meantime, consider this:
1. What are your limiting beliefs? What beliefs fall inside the self-imposed ceiling?
2. What beliefs or desires fall outside of the self-imposed ceiling right now? Just noticing it is enough to help you shift towards manifesting what you want.
3. Do you know how you even got these limiting beliefs in the first place? Did they stem from childhood? From your parents? From something difficult that you went through?
Would love to hear what you think and if you have any limiting beliefs of your own! (Don't worry, we all have them). Drop me a line in the comments :-).