HOW TO CHANGE LIMITING BELIEFS

How do you start to change your limiting beliefs? If there is only one post in this series you take away and learn, it is this. We have known for thousands of years how to form new beliefs in ourselves and others. From early childhood we believe what our parents and teachers tell us. Then throughout our lives we believe what we are told. The media, TV and politicians all want us to believe what they tell us. Some of these beliefs are useful. Some of them are not. Here is a simple guide on how to change these beliefs. It works.

Affirmations

If you think about it, we come into the world as babies with no beliefs, we are a blank page so to speak. We form our beliefs by experience, repetition, indoctrination or suggestion. There are a thousand-and-one ways; such as throw-away comments by well-meaning relatives such as:

“You’ll get fat if you eat that” (not necessarily)
“Clear your plate so you grow up big and strong” (what even when my stomach is full already?)
If you repeat something often enough it becomes a strong belief. Therein lays the solution. If you have thoroughly gone through the exercise in identifying your limiting beliefs, then the next stage is to write out an opposing positive belief, in the form of an affirmation. For example if you identified a belief such as “I don’’t like the way I look” the opposite would be “I love and value my body, I am perfect as I am”. Write out your positive affirmations on a card and read them out aloud as soon as you get up and just before bed. Read them throughout the day, as much as you can. It may feel awkward at first, you may not really belief what you say, yet. You will believe soon, though. So how long should you do it for? You do it for as long as it takes.

Visualisation techniques

Stop now and just think – ‘what does a tiger look like’. Did you see one in your mind’s eye? If you did you can visualise. It has been proved, scientifically, that visualisation techniques work – powerfully. Athletes know this, that’s why the very best will visualise exactly what they want to happen. There was one study with a group of students. The students were asked to take free throw basketball penalty shots. They took 10 shots each; the number of baskets they scored was recorded. They were then split into three groups. The first group was then asked to go and practice shots for a week. The second group were just asked to return the following week (no practice). The third group were asked to visualise taking practice shots every night before sleep, but no physical practice. When they returned the following week and repeated the test, the first group had improved the most and the second group hadn’t improved at all. No surprises there then.
Here’s the thing though, what they found was that the group who just sat and visualised taking the shots improved their scores considerably.

Visualisation works.

When you do visualise make sure you see yourself doing the things that will make you lose weight, such as eating healthy foods or enjoying exercise. Flood you mind with positive images. Brain scanning techniques have also showed that when we see with our eyes, a certain part of the brain becomes active. When we close our eyes and visualise something, the same area of the brain is again active. Your unconscious brain cannot tell the difference between what is real or what is imagined. Is that scary or what?

Similar to visualising is actually looking at images of healthy people exercising or healthy food. Cut out pictures from magazines etc.

The power of influence

Be around thin healthy people as much as you can. Like it or not the people we are around the most, influence us the most. Are the people you are around slim and healthy? We tend to share the same beliefs as those around us, so that we fit in. If you associate with thin healthy people, you will come to believe what thin, healthy people believe and therefore do what thin, healthy people do. You will then become slim.

Hypnotherapy

Hypnosis is a safe, natural state that produces real results. It is also a state of relaxation and heightened awareness induced by suggestion. The hypnotherapist’s job is to facilitate a positive change in the behaviour of the client by conversing directly with the unconscious mind. If you would like to find out more about how hypnosis can help you lose weight email me directly.