Unit 3: EXPLORING

YOUR LIMITING BELIEFS

Beliefs and Emotions

Bring to mind a negative belief you hold about money. Perhaps it is ‘I don’t

believe I can win with money’ or ‘Money is hard to come by’. While you think

about this belief, notice the feelings that accompany it.

Describe the feelings:

What happens to your energy while you are thinking about this negative

belief?

Respect your emotions and listen to what they are telling you about what is

going on inside; what thoughts or beliefs are they pointing to that may need

changing?

Express and release your feelings rather than deny, repress, control or judge

them. This doesn’t mean wallowing in self-pity or giving them undue attention

if they do not serve you, nor does it mean venting them at someone

inappropriately. Accept your emotions and allow them to flow through you - feel them, express

them and release them.

Now that you have done that write down the new belief that you choose to

replace the negative one:

Now return to continue on with the lesson.

Exercises to Identify Limiting Beliefs When identifying limiting beliefs in the exercises below, look for statements

that have meaning and significance to you, that elicit an emotional response

or have impact in some way.

Write your beliefs as one short sentence anything from around 3 to 7 words is

best.

Work with your belief statement until you feel that it hits the spot and you've

‘nailed’ the limiting belief as specifically and accurately as possible.

Your feelings are a helpful gauge for this, as they are the language of the

subconscious mind and a great way of communicating with it.

Keep a separate piece of paper beside you to keep track of the beliefs you

uncover in the exercises below.

Exercise 1. Your life results as your guide Your results are a reflection of the beliefs you hold about yourself, others and

life in general. In this sense they are a mirror of your beliefs and can help you

identify them. Bring to mind your financial results in an area of your life; look at the

challenges you are experiencing in that area.

Write them down:

Now ask yourself the question, 'What must I believe to get these results and

to have these experiences?’

Write down your answer:

You can repeat this for any financial goals you have been working on or any

results with money you want to achieve. Bring to mind another financial goal and the challenges you may be

experiencing.

Write them down:

Now ask yourself the question, 'What must I believe to get these results and

to have these experiences?’ Write down your answer:

Taking responsibility for your life in this manner will empower you to change in

such a way as to ensure the success you want. This is a great technique to help you reveal the beliefs that are having an

affect on your results, even though you may not be conscious of them.

Exercise 2. Thoughts & feelings as your guide

Your feelings are a great tool for uncovering and exploring your beliefs.

Bring to mind your desire to make more money.

What feeling does that bring up in you?

Explore those feelings in detail.

What are the thoughts and beliefs that lie behind them?

These may include:

• ‘I can’t succeed’,

• ‘I am a failure’,

• ‘I don’t deserve money’,

• ‘There is not enough money to go around’,

• ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees’,

• ‘I never have any money’,

• ‘Money is hard to get’,

• ‘I’m not good enough’,

• ‘Money doesn’t like me’,

• ‘I’m always deprived’, or

• ‘Money is bad’.

Write down the ones that came up for you:

Which of these triggered a strong emotional response within you, ‘hit a nerve’

or resonated with you?

Have you heard yourself say them many times before, or are you surprised to

discover them?

After taking the time to examine your thoughts and feelings what beliefs need

to change for you to make more money? Write down the belief and the new

one you will replace it with.

Exercise 3. Inner and outer self-talk

What do you keep telling yourself about life, yourself or others in regard to

money and success with it?

What kind of statements do you hear yourself making both internally and

externally about money and your relationship with it?

What are the thoughts and conversations that form a continuous loop in your

mind; the ones you wouldn’t want anyone else to hear? The ones you wish

you could shut out and stop but seem to come out of nowhere and repeat

themselves, whether you like it or not.

Begin to do this on a daily basis. Keep a journal to record and note down your

internal and external conversations.

How do you talk to yourself, about your relationship with money?

And how do you talk to friends, family and associates about yourself and your

financial life, or life in general.

Perhaps you hear yourself saying the same phrases or comments your

parents use to make about money when you were young. What beliefs do

these indicate?

Are there similar stories and patterns you hear repeating themselves in your

life?

Make a list of these statements about how life is, how people behave with

money, why the world is the way it is; the statements you tend to make about

yourself, others and the world in relationship to money.

Exercise 4. Journaling

Find some quiet time when you can concentrate. Take out a piece of paper,

or open your diary or journal, and bring to mind your financial world. Write

down, in free-flow, all your thoughts and feelings about it in an open,

unencumbered way. Read through the following paragraphs before you

begin.

Don’t hold back or analyze the process, just freely associate and let your

thoughts and feelings spill onto the page. Do this for around 20 minutes. You'll

be surprised at what it can reveal; hidden thoughts, feelings, beliefs and

agendas can surface.

Before you start writing, relax a little with deep breathing, a brief meditation or

a relaxation technique of your choice. This helps the bridge between your

conscious and unconscious minds to shift and loosen.

After you have written your thoughts and feelings, review what you have

written and see if you can outline any beliefs there. Look at recurring

thoughts, feelings, patterns and statements. See yourself as an enlightened

detective on the hunt for beliefs.

Pick out any beliefs that you wish to discard from your consciousness and

write these down on the separate piece of paper that lists your limiting beliefs.

Exercise 5. Check in with your subconscious mind

Another way to discover your limiting beliefs is to ask your ‘higher self’ or

subconscious mind.

This may seem like a simple technique, yet it can be very effective. Many

people have powerful insights with this technique and can identify inner

beliefs that they were unaware of and had not been discovered as a result of

other processes.

For this exercise, it is important that you relax deeply, be that with meditation,

music, a hot bath, visualizing beautiful images or whatever works for you.

When you are in a relaxed, peaceful state of mind, think of the area you are

working on, in this case money, and simply ask yourself the question:

What limiting beliefs do I hold about money?' or

‘What limiting beliefs are holding me back with money and finances?’

You can use other words that feel right for you. Then just see what comes to

mind.

Perhaps words of a particular limiting belief surfaces, or perhaps less

specifically, you see pictures, or experience feelings or memories, in which

case, what beliefs are these pointing to?

If you get no responses or answers and feel you a little lost or that you do not

know the answer, ask yourself the question:

‘If I did know what my limiting beliefs were about money, they would be....?’

and then see what comes to mind. Trust any first responses. Be open and

receptive.

Record them below:

Examine your general goal area, such as financial freedom or money, and

look at relevant areas within or around it (think about the connection with

success, power, men, women, love or commitment, for example).

This can help identify beliefs that need to be worked on that may be less

directly or obviously related to your financial goals, but still sabotaging your

success.

Write down any that come to mind in the space below.

Exercise 6. Identifying Groups of Beliefs

Once you have found one belief it may lead you to others. Beliefs can be

connected and exist in groups.

When you have found a limiting belief, experience and explore the thoughts

and feelings surrounding that belief.

Write them down in a free-flow fashion and see if they lead to other beliefs

that are connected in some way.

Exercise 7. Find the Core

You want to identify the most fundamental limiting beliefs, as these are the

ones that will be having the most impact on your life and keep you stuck in

limiting thoughts and feelings.

As you release these core beliefs, beliefs surrounding them will loosen their

grip or become redundant, rather like pulling a weed out at its roots rather

than cutting its shoots. This way, the whole plant dies.

To recognise which of all the identified beliefs is the core belief, simply feel

the feeling each belief triggers when you read them, say them out loud, or

think about them.

You often know when you've hit a ‘biggy’ by the way you feel. If you don't

have any emotional or intuitive responses, look at your life to identify which

ones most typify the results you have been experiencing so far. Remember,

your results reflect your beliefs.

Exercise 8. Emotional Triggers

When an event or circumstance happens in your world that causes you to

react or trigger strong emotions, look at the button that is being pressed

internally.

Bring to mind an event in your financial life where this has happened. What is

the hot spot of emotion at the centre of your reaction?

If you could describe in a few words what it is that is really irritating, hurting,

frustrating, angering, scaring you what would it be? Write that down.

Is it a familiar or recurring pattern? Has a similar situation happened before?

Seek to identify the emotional hot spots and common threads that lie beneath

and between these scenarios and events in your life. They will help to reveal

the beliefs behind them.

This week observe your emotional and mental self in everyday life and notice

where your reactions are. Seek to define them. Become an enlightened

detective uncovering the limiting beliefs that hold you back.

Record your findings in the space provided.

Exercise 9. Coping strategies as Clues

If you have a negative belief about yourself or low self-image it is very

possible this will be covered over or compensated for with behaviour that

seems the exact opposite.

We adopt these strategies in order to survive or cope. They are essentially

what you feel you must do or how you believe you must behave in order to

succeed, given your underlying beliefs and assumptions about yourself.

These strategies don’t work they way we think they will. They come from

limiting beliefs; therefore they make things worse by adding to our problems,

and create more of the same experiences. They are created as a way to

survive, yet are self-defeating because they are based on false assumptions.

You may be unaware of these strategies because they are too painful to face,

and you may deny, bury, repress or cover them over with other behaviour, for

fear they are true.

What you try to prove to the world can be a sign of an opposite belief you are

defending against. If you are always trying to be good, a people- pleaser and

helping everyone in a selfless way, for example, perhaps deep down you

believe you are bad, wrong or not good enough.

Another way to identify hidden self-beliefs is to ask yourself what you most

fear people will think or believe about you. This fear can point to negative

beliefs you secretly hold about yourself.

Be compassionate with yourself when doing this exercise. Seek to discover

these negative beliefs so you can release and choose new, positive and

empowering beliefs about yourself and your financial world that reflect your

goodness and the fact that you deserve to win with money.

What do you try and prove to the world? Is there an opposite belief you are

defending against?

Exercise 10. Direct Questions

Another way to identify limiting beliefs is to ask some relevant, direct

questions around goals you are currently working on.

Ask yourself the questions below in relation to a financial goal you haven’t yet

manifested, or an area of your financial life you would like to improve.

Be relaxed and open when answering these questions. Don’t think too much

about the answers or try to analyse, control or calculate them; just write down

the first thoughts that come to mind. Be as honest and open with yourself as

possible.

1. Why do you think you have not manifested this goal already?

2. What beliefs do you think you hold that stand in the way of this goal?

3. What do you think are your main blocks to achieving this goal?

4. When you think of this goal what thoughts come to mind (positive and/or

negative)?

5. When you think of this goal, what emotions do you feel (positive and/or

negative)?

6. When you think of this goal, do you feel any resistance to making it

happen? If so, what comes to mind?

7. (a) On a scale of 1-10, how deserving of this goal do you feel?

(b) If the answer to the above question was less than a 10, why do you

think that is?

8. (a) On a scale of 1-10, how much do you truly desire this goal?

(b) If the answer to the above question was less than a 10, why do you

think that is?

9. (a) On a scale of 1-10, how committed are you to this goal?

(b) If your commitment is less than a 10, why is that?

10. What are your main fears about achieving this goal?

11. How or in what way would you and your life be different if you achieved

this goal?

12. Are you comfortable with all of the above changes or do any of those

changes feel uncomfortable to you? If so, which ones and why?

Look at your answers to the questions above. You will find they will be quite

revealing and point not only to limiting beliefs but to resistances, blocks and

hidden agendas that you may not have been previously aware of.

In the light of this new awareness, make a conscious choice for the financial

results you desire and affirm your willingness to let go of anything that stands

in your way.

“To see your drama clearly is to be liberated from it.” Ken Keyes

Examine your answers with the view of finding any disempowering beliefs

about yourself, others and life in general that may be blocking the

achievement of your goal, and write these down.

In the light of this new awareness, make a conscious choice for the financial

results you desire and affirm your willingness to let go of anything that stands

in your way. Write down these new choices and list the action steps you need

to take to let go of the beliefs standing in your way.

New choices:

Action steps to let go of the beliefs standing in my way:

Conclusion

Insights into my life that have come to me as a result of this unit:

Concepts and actions, which I plan to put in place, based on these insights,

including the day by which time each one will be completed: