clarifying (?) limiting beliefs

an attempt at making limiting beliefs a bit clearer—by blowing up its definition

i’ll try to make this one short.

i had a talk with sosa (the tales of a bruja, which you can also subscribe to below) about her concept of limiting beliefs and how it was different from my own.

as a shadow worker, sosa theorizes that the attempt at clearing limiting beliefs—getting rid of the root of negative self-talk and distractive behaviors—might be a distraction from using limiting beliefs to get what one wants.

it makes the client feel good for a while, but then they revert to their usual ways of thinking.

on the other side, the “light worker”—coaches and practitioners that want to cause change by focusing on the positive energies of a client—finds that limiting beliefs are a jumping point toward the client’s positive qualities that lay hidden due to these limiting beliefs.

thus, limiting beliefs must be cleared as quickly as possible to move toward positive change.

at first i couldn’t agree with either side here. one seems to stick too long in the limiting beliefs, and the other wants to get past the limiting beliefs too quick.

but at the same time, these opposites meet at the same place that i can fully agree on: that limiting beliefs are the start to change.

no matter what, we have to recognize that we have a problem that we want to fix. and as i always say in this newsletter, that’s easier said than done. i would say 80% of people that have a problem they could fix feel as if it’s not a problem, or it’s not a problem they can fix.

i told sosa a very brief summary of a limiting belief:

a limiting belief is your mind’s attempt at giving up responsibility for exactly the things you’re responsible for.

those patterns we repeat over and over continue to repeat because some part of us does not want the responsibility to fix it.

it’d be easier to wait for some external event, person, or inspiration to get us out of the rut and move on, wouldn’t it? just waiting for something to save you?

we are attracted to patterns that keep us comfortable, even when it leads to emotional and physical pain. it’s like following the water down a drain, spinning in circles toward what feels like an end, but is actually endless.

based on our evolving behaviors and where we change our energetic locations, we enter and follow new fractal lines down their spiraling patterns.

fractal lines. credit: matthew james taylor

when we recognize the problem, the limiting belief, we see the fractal line that we’re following. any exterior person, event or inspiration that promises relief from the pain of following this line is in fact leading us further down it.

we must recognize the limiting belief and find our internal resources to jump from this fractal to another one. and 99% of people do not know what they’re jumping toward.

that’s the scary part, but also the hard stuff of life. we’re jumping from our patterns into the unknown, but by doing so, we’ve built up inner resources and an eye for patterns that allow us to know if this new fractal is right for ourselves or we should continue on.

thus the drain of patterns is no longer a trap, but a choice. we now have the responsibility to choose the drain that best suits what we want in life.

this post is supposed to be short, so i’m sorry that i just introduced a bunch of questions to what was supposed to be an answer.

but let’s get some bullet points to summarize what i’ve said. it’s important

• limiting beliefs are the start of change.

• limiting beliefs are the giving up of responsibility to external forces in exchange for a desperate comfort of “have tos” and “shoulds”.

• limiting beliefs are a window to the world of fractal lines that we all follow.

• a limiting belief is typically a sub-line in a larger fractal that you are following.

• taking responsibility for your limiting beliefs is your chance to jump to a new fractal line that may better suit your wants and values.

• it takes strong qualities and resources to start jumping fractal lines; once you jump your first fractal line, it gets a lot easier to keep on jumping if you don’t like the new one.

• when you jump, you won’t see what new fractal line you’re jumping to. this is why it takes a lot of inner resources to trust yourself to make the jump.

• note: fractal lines are borrowed from new age spiritual systems, but i’m adapting it for metaphorical/visual purposes. apologies if fractals have more definitional/cultural baggage than i’m aware of

thanks for reading,

—dom