Are your beliefs holding you back?

Guest blog for The Mindful Playground by Alice O Brien, Cognitive  Behavioural Therapist based in North Cork.

Alice specialises in CBT and EMDR and has over 25years experience working in mental health. In February 2021 Alice set up the Instagram page cbt_for_all. The aim of the page is to bring mental health fitness and resilience to everyone.  

Alice asks the interesting question - Are your beliefs holding you back?

“I’m too old”

 “I don’t have enough experience”

 “No one would be interested in hearing about my ideas”.

Does this type of thinking sound familiar? Do you notice that your thoughts stop you from doing the things you would like to do? This type of thinking is examples of self-limiting beliefs. The beliefs and thoughts that stop you from achieving your goal or doing things that you really want to do.

Self-limiting beliefs are assumptions or perceptions that we form about ourselves and about the way the world works as well as our perceived place in the world.

They are self-limiting because they hold us back from what we are capable of. These types of beliefs usually originate from our early experiences in life, when we form a picture of how the world should be.  These beliefs are not always true, there is often very little evidence to confirm them but our brains see them as facts because we think they can protect us from rejection, danger or feeling vulnerable.

How do we overcome this type of thinking?

·       Start by trying to understand their purpose. All beliefs have a purpose, usually to keep us safe and protect us from negative outcomes. In the case of self-limiting beliefs this purpose is often misguided and can block our progress.  

·       After we discover the purpose of these beliefs we can learn to question them.  We can question if they are valid or useful. We often find that they have no use or purpose.

·       Laugh at them- humour can be a great tool for reducing the power thoughts  have over us. Laughing at the beliefs we hold can help us to let go of them as we can see that they are of no use to us.

·       Formulate new beliefs- Replace existing beliefs with more healthy ways of viewing things.

·       Retrain your brain using positive affirmations- repeating the beliefs you would like to have can help us to see them as the only way of thinking.

Changing our belief system can take time, after all, it has been our way of thinking for most of our lives, but a new broom sweeps clean- a new mind-set  can open up a whole new world for us.

Alice  also works in Churchview Psychotherapy in Millstreet, North Cork.  

To contact Alice you can dm on insta (cbt_for_all) or contact 086 1683518 to enquire about appointments