Challenge Your Beliefs and ACE Your Thoughts!

Guess What? You do not have to believe every thought you have! I am serious…it is just a thought and when you think about it…it may not even be your own thought you are wasting your time thinking about…

Your mind has the ability to store almost every bit of data you have received into your subconscious mind. In fact we take in over 2 million bits of information every second, yet because not all of that information is relevant to the conscious mind, we distort much of the information we absorb. So from time to time it is essential for us to clean out the out-dated beliefs we have buried in the cave of our subconscious…de-clutter…release…and let go of whatever is not serving us. ESPECIALLY IF IT DOES NOT BELONG TO US! We have to begin to challenge every thought and belief we have and ensure all our thoughts are clean, clear and helping us build better versions of ourselves.

The early years of childhood (0-7) are known as the imprint years. During this time we are like sponges, absorbing information from the world around us. These beliefs become imprinted and embedded and begin to become the reality we refer to as life. Yet, if you think about it, a belief is merely a perspective, a perception caught in a moment of time. Therefore, beliefs are limited, one dimensional and only show us a limited view of a situation, person or place. If we begin to broaden that perspective and observe that belief from other angles, we can begin to see new dimensions, new perspectives and a completely new reality. The more we reframe and find a higher meaning, the better that situation will feel.

Challenge Every Belief

Decide what beliefs are working for you and which ones are bringing you down.  This involves a process I like to call ACE.

Ace your Thoughts

ASK yourself what are the key beliefs ruling your life?

Think of your prominent thoughts, these reveal your beliefs. What are your beliefs around money, career, relationships, parenting, friendship, trust, love, respect, success? For example, do you believe money is easy or difficult to earn? Do you believe you are good or bad with money? Do you believe relationships work or fail? Do you believe you can trust people or will people let you down?

How do these thoughts and beliefs make you feel? Empowered or disempowered?

CHALLENGE your thoughts by asking yourself is this belief true? Pause, and really think about the answer to that question? IS… THAT… BELIEF… TRUE? Where did you get that belief? How was it created and when? Whose belief is that really…parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, employees, colleagues, husband, wife or any significant other?

If that belief was created in childhood, how old were you? Does that belief serve you now?

Challenging your beliefs means you begin to loosen your map of reality and loosen to the perceptions and meanings you are attaching to your stories. This loosening begins to open you up to new possibilities and new perceptions. By challenging yourself beyond your limiting beliefs you challenge yourself out of your comfort zone and grow. (See previous post)

EXPLORE new meanings or new beliefs you can have which support, nurture and build you more. In NLP this is a process called reframing.

Our beliefs can be called frames of reference, as they refer to the points or the frames we focus on. Just as a picture frame creates a border or a block around a picture, so to can our beliefs create boundaries and blocks around what we are focusing on. For example, when we believe we cannot do something, we instantly limit our ability and focus around achieving. As soon as we begin to explore options as to how we can achieve what we want, we begin to change the frames of reference.

By changing our frames of reference we change our meaning and therefore change our perspectives. A great tool here is to begin to train yourself to look for the positive reframe. This would mean challenging yourself and your beliefs to find the positive in a difficult situation, in fact optimism can be defined as the ability to find a positive reframe. This would mean that as you begin to feel a negative emotion, you can ask yourself how you can see it in a more positive light. For example, let’s say you have a fear of calling a person, instead of focusing on fear, imagine reframing your language to focus on feeling courage, asking yourself what if I only felt courage right now, what would I do? Instantly that thought shifts your focus. Or you can shift it even further to focus on trust or absolute belief in self. The more positive you reframe your focus, the more positive you will feel.

There are two types reframes Content Reframe or Context Reframe. A content reframe means changing the meaning of an event or situation or uncovering new meanings or new perspectives to a situation. Let’s say, for example a person has flood damage, the meaning could be reframed from being a problem to a great opportunity to redecorate. A context reframe means changing the environment of a situation and taking behavior which is inappropriate in one circumstance to be appropriate in another.

Challenging your beliefs and reframing is best done when you had a touch of fun and humour to the process. Here is a game I call OH REALLY, which helps you have fun and break free from limiting beliefs which are no longer working for you…

1.      First you have to catch the limiting belief… I just can’t do that; I will definitely fail as per usual…

2.      Now the secret is to catch that thought, observe that thought from a third person perspective and in your funniest accent say to that thought….

OOOOOOOOH REAAAAALLLLLY!!! Is that true?(mine sounds like Mrs. Doubtfire)

3.      The “oh really” is meant to break the thought pattern, break your state and challenge you beyond that belief. Now you can explore new TRUE beliefs

4.      As you begin to question that belief with your OH REALLY mindset you can now begin to ask yourself… well what if I could? What if I simply need to research a bit more to find out how? What if this time I  will succeed?
Etc etc….

As you break your state you will begin to feel a greater sense of lightness and empowerment and begin to move yourself out of our comfort zone of limitation and move towards change, growth, success and happiness.

"Remember...you are only one thought away from changing your life..." Wayne Dyer

Enjoy!

To your truth and freedom,

Cheryne

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