The negative thoughts we have can be hard to stop! Here are four easy steps I use that will help you identify limiting beliefs.
1. Identify Your Negative Thought
What are the negative things you tell yourself? Do you think you are not good enough for a job? Not good looking enough? Insert your negative self-talk here. To overcome a negative thought, we need to know what we are saying to ourselves.
2. Ask Why!
It’s time to Identify the root of your negative thought. Just like an illness if you treat the symptom you may feel better but the issue remains. If we want to let go of these limiting beliefs we have to know why we have them. So how do you do that?
Simple, ask yourself why? Did you know can have an internal dialog with your negative self-talk? You can.
For example, a former negative thought of mine was, I have a big nose. That thought made me sad. So I asked myself, why did I think that about me?
I had two responses 1. A girl at school told me so and 2. I thought that if I looked different people would like me better.
When I asked myself those questions I realized that I didn’t think something was wrong with my nose, someone else did. More importantly, I was having an issue of self-worth —If I was to change something about myself then other people would like me.
Now, this is why it’s so important to explore our negative thoughts. If I were to have gotten a nose job (which is fine if someone wants one), I would have still felt the same because I wouldn’t have changed my rooted negative thought that I wasn’t good enough for others to like me.
Often, we are saying a negative blanket thought that we aren’t aware of. If we don’t do something about it, the thought can turn into a rooted negative belief system which is harder to change.
So what do we do next?
3. Decide You Don’t Want To Think The Negative Thought Anymore
Remember we are still having a dialog with our self. So, once you found the root ask yourself, “Do I want to believe this about myself anymore?” Hint* The answer is no!
Talk back to that thought and say “No” I do not want to think that. “No” this is not correct. And now that you have identified the root of your negative thought you can understand why your answer is no. When you understand it is much easier to process your emotions.
So onto the final thought.
4. Replace The Negative Belief With A Positive One
The final step is to reframe your mind. Replace that negative thought with a positive one. In the example of my case, I had found that the root problem I had was I thought if I were to look different people would like me more.
I decided that wasn’t true.
I then thought of all the reasons why that thought isn’t true and all the reasons why I liked myself and others should too. Some of these reasons were: Being my happy authentic self makes others like me! Today I feel much more confident in who I am & can take on my negative ego. And with these tips, I know you can too.
Pictured above is a worksheet I made of the Four Simple Steps You Can Use To Stop Your Negative Thoughts and Limiting Beliefs in their tracks! You can download the PDF Here.
For More tips on this topic watch my latest YouTube Video.
Next time you have a negative thought, have a conversation with it. See what happens. Remember you control your thoughts, they don’t control you.