Do you ever find yourself limiting yourself with negative thinking such as ‘I can’t’?
How many times have you heard yourself or someone else say those two limiting words?
You will hear small children repeatedly saying, “I can’t! I can’t!” as they struggle in frustration to learn something new. If a child does not learn to think ‘I can’, he will grow up continuing to perpetuate ‘I can’t’ – “I can’t play the piano” “I can’t do this assignment” “I can’t get into that college” “I can’t get a job I like” “I can’t earn enough money” and so on. Over and over, the child will convince himself that he ‘can’t’, until this belief is running his life, holding him back, keeping him small and preventing him from achieving his dreams.
This is what happens when a person hangs onto an irrational belief.
The only way out of this vicious cycle is to identify the old, disempowering, irrational belief and update it to a more supportive, empowering belief. In order to recognize your irrational beliefs more quickly, let’s look at the various types of irrational thinking.
The easiest type of irrationality to spot in your own thought-process is the kind of thought based on a negative such as ‘can’t’, ‘don’t’, ‘not’, and so on. ‘I can’t do it’, ‘I don’t know how’, and ‘I’m not good enough’ are just a few of the many negatives most of us tell ourselves each and every day.
People who are afraid of making mistakes or failing will often get stuck in the ‘I can’t’ type of irrationality. The truth is you can do anything you set your mind to do. If you can imagine it, envision it, see it, sense it or feel it happening, there is a way to do it.
For a belief like ‘I don’t know how’, the truth is that you can learn how to do anything. Rather than limiting yourself with ‘don’t know how’s, begin to think in terms of, ‘I am open to learning how’ and, ‘how can I best learn to do this?’ You can turn it over to the universe, and ask for divine guidance to ‘show me the way to do such-and-such’.
Any ‘I’m not ____ enough’ thought is always limiting, unsupportive and usually a put-down. You could fill in the blank with any attribute: ‘good enough’, ‘smart enough’, ‘talented enough’, ‘strong enough’, ‘successful enough’, ‘attractive enough’, and so on. None of these are true or rational. The truth is that you have every quality you’ve ever desired, right inside of you. It is in your DNA. Just like a seed grows into a tree, you are genetically programmed to contain all of the internal resources you need to fully thrive. All you have to do is claim the attribute you wish to be and start to be it. You can declare ‘I am innately _____ (good, smart, talented, strong, successful, attractive, etc). Just by stating it as so, it will begin to become a bigger part of your reality.
If you persist in holding and repeating a limiting belief based on a negative, whatever the type of negative, you will keep yourself locked in that disempowering idea and continue perpetuating that belief for the rest of your life. Yuck.
Do you want to stay trapped by old, negative thinking? If not, take a few moments to see if you can identify any negative thought patterns you may commonly run.
If you set an intention inside of yourself to change your beliefs, and you monitor your thoughts, you will quickly be able to spot these most obviously negative, limiting types of thinking. From the thought you can identify the irrational belief that is creating the negative thinking and update it to create positive, supportive beliefs. Say, “I now listen for irrational negative thoughts and update them into positive, empowering beliefs that support me in my highest good.”
Many Blessings of Joy and Vibrant Freedom
“If you think you can do a thing or think you can’t do a thing, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
Action Step ~ Let go of irrational beliefs based on negatives and update these to new, supportive and empowering positives.
Declaration: “I am now listening to my own thought-process with Loving ears. I now spot any ‘negative’ thoughts that arise, and update my beliefs to create new, positive, empowering and supportive beliefs. I can do it!”
Additional support: Listen to this 8-minute closed-eye process on identifying irrational ‘negatives’; please refrain from driving while listening.