The Complete Guide to Identifying and Releasing Limiting Beliefs

In this article I will share the causes of limiting beliefs, how to identify yours and how to remove the ones you do find. These will include spiritually based blocks and healing, plus traditional psychology-based approaches.

This will allow you to cover all areas that are negatively impacting your life.

Let’s start with being clear about exactly what a limiting belief is.

What is a Limiting Belief?

A limiting belief is any idea or opinion that stops us from being our best selves and getting what we want from life. It can be conscious or subconscious.

Examples of Limiting Beliefs

• I am not good enough to find love.
• If I make money that will mean I am a bad person.
• You can only find love if you are pretty.
• If I lose weight, then I will attract too much attention. Attention is bad because it can bring criticism.
• If I trust someone, they will hurt me.

Now that you know what a limiting belief is, let’s talk about the ways in which they are formed.

How Are Limiting Beliefs Formed?

There are many ways that limiting beliefs are formed, including both spiritual and non-spiritual causes.

Spiritual Sources of Limiting Beliefs

When you have been working on your limiting beliefs but are struggling to find the source or a way to remove it, it is often a spiritual source. When you find yourself saying – “I can’t do that” – but you have no idea why you can’t. It is time to look at spiritual causes.

The following are the most common ones.

Curse

A curse isn’t always what you see in movies – they are not all placed by a professional or a mean witch. In fact, most curses are unintentional. Curses can form with intense emotions and even intentions that are repeated with emotion over time.

They can be from another person or even yourself.

For example, if your mom was worried about your safety and set the intention with thoughts that you would never do anything that harms you. Then over the years repeated this consistently, this can turn into a curse.

This curse can then create limiting beliefs such as – “I can’t do that because I’m not brave enough.”

Past Life

We can carry things from past lives into this one. This can include beliefs based on experiences from that lifetime or soul wounds such as a curse from that lifetime.

For example, if you died because you spoke up as a community leader, in this life you can end up with the belief it isn’t safe for you to speak publicly. Creating a fear of public speaking and the limiting belief that you can’t do it.

Another example could be that you lived in a time that leaving the clan meant certain death. So, in this life you are fearful of leaving your town. With the limiting belief it isn’t safe to be away from family. No matter how desperately you want to travel or move, this will keep you stuck.

Oaths/Vows

You can also call these a promise. We make many promises and commitments that create situations we can’t spiritually leave. These can turn into limiting beliefs.

These can be from this life or a past life.

For example, if you took an oath to serve your community and the language did not designate a time frame, this can keep you stuck forever.  I have cleared many past life oaths that didn’t include the words “for this lifetime” or “until I decide otherwise.” 

Possessing Beings

If you pick up a being you take on many of their qualities. You share energy, beliefs, personality, habits, etc.

If you all of a sudden have a belief that you have never had and there is no easily identifiable cause, this can be the issue.

Thought Forms

A thought form is a belief that takes on an energy structure. These can come from family beliefs, religious beliefs or even your own ideas that you give a lot of energy to. They can end up carrying the energy of a curse but are not specifically a curse.

For example, you may have been raised in a family that believed that long-term hard work was required for any success. This could have been enforced so often over centuries that it takes on its own structure. Without your family having to say a single word, this is now your reality.

Energy Fields

An energy field is formed around anything that has a sustained connection. Common energy fields can be found in relationships, family structures and workplaces. It is very similar to a thought form in how it is formed, but it is the energy that surrounds those ideas and beliefs.

Carrying on the previous example about hard work, it can also have an energy field around it – reinforcing it more. You could visualize this as a set of words put in a box and then kept secure and unreachable.

These spiritual blocks can build on each other over time to turn a limiting belief into more.  They become self-reinforcing.  For example, you pick up a limiting belief in childhood and through intense emotional reinforcement over time it creates a curse and energy field. This is one reason mindset work is so important – to both prevent new spiritual issues and repair after you clear a spiritual issue.

Non-Spiritual Causes of Limiting Beliefs

Early Childhood

When we are young, we build beliefs about ourselves based on what our family, friends and community tell us. We are not in a position to walk away from these messages we receive because our ability to survive is based on adults taking care of us.

It never dawns on us that we are not hearing the truth – at least until we become teenagers.

This is the concept behind The Four Agreements – we create agreements with others to fit in and be protected. Even if these beliefs aren’t true for us.

You can learn more about this and The Four Agreements in this book study.

Family & Society Beliefs

We also take on beliefs around how the world operates such as religious beliefs, beliefs around how families are supposed to function, the role of everyone within those frameworks and more. We are taught how our community thinks so that we fit in.

These, however, might not be true for you or they could go in opposition to what you came here to do. They can also cause conflicting beliefs if you move to a community that thinks differently.

For example, if you were raised in a small town and moved to New York City there will be different beliefs. This might bring a limiting belief forward based on the beliefs you grew up with in the small town. Such as

Life Experiences

Every time you have an experience it has the ability to create a belief – both good and bad.  This process is continuous – every day provides the opportunity to create new beliefs.

For example, if you work hard on a school presentation and are rewarded with awards and verbal accolades you are adding to the belief that hard work pays off.

Another example could be that your first romantic partner tells you that you are too fat, over time of this being repeated it turns into a negative limiting belief. It can end up preventing you from trying new sports or causes you to try dangerous diets.

How to Identify Limiting Beliefs

Before we dig into how to uncover your limiting beliefs there are two things to keep in mind as you explore.

First, limiting beliefs can be layered on each other in the same area. This makes it harder to directly identify specific beliefs.

For example, I had two limiting beliefs that worked together. I knew about one of them and struggled to release it – until I figured out there was another belief impacting that one. I needed to know both to move forward with releasing them. But because they were intertwined it was hard to identify the nuances.

Those beliefs were: I am always wrong and I have to know what others need and want (without them telling me). How they were created was different, but they impacted the same areas of life, but in ways that made it confusing to release.

Second, limiting beliefs can oppose each other. They can be on completely opposite sides of a situation. For example, I had the belief that money was a helpful tool to help change the world and while I also had the belief that if you had money, it was because you got it through bad means. These together made it difficult to get anywhere with money.

Now let’s dive into the tools for uncovering limiting beliefs.

Thoughts & Self-Talk

Listening to what you think and say is a great way to quickly identify your beliefs. Look for when your mind goes negative or starts to make excuses. Write down those thoughts and start to explore them as possible limiting beliefs.

Reviewing Interactions with others

After an interaction with someone, take some time to explore what your feelings were, why you said what you did and why you reacted to them the way you did.

Each of these will show you what you believe and allow you to identify limiting beliefs.

Repetitive Issues

Look for areas in your life where the same thing keeps happening. The more something happens the more it is likely to have a limiting belief behind it. For example, if you continually sabotage a relationship right before it becomes serious, there could be a limiting belief that you aren’t good enough.

Therapy or Trusted Friend

Sometimes you just can’t see a limiting belief on your own. Because our beliefs are ingrained, we might not realize that it is a toxic belief. You need someone else to point out an unhealthy belief. This is where a therapist is great to help you break down issues in your life and help you see where you may have a limiting belief.

Situations that make you feel uncomfortable.

If you are in a situation and you feel doubtful, have anxiety or are going along with something that you don’t want – these can all be signs of a limiting belief. Ask yourself – “What is it about this that makes me feel uncomfortable?” followed by “Is there a belief causing this?”

Spiritual healing sessions

Limiting beliefs can be discovered during a spiritual healing. This can be tied to one of the causes above, or in the case of a past life regression it could be you are shown the pattern over many lifetimes.

You can also uncover them when a spiritual healing doesn’t work. Because these beliefs can be subtle and unconscious, you might first need to clear everything else to realize that you need to find a belief.

For example, I have experienced issues where after a few healing sessions my spirit guides said there was nothing left to clear. Since the problem still existed, I turned to limiting beliefs. By reviewing the problem again, I asked what beliefs I might have that are still impacting the goal.

Learn more about my available spiritual healing sessions.

Struggles to achieve your dreams and goals

If you are struggling to achieve a goal, it can be because of a limiting belief around what will happen when you achieve your goal or about your own abilities. To explore this ask yourself:

• What do I get if I achieve this goal?
  • Why would I not want this?
• Do I believe I can achieve this goal?
  • If not, why? What do I think is missing?

Review your strengths

Often what we cling to as a strength is actually a limiting belief. For example, if you believe you are persistent and this is why you are successful but in reality, you cling to that belief because you don’t think you are smart enough to be successful.

Tools to Help You Identify Beliefs

These tools will help you with the above approaches.

• Journaling – this is one of the best ways to sort through your thoughts and feelings about a situation. This exploration helps you uncover your limiting beliefs.
• Meditation – this will help you train your mind to be aware of your thoughts. Self-awareness is critical in uncovering your beliefs.
• Spiritual Guidance – you can directly ask your guides what the belief is, or you can ask to be shown your beliefs.  When you ask to be shown the belief, they will send you and experience or a sign that will give you that aha moment.

Journal Prompts to Identify Limiting Beliefs

Take your negative thoughts that pop up whenever something good happens and ask these questions around it.

• Why do I think this?
• When did I start to feel or think this way? (Looking for the source of your belief)
• If you find a source: begin to explore the emotions with this event. It helps to start by simply writing out the story of what happened.
• When I imagine myself achieving my dreams what are the first thoughts that come up?
• How do I feel about abundance?
• Follow the “yeah buts”. State your goal then listen to what your mind says. Example: I will be financially independent. Yes but, ha!, yeah right. Then start to journal about why your subconscious said this!

How to Release Limiting Beliefs

Once you have identified a limiting belief it is now time to release it! These are the tools that I use to rewrite limiting beliefs.

• Tapping (EFT) – this is a great way to not only release a belief but can also provide extra insights into other possible beliefs.
• Energetic healing – tools like Reiki and crystals can support you in reprogramming your beliefs.
• Habit Change – taking the time to focus on changing things you do to enforce the belief will help you change the belief. For example, if you believe you aren’t athletic then you could start by adding small exercises to your day. This over time will build up the identity of being athletic.
• Active awareness – this is when you stay alert and change your mindset in the moment.
• Hypnosis – often lifelong limiting beliefs will need the extra assistance of dealing with them in your subconscious mind. Hypnosis is a great way to do this. I personally have used Hypnosis Downloads for over 10 years. I try to find one that aligns with the issue I am working on. If nothing shows up, I use the generic limiting beliefs one they have. You can find that here.
• Journaling – after you journal to uncover your belief, then you can use your journal to work through the root cause. By healing the root cause by understanding it, the belief will start to release.
• Emotional healing work – the more you heal, the more all limiting beliefs start to be released. One belief changed, can make it easier to release the next. Because you know how, but also because it makes it easier to identify the issues when the rest are gone.
• Spiritual healing – if you are facing a limiting belief that is from a spiritual block, in addition to the tools above you may need a spiritual healing. Curses, beings and some energy fields may require more unwinding than you can do on your own or with Reiki. Learn more about spiritual healing options.

The longer you have a belief, the harder it is to see and to release. So, allow yourself grace to work through your limiting beliefs. Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day, your beliefs weren’t either – so it will take time to deconstruct them.