Mastering Self-Confidence - Effects of Limiting Beliefs on Your Self-Esteem

---

Many people suffer from low self-esteem because of their limiting beliefs. Limiting beliefs are blind and unhealthy beliefs that stop and constrain you from achieving success in your life.

They are self-imposed prison walls that you have built to protect yourself from the fear of failure and humiliation. It is a fake label that you give yourself to lock yourself in a cocoon of safety.

The fear of stepping out of your comfort zone is so intense that you give up at the first hurdle that you come too. They ultimately stop you from going after your dreams. Our beliefs come from two sources, our experiences, and our influences.

Our Influences

From an early age, we are bombarded with opinions and information from our family, society, and the people closest to us. As we grow and form bonds with our classmates and others, our conscious and subconscious minds continue to absorb, filter, and process the information.

All the interactions we have daily, influence us to think, act and believe a certain way. Most of this happens subconsciously.

If you grew up in a household that believed that family always comes first, the chances are that you have a close, well-connected family.

If you grew up around people who think the wealthy are lucky and get all the breaks, chances are you believe that your ability to become wealthy is a steep, and impossible climb. If you grew up in a family that believes in a good education, chances are you believe the same and now expect your kids to get a good education as well.

Our Experiences

We learn from every experience we encounter in life. Whether you consciously learn from the experience or not, doesn't matter. Regardless, our minds tend to form beliefs based on single, significant experiences or cumulative experiences of the same nature.

In fact, many of our limiting beliefs are because of our experiences. As a kid, if you performed poorly on a science test, you may begin to believe that science is a subject that you will never understand or succeed at.

If you've repeatedly been cheated on in your relationships, you may think that there are no good people in the world and that you'll never find love. If you've been passed up for a promotion at work, you may believe that you are unqualified to perform at a higher level.

Both our influences and our experiences work to determine what our beliefs are, and usually form during our childhood. As you begin to understand where your opinions come from, you can start to question them and ultimately change them.

How Limiting Beliefs Keep You from Living Your Life

Throughout your life, you've constructed beliefs in yourself and about the world, which can directly contribute to your way of life. What's surprising is that these beliefs can also have a physical effect on you.

The more reinforced the idea is, the more impact it can have on your body. Whether you know it or not, your body shows the physical and mental manifestation of limiting beliefs that surround your self-image.

Your limiting beliefs will cause you to feel like you will never be able to achieve a goal. This can result in decreasing your self-confidence, ultimately losing your self-esteem in the process.

As your self-esteem falters, you might start avoiding trying new things and going on new adventures because you will believe that the risks and dangers surrounding the experience to be destructive and even fatal.

This will result in you complaining to others and placing blame, without discovering the underlining source of trouble. This can result in you starting to lose the balance you want in life that is necessary to keep it healthy and running.

Limiting beliefs, tend to cause self-judgment that is unhealthy, leading you to feel the need to put up a mask and hide your true self from the world. The fear of not accepting who you are could result in you losing your self-identity without even realizing it.

The limiting beliefs that you hold can result in physical changes to the body as well. This includes continuous and persistent agitation, depression, anxiety, indecision, bad temper, queasiness, and other emotional problems.

This can change who you are and the way you talk to others. The tone of your speech changes and you will tend to be negative. It can cause you to always find ways to complain and blame others for your problems and failures.

Identifying Limiting Beliefs

The first step to overcoming your limiting beliefs is to identify them. Living with your limiting beliefs can lead you to live a mediocre life, one that is significantly different from your potential.

Unfortunately, limiting beliefs can be challenging to identify. Before you can begin to identify your limiting beliefs, you need to learn to keep track of your self-talk and become aware of the judgments that your subconscious is making.

By knowing how to keep track of the way you talk to yourself, you will be able to identify the limiting beliefs that run through your mind during conversations. Getting rid of the bias of your subconscious mind is another vital step in finding your limiting beliefs.

Some of the most common limiting beliefs include:

• I can’t be my real, authentic self because I’ll be judged.

• I can’t fall in love because I’ll get my heart broken.

• I can’t ask for what I want because I’ll get rejected.

• I can’t trust people because they will eventually betray my trust.

• I can’t pursue my dreams because I will most likely fail.

• I don’t need to be successful, so I’m not going to even strive for success.

• It’s too late to pursue my dreams.

• I’m nothing special because I’ve never accomplished anything exceptional.

• I don’t deserve happiness because I’m not good enough.

• I hate the way I look, and there is nothing I can do to change.

• I am too weak and will never be able to find the strength to change.