Welcome to this free NLP Ezine
Hi everybody, and welcome to "NLP: The Secret Science of Self-
Empowerment." This Ezine is designed to bring to you techniques,
theories and exercises from the fascinating field of Neurolinguistic
Programming.
About This Issue
This week's article is a continuation of the theme of the last two issues
and completes our discussion of limiting beliefs. Having talked about
limiting beliefs in general and thought viruses in detail, we now take
a look at guardian beliefs. These beliefs are your friends as far as
their intention goes, but nevertheless harmful to you and your loved
ones because of their fearful approach to keeping you safe.
To read up on the last two issues, choose from the following:
Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
Thought Viruses
|
This Issues Article: Guardian Beliefs
|
Limiting beliefs can have protective purposes. I once met a woman, whose dreams were thwarted a few times during childhood and early adulthood. As a result she formed the belief that it is a waste of time to pursue a dream. She was convinced that if she wanted something bad enough, life would take it away from her. As a result of such a belief she did not allow herself to go after her dreams. And she did her best to prevent herself from forming dreams in the first place.
Limiting beliefs often take the role of guardians. They usually were formed as the result of a negative experience and act as a protector with the objective to avoid a similar experience in the future. The woman who believed wanting something really bad results in not getting it is a good example of a guardian belief. Holding the limiting belief allowed her to avoid to disappointment of failing to achieve a dream once more. Of course, she was experiencing other kinds of pain that came from not allowing herself to have a dream.
The way to overcome such guardian style limiting beliefs is to uncover
their mission. To do this, try this simple step-by-step exercise:
- Spell out your limiting belief (e.g. if I speak my mind, I always get myself in trouble).
- Search your memory and try to identify when you formed this belief.
- Internally talk to your a belief as if it was a person and ask: “What is your positive intention for me?” The answer will most likely be "To keep you safe from X happening again" along with memories of past painful experiences.
- Write down what your limiting belief wants to spare you from.
- Make a list of things you could do to be safe from getting yourself in the same situation that gave birth the belief.
- Internally present your list to your limiting belief and ask for its approval. Once you get the approval, you limiting belief should start to loosen its grip on you. Keep the inner dialogue open as you start to change your behavior according to the items on your list. Check in regularly with your limiting belief and make sure it approves of your new approach. Make adjustments as needed.
A guardian belief treated in this manner will eventually allow you to drop it all together. Patience is a good quality to possess when dealing with belief changes, because beliefs are quite tenacious. They are best treated with a combination of inner dialogue and implementation of new behaviors that either expose the irrelevance of the belief or achieve the same results in a non-harmful way that the limiting belief was trying to achieve in a way that implied harm to others or self.
Conclusion
Investing some time in uncovering what kind of beliefs you hold is a
good start if you want to make positive changes in your life. Limiting
beliefs can be hard to track down but once they are out in the open,
they can be undone and laid to rest. With empowering beliefs in place
and limiting beliefs out of the way, inner strength and outer success
follow naturally.
References:
Changing Belief Systems with NLP, Dilts, R., 1990
Beliefs: Pathways to Health and Well-Being, Dilts, R., Hallbom. T. and Smith, S.1990
All the best,
Christoph Schertler
NLP Trainer/Coach - Founder PEC, LLC
Christoph Schertler has published an ebook on how to use NLP to build confidence. The NLP Confidence Builder
contains over 100 pages of powerful NLP techniques and concepts that can help you overcome limiting beliefs and bring forth the life-transforming power of confidence from deep within you.
Christoph Schertler was recently published in "101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Vol. 2" alongside John Gray, Jack Canfield, Richard Carlson, Bob Proctor, Alan Cohen and many other leading Self Improvement experts.
Get your copy today:
About the Author
Christoph Schertler is a certified NLP Trainer and NLP Coach with a passion for helping others to empower themselves and bring forth their power and genius from within. He has trained with some of the biggest names in the field and is a firm believer in the transformational powers of NLP.
More NLP Articles
More information on Christoph
Schertler
More information on Neuro-Linguistic
Programming
A selection of NLP
Books
|
Has this Article been Forwarded to you? You can Sign Up for this Free NLP Ezine Here!
|
CONTACT US
Any suggestions or questions? Please feel free to
contact us at any time (Western Pacific Time Zone)
at service@pecoaching.com or ++1-858.240.2200
DISCLAIMER
The contents herein are solely the opinions of the editors, and should
not be considered as a form of therapy nor advice. There is no guarantee
of validity or accuracy. Personal Empowerment Coaching, LLC assumes no
responsibility for injury and specifically disclaims any warranty, express
or implied for any products or services mentioned. If expert assistance
or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be
sought. Copyright (C) 2006 by Personal Empwerment Coaching, LLC. Permission
is granted to reproduce or distribute this newsletter only in its entirety
and provided copyright is acknowledged.