The Power of Limiting Beliefs
Limiting beliefs can be incredibly powerful in shaping our current reality. Our thoughts eventually turn into our lived experiences. We don’t always recognize that if we can release the beliefs that limit us, we have the ability to manifest the things we want the most in life. Amanda shares some of her own belief-expanding experiences and how she learned to shape her narrative into one of health, positivity, and healing.
Recently, I had coffee with a friend who was telling me of a passion project of hers. She is an Ethiopian refugee who settled in the USA and recently returned to the continent of Africa to work.
Her passion project is creating fan fiction narratives about the continent of Africa in the hopes of manifesting alternative realities than the one that the West has prescribed to. She hires various African artists and storytellers to imagine a whole collection of narratives that aren’t being told, and then she encourages them to write about them and speak them into existence.
I’m sure you can recognize the narrative – the West has us convinced that Africa is only full of brutal civil war, unimaginable pain, and abandoned children with flies hovering around their faces, with distended, dirty bellies peeking out of their diaper in front of a dilapidated shack in their village.
Admittedly, this was the limiting belief I held until I set foot on the continent and saw for myself the hustling, bustling capital city of Kenya. The untouched beaches of Sierra Leone. The cosmopolitan cities of Cape Town and Lusaka, the breathtaking landscape of the Tanzanian coast, and the arts/culture scene of Somaliland.
This led my friend and I down a rhetoric that the human mind is incredibly powerful and can manifest the very reality we live in. And, then she mentioned the flip side of this type of thinking. Yes, you can manifest healing and change for yourself and others, but you can also manifest the opposite if you prescribe to limiting beliefs about any aspect of the world around you.
During weekly therapy sessions, I very quickly began noticing my own limiting beliefs getting in the way of my growth. For so long, I hesitated to accept so many things about myself because my limiting beliefs were that I was a heterosexual, affluent, white female that was not clever or creative enough to imagine a different path for myself. I knew my true calling in life was to become a midwife, but I ran away from that idea for over five years. Limiting beliefs about my worth also kept me in toxic, codependent relationships because I thought that that was what I was worthy of.
Limiting beliefs (heck, any beliefs) can be incredibly powerful in shaping our current reality. Our thoughts eventually turn into our lived experience, and I truly believe humans don’t fully grasp the power we have to manifest the things we want the most in life. There is such power in the way we view the world and the thoughts and actions we put out into the Universe.
Next time you are in a conversation, try and notice if you can pinpoint any reductive language or limiting beliefs that people are speaking into existence. The negative connotation does not necessarily tell you what you want, just what you don’t. If someone asks you what your favorite ice cream is and you say “I hate vanilla” – have you answered their question or simply negated it?
I fully recognize there are limitations to this idea of manifestation – I can’t just manifest a million dollars tomorrow, but I can (and usually will, subconsciously) act very differently in situations where I think I’m enough versus if I go into those situations thinking I’m not enough.
After years of therapy working on my own limiting beliefs, I’ve come to the realization that I am indeed worthy of my current, healthy relationship, being true to my bisexuality, as well as strong enough and smart enough to chase after the profession that lights my heart on fire.
Being aware of your ability to manifest your reality is incredibly powerful for each individual. But, it is equally as powerful for your workplace, your home, your state, and even your country to recognize the limiting beliefs you have of that place and try your best to shape the narrative into one of health, positivity, and healing. It won’t remove all the hard lessons and growth points involved, but it might shift the narrative slightly to one that gives us a bit more power in our own narratives.
How do you manifest positive thinking in your own life? Tell us below!
About the Author:
Amanda Zetah (she/her) has a Bachelor’s degree in Technical Journalism and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Nurse-Midwifery. She also serves as Khesed’s Recruitment Coordinator. She has over six years of international healthcare experience working with underserved populations in post-conflict countries as a birth/postpartum doula, where she witnessed firsthand the intersectionality of successful birthing outcomes and maternal mental health. Amanda is passionate about holistic wellness that focuses on treating a person’s mind, body, and soul. She brought her skillset to Khesed to further her desire to help others, as well as support Khesed’s mission in providing access to affordable wellness services.