Let’s now look at how limiting beliefs affect responses and behaviours. The voice in our head acts like a saboteur, a negative voice holding us back. These saboteurs are lurking in the mind and will pop up at any time. It is that voice in our heads that is pulling us up, constantly saying things like ‘You could never do that’, ‘They won’t like you’, ‘It is too good to be true and it won’t last’ or ‘I never get this lucky’. This thinking will and does stop us in our tracks and affects actions and decisions. The internal voice can be like a constant chatter in the mind. It is always ‘on your case’, telling you what you can and can’t do. It is switched on without your permission.
It’s like a ‘goodie’ and a ‘baddie’ on each shoulder having an argument, triggering emotions and affecting our behaviours. This constant chit chat can be exhausting and the baddie voice is, more often than not, the loudest. These are limiting beliefs at large and it can be these that change decisions and probably a life course. These saboteurs are closely connected to beliefs deep within our psyche.
Self-sabotage leads to negative and damaging behaviour, such as acting as if you don’t deserve to be happy, making comments which put yourself down or limit your experiences. It can play out by you constantly taking everything personally or shying away from being assertive in a situation. When you take a moment to notice your own internal voice and chatter, then your awareness changes and you can start to challenge your own thinking. What kind of chatter do you notice when you are feeling insecure, anxious or rejected? Do you hear ‘It must be me’, ‘You don’t deserve happiness anyway’, or ‘Is it all my fault?’ When you are listening to your self-saboteurs you become so worried and afraid of what might happen that you become frozen in your fears. It can develop into mistrust, worry, anxiety, hopelessness and powerlessness. It can paralyse you and affect your progress in life. It can also be a fleeting moment in time when you feel unable to move forward with something small and trivial.
