Ways to Overcome Limiting Thought Patterns

We end up living a life that we constantly think of and dream of. We will realize this fact, if we take a few moments from our busy lives to look back and contemplate on what happened so far and what was our mental state during those times. Though this may come as a shock or make us feel uncomfortable, once we realize that so far we have been limited by our own thoughts and imaginings, we can make a decision to move into a higher vibratory realm of realizing our limitless potential.

Limiting Thoughts and Beliefs

The more limiting thoughts we have, the more limited we become. That is, we become what we constantly think of and attract only that which resonates with our limited thinking and limiting beliefs. What are these limiting thoughts? Any thought that induces fear and self-doubt in us, and makes us feel constricted, heavy and uneasy is a limiting thought. These limiting thoughts come from our limited ego-self which is full of fear and self-doubt whereas our limitless potential is realized through our Higher or Divine Self.

Examples of limiting thoughts, that ego keeps telling us, are:

• I am not worthy of having a great life
• I am not worthy of being a musician
• I don’t deserve this or that praise
• I don’t have this or that ability
• I am not worthy of being rich
• If only I had a job, then I will get a good spouse
• If only I had more money, I could be happy
• If only I had this, then my life will be this or that great
• If only this, then I will have that…
• If only…

These type of limiting thoughts are put into our heads by ourselves or by others as a conditioning. For example, if you are not yet married or even dating, but want to, you may be telling yourself or someone else may be telling you, “If you only had a good job or wear such and such clothes or be rich, …, you would be dating/married to a good person by now.” That is a limiting thought, which puts more importance on this other person than your-Self. It is, essentially, saying, “You are not good enough as you are now, but somehow a job or accomplishing something is going to make you better and attractive.” The importance or emphasis should be on you and not on some other person. By recognizing that whoever is telling you this—either you or someone else—is coming from “limiting” thinking and belief systems, you can move on to a more expansive thinking using the help from your Higher Self. Of course, if you want a good job, or want to be rich, not because someone is telling you to do, but because it makes you content and that is the experience you want, then it is okay.

If you recognize now that you are limited by your current belief systems and decide that you want to become more expansive, then it is time for you to put the past experiences behind and move forward with the wisdom and insight you gained from them.

You should never do anything that does not give you joy and move you forward towards divine love and light. Don’t do anything because it makes someone else happy, even though it makes you miserable. You should do anything, only because it gives you joy. If you are joyful, then you radiate that joy to your environment, and that will make everybody around you to automatically share that joy and themselves become joyful. If you are living with limiting thoughts, then it is time for you to move forward into joy and light, rather than remain stuck in the darkness of the emotional dramas being played out in your life now. The decision is yours to make.

Lord Sri Krishna said in Bhagavad Gita, that svadharma is more important than paradharma and following paradharma is detrimental to your Self-progress and cause for immense fear and conflict. The word sva means Self, para means other’s or outside of one’s own Self, and dharma means innate nature. So, following guidance from and the nature of one’s own Higher/inner Self is better than following other’s (outside of your own inner Self) path. The latter is cause for fear because it may not match the path shown by your inner Self.

Tools for Identifying Your Current State of Being

• Questioning—What am I feeling right now? Am I doing this because it gives me joy or is it to fulfill someone else’s expectations?
• Contemplation—Take a few minutes daily to watch your thoughts without getting involved, making story out of them or judging them as good or bad thoughts. Only criterion is, “Is this thought limiting me or making me feel expansive and joyful?”
• Stream of Consciousness Writing—Take a sheet of paper or your notebook/journal and just write whatever comes to your mind without censorship of any kind. Again, you should not judge it in any way. No editing, no looking back, no correcting, no worries about grammar, punctuation or spelling. This is not your high school English class. It is meant for inner exploration. Write anything and everything that comes to your mind—a mind-dump, if you will.
• Journaling—This could be topical. Take money, for example. You can find out what your limiting beliefs are about money. You can write on top of the page, “What are my limiting beliefs about money?” Then, focus/meditate on that question for a few minutes and just start writing in a stream of consciousness way as discussed above.

Implanting Limitless Thoughts through Positive Affirmations

Now, how do you move beyond the limiting thought patterns? By, implanting limitless thoughts through affirmations into your subconscious. Why do you want to do this? Why does it work? It is because limitless thoughts are the realm of the Higher Self.

What are limitless thoughts? Any thought that induces joy and bliss in you, awakens and makes you feel light and love your life, is a limitless thought.

Living a limitless life is in tune with the top-down approach to life discussed here.

Note that, eventually we have to transcend even this so called positive polarity, but positive affirmations are a first step in the right direction. It is like this: If you are underground, you need to first come to the surface, before you can fly to the skies.

“I Am” statement/affirmation that describes who you want to be and who you are at a deeper level, is a very powerful form of positive affirmation that you can use. Here is my “I Am” statement. Whatever I do, I try for it to be in line with this statement. This “I Am” statement describes my limitlessness. As the time goes by, this statement may change a little, but not by much, and it captures the essence of who I am.

You can start of with simple affirmations given below, based on what you want at this moment in your life. You can also come up with your own limitless thought affirmations using these as a template. Of course, your affirmations may change and evolve with time to be much deeper and a lot more expansive. The more you do your affirmations the more you connect with, and bring your Higher Self into your daily life.

• I Am the Greatest Celestial Musician (If you want to be a musician)
• I Am the Greatest Celestial Dancer (If you want to be a dancer)
• I Am a Divinely Inspired Writer/Artist/… (If you want to be a writer/artist/…)
• I Am the Creator (This encompasses the above and also tells your subconscious that you are the creator of your destiny and the creator who manifests everything you desire)
• I Am the Supreme Love and Light (It is the eternal essence of who you are)
• I Am ________________________________________.

Notice that the above affirmations are limitless thoughts, because they are expansive, and when you think of them they excite you and give you joy. As mentioned above, “being limitless” is in the realm of the Higher Self. Remember these constantly as a mantra. If I grossly simplify the purpose and power of a mantra, “It is an affirmation with enormous power to change your subconscious programming.”

Practice

You can use one or more of the following meditation techniques to practice your affirmations:

• Repeat your affirmations silently in a quiet place, for at least 15 mins., twice a day as a meditation. Focus on each word of the affirmation and feel them resonating in your being as you repeat.
• While doing these “I Am” affirmations, you can use your favorite colored light—gold, blue, purple, green, or whatever color (of course, black won’t work since it is not light)—and fill your body with that light. Visualize all impurities in the color of black or gray, melting away and the your favorite colored light filling your entire body and expanding further into the environment.
• You can use the yOga nidra or yOgic rest technique(s) to implant your affirmations in your subconscious.
• You can do these meditations in your bed and doze off to sleep while doing the affirmations, so that they continue in your sleep.
• Do the affirmations as soon as you wake up, but when you are still in that half-awake/half-asleep state in bed.
• Also, you can repeat these affirmations wherever you are and whatever you are doing (CAUTION: make sure that whatever you are doing does not require 100% of your attention. You don’t want to get injured, in anyway), for example, waiting in your doctor’s office. You can just repeat your affirmations mentally and no one would know that you are repeating them. 🙂
• Regularly use the tools given in the last section to keep track of your mental state everyday. This will help you gauge your progress into an expanded state of being.

If you practice these techniques, I would like to hear your experiences. Good luck to you on your journey into higher vibratory realms.