Is it possible to shift a limiting belief?  That depends on whether or not one really wants to and is committed to the shift.  Yes, it is absolutely within the realm of possibility to shift a limiting belief, and it takes more than just willpower.  

The first step is to acknowledge when a limiting belief is running the show.  Often we are operating from our limiting beliefs, without the awareness that they are even there.  It is once we can highlight and notice the limiting belief for ourselves that we can begin making steps toward changing that belief.

Amazing creatures that we humans are, our brains have the capacity to grow and change throughout our lives.  If we have developed the limiting belief, for example, that we are ‘worthless,’ we will continue to tell ourselves that story repeatedly, and etch it more deeply into our minds.  However, if we begin to tell ourselves a different story, we can form a new neural pathway.  And though that pathway may be tentative at first, the more we travel it, the more we gain the ability to travel that pathway with ease and to reinforce it.

The crucial aspect to achieve in shifting a limiting belief is persuading the subconscious mind to work in concert with the conscious mind.  If the conscious mind and the subconscious mind are operating with opposing beliefs, the subconscious mind will always dominate.  This is because the subconscious mind is consistently functioning in the background, and when the conscious mind becomes distracted, the subconscious is still working away.

Lately, in an effort to reprogram my subconscious mind so that it can shift and hold beliefs that empower me, I have been meditating.  When in meditation, the frequency of our brain waves slows down from the higher frequency beta waves present when we are active and alert, through the lower frequency relaxation waves of alpha, and on to even lower frequency waves of delta.  And it is in the delta phase that we have access to our subconscious minds, and to the possibility to shift our limiting beliefs.

I was fascinated to read in Bruce Lipton’s book, The Biology of Belief, that children in specific developmental phases operate primarily in one range of brain waves.  From the ages of two to six, human brains principally function within the delta frequencies.  It is at this time of life that we ingest immense amounts of information from our parents and our environments, which we integrate into our subconscious minds, and which in turn becomes our basic patterning throughout our lives.  That is, unless we make an effort to slow our brains to their delta frequencies to access our subconscious minds and to re-write some of our deeply ingrained patterns.

Over the past few years,  I have made a concerted effort to unearth some of the subconscious limiting beliefs I have unknowingly squirreled away for years.  Hello Pandora’s Box!  Straight away I heard, “I don’t have enough.  I am not enough.  I will be left all alone.  I am all alone.”  Yikes and ouch!

Wishing to quickly sweep away the negative broken record playing over and over in my mind, I attempted to remove all of those beliefs at once, expecting instant relief.  Sadly, it didn’t work like that for me, and upon reflection I discovered that the new empowering beliefs I was keen to replace the old ones with simply weren’t ‘believable.’ 

Out on a walk by the sea, I was suddenly struck with the idea that while I found the new empowering beliefs to be not ‘believable,’ perhaps I could take the view that they were not believable YET.  It dawned on me that releasing and transforming old beliefs is a process, not necessarily to be experienced all at once.  And happily, later that day in meditation, a new and believable empowering belief arose for me.  In my mind I clearly heard, “the seeds of change are within me.”

That was a new belief that immediately resonated with me.  Yes, of course the seeds of change are within me!  Great potential for change is alive and quickening internally.  Something is stirring.

I began repeating the words, ‘the seeds of change are within me’ as a mantra while out on my daily walks.  And I realized that with awareness, in a moment of stress, I can say the words to myself as a way of short-circuiting some of my older patterns.

A while later, while my new belief continues to hold strong, I feel surprised to find myself becoming a bit bored with the new belief that was at first so profound and exciting to discover.  One of my support people questioned me as to whether that stagnant feeling is indeed a sign of readiness for growth.  A-ha!  Lighbulb moment!  

Yes, I feel ready now to take on a bigger limiting belief that I stumbled with previously.  And now I have the confidence of knowing that the possibility to change and shift is already there inside me.  Now it is a matter of re-initiating and sticking with the process.  Previously I didn’t think it was conceivable to shift a limiting belief, and now I believe whole-heartedly that it is possible.