Self-Healing: The only introduction you’ll ever need. David Lawson

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      NEGATIVE AND LIMITING BELIEFS

      Even the most positive people have areas of thought or belief that do not support their health and well-being. This does not mean that they are actively doing something wrong, just that – like everyone else on the planet – they need to grow beyond some of the ways they have learned to think.

      As children, we rapidly absorb information about the world around us. We listen to our parents, our guardians, our brothers and sisters, our teachers and our playmates and pick up a wealth of ideas and information about ourselves, other people and the nature of the world that we live in. Some of this information is healthy, some of it is not.

      On the whole, the beliefs that we learn work very well for us. Even if they are negative or limiting they often keep us safe and help us to survive during the more vulnerable periods of our lives. Chiefly we learn the best ways to gain the approval or attention of anyone who is there to look after us. Our patterns of behaviour, our thoughts and our beliefs reflect this.

      As we grow up, we naturally review this knowledge, changing many of our ideas and beliefs along the way. This is part of learning and growing; we are listening to information, noticing the behaviour of the people around us, choosing our ideas and adapting to the situations we find ourselves in. The tension comes when we remain unaware of beliefs that are unhealthy for us or when we get a bit stuck in patterns of thought and behaviour that may once have been valid but now no longer reflect our needs, desires and aspirations.

      SAM’S STORY

      Sam was a man in his mid-thirties who came to me complaining of minor aches and pains. He constantly sought relief for his discomfort but had lost faith in the treatments he had previously attempted. He often did not complete them and his life was a catalogue of failures. He had lived through a series of unfulfilling relationships, dissatisfying jobs and missed opportunities.

      We did some guided relaxation work together. I used positive thoughts and soothing visual images to settle Sam into a relaxed state and help him to release some of the tension that was contributing to his aches and pains. As he settled, Sam began to talk about his childhood and I began to hear some of his deeply held negative and limiting beliefs.

      When Sam was a small child his parents had separated and Sam’s mother was left to bring up four children on her own. Money was scarce and Sam’s mother was so busy providing for her children that she rarely had the time or energy left over to give them all the attention they needed. Like most children, Sam would ask for toys and sweets, and would do his best to get a little extra attention. His mother would respond by telling him honestly that she did not have the time or did not have the money to give him what he wanted.

      When she became over-tired or fed up with the constant demands Sam’s mother would say, ‘Stop asking! You can’t have what you want so there’s no point in continuing to ask. You just can’t have what you want!’ By the age of seven, Sam stopped asking. He became quite withdrawn and started to get minor illnesses, nurturing his little hurts, aches and pains. He did not complain very much because he had learned that there was no point in asking for things; at the same time his withdrawal earned him some approval from his mother, who felt less pressured by her least demanding child. He developed a belief that his needs could not be met.

      As Sam grew up he automatically changed some of his beliefs. He found that he could earn money for himself and that there was not always a shortage of resources. However, he still held a basic belief that his needs would never be met and that it was not all right to ask for what he wanted. He also held a belief that there was not enough attention to go around, so he always formed relationships with women who were never quite available when he needed them. He often found himself surrounded by friends and colleagues who were distant and unavailable, too.

      The more he relaxed, the more Sam was able to talk about his past and the more he too saw the connections between his childhood experiences, his deeply held beliefs and the patterns that he was living out in his adult life. Sam realized that his aches and pains came from the frustration of his unexpressed needs and the guilt that he felt about having those needs in the first place.

      Together we created some positive thoughts for Sam to use regularly so that he could re-train himself to be available for more fulfilling experiences. These positive thoughts included:

      • IT IS SAFE AND EASY FOR ME TO HAVE MY NEEDS MET.

      • MY LIFE IS RICH AND FULFILLING,

       and

      • IT IS SAFE FOR ME TO ASK FOR WHAT I WANT.

      By talking about his experiences and using positive thoughts to create some new, healthier beliefs, Sam was able to make some wonderful changes. His aches and pains soon dissolved and his life became richer, more satisfying and more nourishing.

      THOUGHTS ARE ENERGY

      Have you ever eaten something that has disagreed with you? Some foods do not suit us very well, they sit uncomfortably on the stomach, they are depleting and they may trigger an allergic reaction or lower our energy levels. If you eat a lot of foods like this your body may adjust so that you are less aware of their impact, but they are still depleting you, lowering your immune system and perhaps even causing long-term health problems. The same can be true for negative or limiting thoughts.

      Our thoughts are energy. Every thought that we have contains its own unique quality and substance. We can imagine this energy as a subtle electrical charge that radiates into every cell of our bodies and creates a field of influence that surrounds us. What is more, the energy of our thoughts has its own magnetism which attracts similar or complementary energy to it. What this means is that our thoughts strongly contribute to the experiences that we create in our lives. It is said that we are what we eat. Perhaps it could also be said that we are what we think.

      When we think a positive thought, we fill and surround ourselves with the positive energy of that thought. Positive energy boosts the immune system, maintains us in balance and makes us available for positive experiences, positive people, positive opportunities and healthy solutions. Similarly, negative thoughts send out a negative energy that affects our health, our balance and our experiences, but the impact is quite different. Just like unsuitable foods, negative thoughts are depleting and disempowering. In some cases they can even give us a form of mental, emotional and physical indigestion.

      We have free choice. When we listen to our thoughts, noticing their impact on our health and our lives, we can exercise our power of choice. We can choose to let go of negative thinking, adopt new habits of positive thinking and adapt our patterns of belief to suit our true needs and desires. It takes patience and practice, but every one of us has the power to transform our mental patterns. We can all adopt new thoughts and beliefs that are magnetic to positive, healthy experiences.

      CHANGING OUR THOUGHTS

      When we feel stuck, unhappy, depleted or distressed there is always something we can do to make a difference: we can change the thought. We can ask ourselves ‘What is the belief that is contributing to this problem?’, or ‘How are my thoughts affecting my feelings, depleting my energy and inhibiting my ability to grow?’ We can learn to listen to our thoughts, notice the impact that they have on our lives and make the choice to change them.

      When we are sick we can take positive action by subscribing to the appropriate medical or complementary treatments that are available to us, but this is not the only thing that we have it in our power to do. We can take the СКАЧАТЬ