Are your beliefs limiting you? – Identify and Release them NOW

When was the last time that life surprised you? Was it yesterday, last week, month or year? Or has the grind been unrelenting?
Let’s work with the surprise you remembered when you read my question. Maybe it was a cab you got in rush hour, a friend who surfaced after years, a new role at work or a spontaneous hug from your partner. Wow! If you’re thinking that would be amazing or yes that was such a joy, read on.
Let me suggest that the surprise came when you briefly suspended or even completely dropped your beliefs about- 

1. What you deserve
2. How life is
3. How people are 

It felt good, right? 

SURPRISE !!!

It would sound quite gimmicky if I suggest that you can create surprises. But then, it won’t be a surprise you’ll argue. If you’re willing to stay with me a bit, you’ll see that it’s possible. I’m not suggesting that you create predictable outcomes. More than that. I’m inviting you to have the audacity to receive unprecedented gifts, to have results that far exceed your expectations, every single time.
Now some of you might even be thinking, I don’t like surprises. I want to know what’s happening and what’s coming up. THAT is a belief too. At its root, this belief says you don’t deserve to be pleasantly, leave alone OUTRAGEOUSLY surprised. 

If you struggle with anxiety, you are probably struggling to get through this post. Your world is carefully balanced around familiar routines that create foreseeable conclusions. Read on, since you’ve gotten this far. 

How this works. 

1. Adopting the belief – You adopted something you heard from a source you respect – person, book or podcast. It agreed with what you’d been inclined to see anyway. Maybe it briefly challenged you and you still kept believing it because you trusted it to work. After enough repetitions, listening to it or even saying it yourself, you began to see it show up around you. That was proof and reinforcement happening. And then it became an undeniable reality. 
2. Living the belief – Once reinforced with repetition, the belief is your life, indeed it is you. Think of one word that describes you – stubborn, courageous, adventurous, perseverant, humble, loyal, patient, arrogant, open-minded, curious. Maybe its not in this list. Some of them sound positive, so how can they limit you? They limit you because you don’t ever contemplate or expect anything different, not necessarily the polar opposite. For example if you are patient, you don’t experience receiving priority – aah but that would go contrary to who you believe you are. 

MY STORY

Here is a personal example – I believed I was tenacious. I could hang in forever. One day I realized I didn’t need to. It’s exhausting being tenacious. Being that way foreclosed any opportunities of having it easy or effortless. And now, wow is it amazing to float, to cruise and let the surprises come.
Inviting you to look at what your biggest belief takes away from you. What does it keep you stuck in? What themes are playing on repeat in your life? 

Turning it around. 

1. Recognise the belief – Like seriously plunge into a laser focussed inquiry. Look at just one area of your life where you’re trying to change something. 
2. Get ready to be surprised – You might find that all the reasons you’ve been giving about that one thing are not true. The answer lies quite hooded, in the shadows. Open your mind and your heart to receive the wild, stupendous occurrence. 
3. Trust the surprise – When the change appears, you see it clearly. Don’t dismiss it as a co-incidence or a one-off. Hold on to it for life for there’s more where this came from. 
4. Rest and rejuvenate – Follow up a good surprise with time to let it take root. Too long you’ve been the fervently paddling duck or headless chicken. 
5. Celebrate every surprise – Do a little whoop or big party, tell those who know and love you. Journaling about it, recording a little voice note that ends with who knows what more is in store is great !! 

To summarise

Begin to fall in love with surprises. Contemplate what it would be like to receive one now. What can light up your day or even just this moment?