Limiting Beliefs

As a Yoga teacher, people regularly tell me that they can’t do this or that because they aren’t supple, because they are overweight, because they are poorly co-ordinated or because they just don’t have the time to practice regularly. Often they seem content to accept these constraints without challenge. Yes, there are some things about ourselves that we can’t change and we need a degree of realism about those, but in my experience we impose far tighter constraints on our ambition than are real.

We constrain ourselves by our own beliefs about what we are or are not capable of being or doing. Too often we have a narrow concept of who we are, who we can be, or what we can do – and we limit ourselves within that construct. The construct is based on our past, our upbringing and our experience of life to date. It’s a set of beliefs that we have created – and that we can change.

So let’s try to use our Yoga as a metaphor for life. Take a Yoga posture or exercise where you’ve convinced yourself that you’ve gone as far as you can go – and then gradually, gently, over time, just go that little bit further – go beyond your limiting beliefs to a new place. Then apply that approach in life.

• Develop stretch targets – both physical and mental – try to separate the physical constraints from the constraints in your head
• Use visualisation to picture yourself doing those things you’ve not done before
• Go beyond your limiting beliefs to new places that you’ve not been to before – create a new set of beliefs which empower you to do more, to do new things

Try it in your Yoga practice – then try it in life. Move beyond your self – imposed limiting beliefs.