"Limiting beliefs are those which constrain us in some way. Just by believing them, we do not think, do or say the things that they inhibit. And in doing so we impoverish our lives."
Straight to the crux of this story is that I usually live in a world where I could possibly try more things more often than I do. However, the belief that everything should be perfect in my eyes or approved to be enough continues to block my growth in certain areas of life. The gates to success in these areas remain firmly shut. This tendency shows up in different forms across my life and I find myself limited! I become less expansive and less abundant. I get controlling of myself or completely hand over control of my destiny to someone else. I will either scrutinise the situation stringently or ask for feedback from people in my life to make sure what I have created is enough. I will share a few examples with you.
One example is that I gave up on the dream of being an author early in life. I wrote a novel with a friend in high school and it got lost. It felt like all my blood, sweat and tears had been lost forever. I was traumatised by the loss and did not feel like investing that much in a project again. I also had other reasons (i.e. excuses) that I developed over time that helped me sideline this dream. My excuses were a short attention span, responsibilities, doubt and lack of time.
My spirit however had other ideas. As an INFJ ( Myers Briggs Personality type), I have always needed an outlet for my soul. Turning my thoughts and emotions into external or physical things helps me find clarity. So I moved from the idea of writing novels to writing songs. It fit the new restrictions aka reasons that I had given myself. I was content with this plan until I thought - if only I had a great voice! I then spent four years flitting in and out of vocal lessons with very little focus on writing anything new. Don't get me wrong, my singing confidence did improve but I wasn't really focused on songwriting or creative writing anymore. I had minimised my passion for writing until it was nearly obsolete. My passion for writing was on its last breath, hanging on for dear life itself.... I had shrunk my dream into non-existence.
Then this bundle of total positivity stepped into my life for a while and made it seem like everything I had created was good enough. We all know that this not necessarily the case but for the first time I began to see the possibilities of what I could create and share if I was confident enough to say that everything I create is good enough. It is not perfect, it may not be to everyone's liking but it is good enough for me. It is good enough for the Almighty. It is good enough for my spirit. It is good enough to live in the universe of things.
It is me and I am enough.
With this new possible belief in mind, I compiled all my music and created some new pieces and boldly released the work I had been holding onto for a long time. I did not consider the outcome, I just wanted my work to exist in the universe of things. I hoped that one day my work would be a blessing to someone. As I walked this journey, I also found allies and friends both old and new who were happy and willing to support my journey. Ivan, Elle, Fred, Tracey, Manora, Emanuel and my bestest friend ever Kel. I'm in the middle of the process at the moment so I have no results yet but it is not important because I found a new belief; self-belief...
Staying with this subject, I experienced a devastating break up and then COVID 19 hit so I had to put the recording of the new music on hold. Once again, the limiting belief was that I no longer had an outlet. But the spirit needed an outlet; so I used my Whatsapp status section to write notes to myself anywhere I was.
Once I began, it was constant! I wrote on and on for a couple of weeks. I purged my soul in both grace and disgrace. I wailed, I questioned, I accepted, I fought, I agreed then disagreed, I dismantled, I embraced, I played with ideas until one day I realised that what I was doing was sharing all of my essence in a creative way. Nothing was off limits. I had STARTED sharing my feelings in the form of ideas and thoughts rather than lyric and melody. This was the birth of Unleashed Voices. It was very similar to how I felt when I wrote the book I lost all those years ago. I CREATED something. Apparently, my subconscious has always been an author. I just needed to believe in myself! Same story again...
AUTHOR : A PERSON WHO BEGINS OR STARTS SOMETHING...
We will always encounter limiting beliefs as we explore ideas and opportunities in life. We just need to be willing to explore them and with time we will find growth. As we walk through the maze of limiting beliefs, we will find allies who will help us overcome some of the hurdles. We need to be brave and JUST START; with the belief that we will overcome any limits or barriers that are presented to us ...
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