This question came from one of our readers, and I think it is a really significant question to be asking. Limiting beliefs are often hidden from our view, so how are you supposed to do something about them if you don’t know what they are and how to find them.

Before you go looking for your limiting beliefs, let’s consider why they exist in the first place. In order to experience life on earth, we have to do so within limits. Without limits, you wouldn’t know if you are a human or a tree. There are great mystical experiences in which you can transcend those limits, remembering that we are one with everything. While those mystical moments are wonderful, so are the experiences of our limits.

Limits create definition so that we can interact with each other. That can be great fun. For example it feels really good to kiss someone. It can also be painful. It can really hurt when you bump into someone. Limits in and of themselves aren’t good or bad. They are simply necessary for experiencing life on earth. In fact, limits can help you to feel safe and that is how many limits are created.

For example, when you were a child you were probably taught that when you cross major intersections on foot, you should do so with the lights. That limit was set so that you would be safe, and it is probably ingrained in your conscious and subconscious mind.

Now let’s say that your daughter or granddaughter just ran out into the street against traffic. I would bet that you aren’t going to think very hard about whether or not you should run out into the street to get her. You might run out to get her without stopping, looking for cars, or even thinking about it. You might very well break through your own limit of restraint and cross against the lights in order to protect her.

However, except in an emergency, you might find that your conditioning to cross with the lights is so strong that you have to consciously break that childhood limit. Let’s say the street is blocked off so you can cross at any time, with or against the lights. You might find it challenging to “break the law that is in your mind.”

When we get stuck because of a limit, some part of us knows we are going to have to go against what may have been keeping us safe in some way. Now the limit creates more danger than safety and we have to recondition ourselves. There can be a lot of internal resistance to that new conditioning, so a part of our subconscious mind keeps the belief hidden.

If you really want to get to those limiting beliefs to set them free, here are some of my suggestions:

1)    Know that the limits were once set for a reason and it may have been a very good one—even a way to protect you;
2)    Be willing to dive into your subconscious realms where those beliefs live;
3)    Be willing to acknowledge that the belief might still serve you in the right time and places; and
4)    Know that changing old beliefs requires risk, and consider if you are willing to give new (reframed) beliefs a real chance.

In my book, The Root of All Healing, I talk about some different ways to help you get to your deepest beliefs, feelings and truths—where those limits live. If you don’t have a copy, you can get one here.

I recommend reading Chapter One where you learn how to become a deeper observer of your own life. You’ll discover how to look at your reactions from a broader perspective. You’ll also read some stories about how quieting your mind can help you uncover your subconscious motivators and limiting beliefs.

In Chapter Three, we explore creativity. Creative activity helps your subconscious perspectives rise to the surface where they can be noticed and interpreted in terms of your life, motivators and choices.

Chapter Five focuses on getting to those deeper truths by learning how to ask questions that will get you there. I especially recommend pages 78-79, where I specifically address limiting beliefs and the problems with over-riding them rather than address them.

In Chapter Four on pages 48-50 I share a personal story in which I used my feelings as a doorway to greater self-understanding. Like me, your feelings are doorways to your subconscious mind and deserve your respect in your healing process.

In Chapter Two on page 24-25, I talk about how trance states can play a significant role in helping you accept new beliefs about your healing. What I don’t mention in the book that is also true is that trance states can also help you get to what you really believe and recognize the limits that may be causing you harm now.

In addition to the book, I recommend downloading a copy of my free report: Beating the Odds: 10 Beliefs That Can Short-Circuit Your Healing. Something there just might trigger an insight for you.

You can bring your limiting beliefs into view. If you are willing to meet them with your compassion and understanding, they are more likely to rise to the surface of your consciousness and allow you to reframe them in ways that will be more helpful to you in your self-healing journey.

How should you focus your attention for healing this year?

Each year has a unique energy of its own. In order to bring the most to your healing intentions, you probably want to align with the natural and cosmic energies of the year. This year is about alignment.

If you are particularly sensitive, you may be feeling the effects of the planets coming into alignment with the black hole in the Milky Way. That alignment completes itself on December 22, 21012. Some see that date in time as the coming apocalypse of human kind, suggesting the devastation of our species. I see it as the apocalypse of the human heart.

Alignment in any form calls us into a deeper experience of our own innate truth. Spiritual truth leads us to the awareness that all is connected and all is love. Love is more than a feeling. It is a vibrational frequency that is free from the limited perspectives that arise from our frail human fear.

If you want to heal this year, consider aligning with the truth that you have a limitless capacity to love yourself and others. You have the capacity to deeply love what you find endearing in yourself and others. You also have the capacity to love what most disgusts you, embarrasses you or the ways in which you feel completely helpless.

When our fears arise in the form of our disgust, embarrassment, or helplessness, we are living in doubt. We doubt our ability to love wholly and completely in the way that the great saints of every tradition have loved. We are telling ourselves that we are less than the true Divine nature in which we have been created, and that is simply not possible. All of us were created in Divine nature and therefore our capacity to love is endless.

If there is one part of your body that struggles, there is a part of you that does not yet know it is fully loved.

How do you find that complete and satisfying love? You meet your doubts and greatest fears with your love.  Does that sound terribly simple? It is simple. The challenge is in wading through those doubts and fears, and summoning the power of your love from deep within the well of your being.

I know. It is so much easier to think that illnesses are only all about the physical body and genetics. It is easier to believe it is completely out of our control, but if you are at this site reading my articles, some part of you believes or knows the same thing I do. We are more than flesh. We are the creators of our reality.

And deep inside what you want more than anything is to discover that limitless potential within yourself. You know the obstacles. You live with them every day, and yet you have the courage to keep moving forward in your exploration of complete healing and ultimately complete love.

This is your unique journey into the unknown. The depth of love you have not yet known (or more accurately, remembered) is one of the most compelling forces in creation. To remember it again, you will call yourself, over and over, to a greater awakening to the vibration of love, knowing that love is the ultimate healing elixir.

Every morning as you arise, multiple times throughout the day and again before you go to sleep at night, you know you have a choice to make—the same choice framed in different decisions you will make all day long. The choice is, “Will I love in this moment or will I give in to my fear?”

How is that different from any other year? The only difference is the powerful planetary alignment we are building up to in December. That means that the more you focus your healing attention on aligning with truth and love, the more you can ride on this powerful energy to help carry you to your healing freedom.