When you're getting ready to make the big leap into a more meaningful and purposeful career / business and/or creating a more fulfilling life, mindset work has to become one of your priorities.
I'm not saying this lightly.
We have a negativity bias as is (meaning our mind tends to focus and dwell more on the negative events and stimuli) and the moment we start to move toward our vision aaaaall the limitations that were dormant start to get really loud.
If we don't question those negative thoughts / perceived limitations of the mind, they will hold us back big time, especially as we're making big transitions in our life.
I still remember clearly when I was working in my corporate job, knowing this wasn't it, knowing that I'm wasting my time here, and wanting to transition into more meaningful & purposeful work, what held me back and kept me stuck there were thoughts like:
"But it's too late to change careers."
"People will think you can't stick to one thing."
"I have to stay here for another year, otherwise it will look bad on my resume."
...
I really wish I knew of mindset work back then because it would have helped me see my options much more clearly and get out of my own way so that I could start the transition into a new career feeling empowered & centered.
Mindset work helps us uncover & transform limiting beliefs so they don't hold us back
With mindset work, we bring awareness to the thoughts that keep us stuck / prevent us from creating the results we desire so that we can inquire into them and see whether they're really true for us.
We think about 70.000 thoughts per day and the majority of them aren't even ours. They are thoughts we picked up as kids, listening to our parents and the messages from our culture, religion, society, etc.
When we're young, we innocently believe that what adults say is the truth because we look up to them for answers. And as we grow up we take those thoughts with us (although some may be their own unconscious limitations that they then passed down to us) and form a belief system, thinking that that's how the world is.
The thing with beliefs is that they are deeply rooted in our subconscious mind because they were repeated over and over again until we believed they were true (often without even thinking whether that's really our truth). Think of them as your hardware.
With mindset work, we consciously and mindfully look at our limiting thoughts and limiting beliefs and work through them so they don't hold us back.
If we don't inquire into these limitations we'll keep taking them into the future, projecting them onto other situations.
The thing is.... if we believe something is true, we can't have another experience.
If I believe that it's not possible to change careers after 10 years, then that's what I'll be seeing in the world. I'll be hyper-aware of the people who've tried and failed, but I won't register those who succeeded because it's so far out of my subjective reality.
We see on the outside what we think on the inside. We project our thoughts onto our reality.
How do you recognize a limiting thought or belief and how do you actually DO mindset work?
The easiest way to start recognizing limiting thoughts or beliefs is to start paying attention to your body.
Thoughts create emotions, so when you feel a contraction, discomfort, negative reaction, and/or pain in your body, especially in your belly, chest, and throat area, that's a sign that you've been thinking a limiting belief / limiting thought that has caused a negative sensation in your body.
Once you become aware of the contraction, the next step is to slow it down and think back to what caused the contraction.
Most likely there was a situation (something happened, someone said something, or you saw something...) -> that situation triggered a specific thought in your mind -> and that thought triggered an emotion / contraction in your body.
When you find the thought, take at least 30 minutes and take it through a process called The Work by Katie Byron, which to me is still the best process I've discovered to shift and transform limiting beliefs + I use it with all of my clients because it's so so so powerful. If you've ever done CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), this may seem familiar because it has some similarities.
The Work is a meditation - we meditate on our thoughts and beliefs in a state of mindfulness and listen to the answers that arise from our body, our inner wisdom.
This reprograms your mind and creates new neural networks in your brain: it's like you're updating your hardware so that it works for you, not against you.
Why is it important to do this work regularly?
Unless we grew up with a conscious and self-aware family and in a conscious society, there is a high chance that our default state is living in limitations, not in possibility.
If we want to create a different life, if we want to make the leap into something more meaningful, if we want more freedom and lightness in our life, this is part of the work we need to do.
We have to make the time and reprogram our minds, which will reprogram our current behavior, meaning that it will help us show up in a way that we need to in order to create the reality we want.
Mindset work...
👉 opens up our minds and helps us see a world of possibilities and solutions that weren't there before
👉 helps us feel freer, more expansive, lighter, and more empowered in a matter of minutes
👉 helps calm down the anxious and over-analytical mind
Not only that, we are much more compassionate with ourselves & others and we get a new, more empowered perspective on the situation.
Our mind works in limitations, so our job is to keep clearing the limitations that come up for us as we're moving toward our vision so that we can reprogram them and clear the path forward.
How often should you do mindset work?
Think of this work as going to the gym. If you want to build muscles and have a strong body, you go to the gym or do some type of exercise. Now, going to the gym once is helpful, but it won't make a lot of difference. On the other hand, if you go there consistently, you will be able to see bigger results.
It's the same with the mind. If we do this work once, it's going to help, but it won't reprogram the mind so as to really change your behavior (a real change is a change of behavior).
That's why we want to do this work regularly, to make it a habit, just like brushing your teeth.
I recommend doing it at least once a week. I find it's best to do it in pairs, but it's also very powerful if you go through the process in writing, meditating on the answers.
To invite you into action, I've prepared a challenge for you: print out the One-Belief-At-A-Time Worksheet by Katie Byron and take yourself through the process twice over the next week. Two sessions, that's it. Put it in your calendar, show up for yourself, and let the magic unfold.
Let me know in the comments if you are up for the challenge and come back and share with me what you discovered. I would love to hear your insights and celebrate you! 👇
And as a special reward, I will personally pick one of you and coach you through The Work 1:1 so you can have a first-hand experience of this work and experience a powerful transformation! Let me know if you're taking part in the challenge (either over Instagram or here) by March 5th and I will announce a winner next Monday (06.03.)!
Have fun with the process and I hope this serves you. 🙏
With all my love & gratitude
Tajda 🌷
📚 Resources:
What is the negativity Bias? Written by Kendra Cherry for VeryWell Mind, 2022.