Limiting Beliefs and NLP Therapy

Have you ever taken the time to stop and think about your beliefs and values. Ask yourself – where have my
beliefs originated? How do they guide how I live my life? Do my values and beliefs serve me? NLP
therapists are aware of the importance of understanding values and beliefs in any change process.
In any therapeutic intervention that is designed to achieve change, it is important to have an understanding of
the beliefs and values held by the person wishing to change. NLP therapists are able to work with clients to
eradicate limiting beliefs. NLP therapists are available to provide NLP in Herts.

Have you ever taken the time to stop and think about your beliefs and values. Ask yourself – where have my
beliefs originated? How do they guide how I live my life? Do my values and beliefs serve me?

Beliefs and Values form the essence of your identity and you should ask yourself these questions for the
following reasons:

Beliefs are like a pair of glasses

Put your glasses on and they filter how you view the world. Beliefs act in the same way. You will have
beliefs about yourself, your skills and capabilities, how others see you and what type of person you are. You
will also have beliefs about other people, how they operate, how to communicate with them, what drives
them. Basically, you have beliefs about everything, including the world, politics, social issues, concepts, and
religion. Beliefs underlie your internal representations, which is your map of the world. Your beliefs also
filter sensory data that you take in from the environment and favour sensory data that supports and confirms
your beliefs. We know form NLP models that the internal representations people hold effect their emotional
state and behaviour. Therefore, beliefs have an influence on your emotional state and behaviour.

Beliefs and Values are your motivators

The core beliefs you hold are your motivators, they are the basis from which you function in the world.
People tend to works towards things that they value. For example, if you value having a high-powered career
this may take priority over other aspects of your life such as time with your family.

Beliefs distort how you view the world

Every belief and value is basically a generalisation that you have made abut the world. Generalisations are
distortions. Often when a client presents with a problem, there is a distorted belief or value behind it. For
example, "my partner doesn’t phone me enough, this means he doesn’t love me". Once you are able to
become more aware of the distorted beliefs you hold, it is possible to begin to question them and challenge
them. NLP therapy has a specific tool called the meta-model that is able to uncover the troublesome
distortions and generalisations that people are making.

Beliefs and values determines what happens to you

Beliefs about the world and yourself can actually determine what happens. They are not just thoughts but
effect what you focus on. We know in NLP that what you focus on your more likely to get. This is because
your unconscious mind cannot understand negatives. So for example, if you focus on not being in debt, your
unconscious mind will be on the lookout for debt in the environment and various ways to bring debt to your
attention. NLP therapy teaches people the importance of communicating in the positive when you are
thinking. This means saying what you do want not what you don’t want. Most people have heard of the
placebo effect. This is a phenomenon in which a pill is given which contains no active ingredients. There are
many studies that show that people given a placebo will experience a therapeutic benefit and in some cases
get well based on the belief that they will be well.

Changing your beliefs

As an NLP therapist, people often come to see me at my NLP practice in Herts because they are having
problems with limiting beliefs, e.g. "No one could find me attractive", "I cant lose weight or give up
smoking", "I’m useless in social situations", "I’m bad at presentations". Of, course, they are often not aware
that their belief is the source of their unhappiness when they initially come to see me. Limiting beliefs hold
people back and prevent them from doing things they want too. When we believe we cant do something our
behaviour will usually confirm this. As discussed above, you will act in a way and look out for evidence to
confirm your beliefs. NLP and CBT therapy has effective techniques for changing illogical and limiting
beliefs that can allow you to move on and experience the world through a new pair of glasses. There is no
excuse to let your limiting beliefs hold you back any longer!

Karen Hastings is an occupational therapist and master NLP practitioner and Hypnotherapist. Karen uses
hypnotic techniques alongside NLP to helpwith a rnage of problems. Karen is based in Hertfordshire and also
offers home-visits in Herts and Bucks. Visit http://www.karenhastings.co.uk for more information.

NLP - How Limiting Beliefs Affect Your Life

By Ellen Bothwick

British stand up comedian Eddie Izzard had 5 weeks of training prior to running 7 weeks of back to back
marathons for charity. He then went on to run 43 marathons in 51 days. This phenomenal achievement
clearly wasn't based on a natural talent for long distance running or on an inhuman ability to transport oxygen
from the atmosphere into his bloodstream. It was based on the enabling belief of "I am a capable athlete" and
the resulting confidence, dogged determination and mental strength that accompanies that enabling belief.

A person with limiting beliefs would have never lined up to start the challenge. Long before the first day of
training thoughts such as "it can't be done", "I'll overheat, keel over and die" or "only Olympic athletes can
achieve challenges such as that" would have been circulating around their minds. Eventually the idea would
have been chucked on the "nice idea but will never happen" scrapheap in the corner of the mind.

"If you're worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on." Lance Armstrong

Eddie Izzard would have approached the challenge with enabling beliefs. Instead of thinking only Olympic
athletes can achieve such feats he would have thought if someone can repeatedly run long distances then
others can too. He might have thought of examples in his life when he overcame great obstacles, he might
have accessed memories in his life when he had achieved something that others thought impossible. This
evidence would have been the empowering factor in believing that the challenge could be completed.

"Winning is about heart, not just legs. It's got to be in the right place." Lance Armstrong

Your internal dialogue is a good indicator of the type of beliefs you have in place. If you are ever aware of
that little voice saying "I can't do that", then there's a limiting belief in action. It wants you to stay within
your comfort zone, hold back, avoid taking risks, in fact it could be actively discouraging you from doing
those things that would bring you massive success.

You might be wondering why you would deliberately sabotage your own success through holding limiting
beliefs, when there's no sense in doing that. However, beliefs are often not based upon a logical framework
of ideas and can be extremely resistant to logic, hence why do people believe that they can't do something
when they have no past experience upon which to base that idea? Your beliefs create your reality, so in order
to have a different reality, the beliefs need to change first.
Much research has been carried out in the medical world on the power of beliefs as part of the healing
process. The placebo effect has been well documented, in which people suffering from the same ailment are
split into groups and told that they will be prescribed a new drug to treat their condition. One group will be
given the genuine drug, another group will be given a pill that contains no drugs whatsoever, a placebo.

When results are compared, it has often been the case that the placebo group have displayed results as
beneficial, if not more so, as the group that were taking the genuine drug. The Placebo group had faith in the
skills, knowledge and abilities of the doctor prescribing them their pill and this faith generated a belief that
they would benefit from taking it. And so they did.

"Anything is possible. You can be told that you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-
percent chance, but you have to believe and you have to fight." Lance Armstrong

Similarly, many studies have been conducted on 'cancer survivors' defined as being people who had been
given a terminal diagnosis of cancer with a poor prognosis for recovery and yet are alive and healthy ten or
twelve years later. In one study, it was found that there were no common patterns in the treatment received
by these people. Their treatments were different and included chemotherapy, radiation therapy, nutrition
programmes, surgery, spiritual healing and so on. However, the one thing that all these survivors shared was
that they believed that the method of treatment they were getting was going to work for them. The belief,
rather than the treatment, made the difference.

Discover the secrets for lifestyle success with http://www.bambootutor.com The coursesebooks, audiobooks
on Bamboo Tutor are the culmination of over 30 years of experience of some of the world's most experienced
NLP master practitioners.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ellen_Bothwick

Beliefs
Beliefs

In NLP a belief is a series of decisions that eventually add up to making a strong assumption,
commonly known as a belief.

Serious generalisations we make about the world and our opinions about it.

They form the rules about what we think we can and cannot do.

In NLP we know that beliefs can be fooled into submission if approached stealthily and with some
grace and logic.

As nothing can be proved to be absolutely true (just take my word for that for now) beliefs know they
have limitations so can be moved or released if the time is right!

Here is what others have said about beliefs in NLP:

Joseph O'Connor and John Seymour: The generalizations we make about ourselves, others and the
world and our operating principles in it. Beliefs act as self-fulfilling prophecies that influence all our
behaviours.
 Richard Bandler and John Grinder: Behaviour is organized around beliefs. As long as you can fit
behaviour into someone’s belief system, you can get him to do anything, or stop him from doing
anything. A belief tends to be much more universal and categorical than an understanding. When you
already have a belief there's no room for a new one unless you weaken the old belief first.

Tony Robbins: We usually think of belief in terms of creeds or doctrines and that's what many beliefs
are. But in the most basic sense, a belief is any guiding principle, dictum, faith or passion that can
provide meaning and direction in life. Beliefs are the prearranged, organized filter to our perceptions
of the world. Beliefs are the compass and maps that guide us toward our goals and give us the surety
to know we'll get there. Even at the level of physiology, beliefs (congruent internal representations )
control reality. Belief is nothing but a state, an internal, representation that governs behaviour. Beliefs
are preformed, programmed approaches to perception that filter our communication to ourselves in a
consistent manner. Most people treat a belief as if it's a thing, when really all it is a feeling of
certainty about something.

Connirae Andreas: Our limiting beliefs are found embedded within our Intended Outcomes.
Robert Dilts: Beliefs are not necessarily based upon a logical framework of ideas. They are, instead,
notoriously unresponsive to logic. They are not intended to coincide with reality. Since you don't
really know what is real, you have to form a belief-a matter of faith.

Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

Our beliefs are at the core of who we are. Beliefs guide our decisions and behavior in all areas of life. They
determine what we think is or is not possible. More often than not they prove to be self-fulfilling prophecies.
Some of our beliefs are not fully our own, but rather blindly taken on from others. Once a belief is formed,
we work overtime to prove it right, even if the belief is something negative like “Nobody likes me” or “I am
a failure.” Do we have to let our beliefs govern us, even if they are harmful to others and ourselves? Can we
consciously make changes to what we believe?

In the first half of the 20th century the world believed that it was impossible to run a mile under four
minutes. When, on May 6th 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3.59 minutes, everyone was in awe. Then, a
curious development took place. Within the following year many other runners ran the mile under four
minutes. It was as if a spell had been broken. To understand this phenomenon better, we have to take a closer
look at our beliefs, and how they affect us.

Some of the beliefs we hold give us great strength and empowerment. Studies show that, on average,
people who believe they are healthy live 7 years longer than those who think they are unhealthy, regardless
of their actual health condition at the time of the survey.

Other beliefs zap our energy. They tell us that we cannot achieve our goals or that we are not worthy of
other people’s acceptance. Those kinds of beliefs are called ‘Limiting Beliefs’ in NLP. They typically sound
like “I am ugly”, “I will never be successful”, “I can’t work with those kind of people”, etc.

NLP groups Limiting Beliefs into three categories:

 Hopelessness: My goal cannot be achieved under any circumstances.

 Helplessness: My goal can be achieved, but I lack the ability to achieve it.
 Worthlessness: I don’t deserve to achieve this goal, because of something I am/am not or have/have
not done.
Limiting beliefs can be a result of significant experiences (reference experiences) in our lives. Consider
the story about the man who, as a nine-year-old, killed his friend’s three-year-old brother, while playing
baseball. He was focusing so hard on his next swing that he did not notice the young boy running behind
him. As a result he formed the belief “If I go after my goal, I end up hurting others.” This belief made it very
difficult for him to succeed in his adult life.

When attempting to overcome limiting beliefs the first step is to become aware of them. This can be
challenging, since our limiting beliefs have a way of hiding from us. They like to stay in the background,
where they don’t have to explain themselves. It is almost like they are afraid that they will be proven wrong,
if examined too closely.

In order to uncover limiting beliefs, ask yourself questions like:

 In case of Hopelessness: Why is this goal unattainable?

 In case of Helplessness: What skills do I lack to attain it?
 In case of Worthlessness: Why don’t I deserve to achieve this goal?

If you calmly ask yourself these types of questions, you will uncover the limiting beliefs that stand in-
between you and your goal. It is important to note that beliefs tend come in clusters. Keep analyzing your
beliefs, until you feel satisfied that you have uncovered all of the limiting beliefs that stand in your way.
Once you are aware of your limiting beliefs and the way they affect your behavior, they will start to loose
some of their power over you.

Analyze you beliefs for their purpose. Ask yourself, “How does holding this belief serve my best interest?”
Often beliefs serve a purpose. If you do get some payoff from holding a belief, but at the price of some
unpleasant side effects, look for a belief that gives you the same payoff without the side effects. For example,
replace a belief like “Men are trouble” by “Some men are trouble and I need to be careful to make sure I
choose a man with a good character as my partner.” The payoff of both those beliefs is “being safe from
pain”, but the second belief is less limiting.

One way to stop believing that you cannot do something is to just try doing it. Once a belief has been
proven wrong it looses its power, as was evident when Roger Bannister ran the mile in under four minutes.
Of course, common sense should be applied with this approach as to avoid harm to self and others.

References:

Changing Belief Systems with NLP, Dilts, R., 1990

Beliefs: Pathways to Health and Well-Being, Dilts, R., Hallbom. T. and Smith, S.1990

All the best,

Christoph Schertler
NLP Trainer/Coach - Founder PEC, LLC

Changing Beliefs

1992
In article <1992Sep02.012615.12587@crash> johnlee@crash.cts.com (John Wiley) writes:
>
>Lee Lady writes:
>>I did learn two extremely simple little techniques.
>
>Yes, yes... Please tell us what they were. I realize these were things
>you use ``on yourself,'' but perhaps they'd be of interest to all of us?

The other little technique from my master practitioner training this summer which has been very
valuable to me personally is the Robert Dilts version of the belief change pattern. I knew the
traditional technique for changing beliefs using visualization (although I suppose that in principle
one ought to be able to do it in the auditory or kinesthetic systems) and had been taken through it
at least once. But it hadn't seemed to have much real impact on me. I think this was partly
because of my usual difficulty in visualizing and partly for another reason that I'll mention
below.

A ``belief'' for these purposes is a generalization about the world or (preferrably) about oneself.
The beliefs that are especially suitable are the ones where a person says ``I know it's not true, but
I still believe it.'' (A fascinating statement!)

Tim Hallbom and Suzi Smith (``Tim & Suzi'') taught us the Dilts pattern, which involves laying
out pieces of paper in a circle on the floor and standing on them. They talked about going
through the pattern themselves in airport terminals where it's easy to find open space. However
even a small living room is quite large enough.

The sketchy description I will give of the process may or may not be adequate for you to use it
on yourself or someone else. I'm leaving out a lot of the fine points and some of those fine points
are important.

The labels on the pieces of paper on the floor are: 1) Current Belief (the one you want to
change); 2) Open to Doubt; 3) Museum of Old Beliefs 4) New Belief; 5) Open to Believing; 6)
Sacred Place. In addition, there should probably be a ``meta-position'' between 3) and 4) and I
guess between 2) and 3). The meta-positions are simply spots where you pause to remember
what's happened so far before you go on.

Start by identifying the belief you want to change and the one you want to replace it with. Think
about the original belief and stand in position 1. Then step away and think about something
which you are uncertain about, which you are willing to doubt. (For instance, I'm uncertain about
whether I'll take some more NLP training next summer or not.) Then step on position 2 for a
moment, taking time to fully experience what it's like to be uncertain. Imagine taking the belief
you want to change into position 2 with you.

Step away again, take a moment to think about your belief again (it seems like maybe we moved
back to position 1 for a moment at this point), and then stand next to position 3. Remember
something you used to believe but very definitely don't believe now. (``I used to believe that I
could eat as much as I want to and would never get fat.'') Then step onto the piece of paper at
position 3, taking your undesired belief into position 3 and taking time to fully experience what
it's like to no longer believe something that you used to believe. Once again step away. This time
imagine leaving your present undesired belief in position 3 (``the Museum of Old Beliefs''). Take
a moment to assess the process so far. Know that in the steps that follow you will no longer be
carrying your old belief with you.

As you continue, position 4 is where you think about the new belief that you want to replace the
undesired one. At position 5 you recall something which you are open to believing even though
you're not really sure of it. (``I'm open to believing that some day I'll meet a woman who will
make me want to get married again.'') And before stepping into position 6 you think of one of
your firmest, most sacred convictions. (``I will never again accept a job that doesn't let me feel
good about myself when I go home every day.'') Now think of the new belief you are installing
with that same conviction.

After going around the circle once, repeat a second time.

At each of the positions of the circle, it's important to really experience the state that goes with
that position. I think that one of the reasons why I didn't have much success when I went through
the traditional submodalities belief pattern (aside from my usual problems with visualization
techniques) is that when the practitioner asked me, for instance, ``Think of something you're
doubtful about,'' I couldn't think of a damn thing. (Which is what usually happens with me when
I'm an NLP client.) So he suggested ``How about whether it's going to rain this afternoon or not.
Are you doubtful about that?'' This might be fine for a lot of people, but it's better to choose
something that has real significance for you. Something that will really let you get into the
experience of being in doubt.

Last summer Tim & Suzi explained the technique before lunch and we actually went through the
exercise after lunch, so during lunch I had plenty of time to come up with a significant example
for each step of the exercise.

It's important to note that the idea of the process is to replace an unwanted belief by a belief the
subject would like to have. A lot of traditional approaches to changework -- most notably
behavioral techniques -- think in terms of extinction of a behavior. But in NLP one of the basic
rules is that the way to get rid of an undesirable behavior (or belief or emotional pattern or
whatever) is to replace it by one which will be more attractive to the subject.

(Psychologists say things like ``It takes months to unlearn a habit.'' This is bullshit, if you replace
the habit by a more desirable behavior. If you find a better way to drive to work, how many times
does it take before you stop automatically turning down the old street? Not many!)

Tim & Suzi said it this way: ``You can't just remove an old belief, because you create a vacuum
and something new will come rushing in to fill up that space.'' When you think of it, this
statement represents a rather interesting subjective representation of the mental world. There's a
suggestion that one's thoughts, beliefs (an memories) have a fluid quality, and that they are under
some sort of pressure. (Of course one shouldn't make too much of one metaphor.)
When Robert McDonald arrived to teach the next segment of our training, he mentioned that
he had asked one of the other trainers to take him through the pattern for a particular belief he
wanted to change. Apparently some students expressed surprise that he, an NLP trainer, would
still have problems he felt the need to work on. But for me the more surprising thing was that
he still needed someone else to take him through the pattern. Or that Tim & Suzi still feel the
need to lay down pieces of paper in airports.

Like most of the NLP techniques, it really helps to have an experienced person take you throught
the pattern the first time so that you really get the idea of it. (Watching it on videotape is the
second best alternative.) But it seems to me that once you've got the basic idea, it should be an
easy process to do for yourself without any help.

In fact, it seems that for me, now that I've been taken through the pattern, walking around the
circle is not longer necessary. All I need to do to change a belief is just to take myself through
the steps mentally. I need to remember what each step feels like. (People who are more visual or
auditory will undoubtedly find somewhat different things that work for them.)

I was in San Francisco after the training and had dinner with a friend of mine who is a
hypnotherapist and sex surrogate. And she said to me, ``You know, Lee, you have this belief that
blah blah blah.'' And the next day I thought about that she was right. And it occurred to me that it
was stupid to go on having a belief like that when I'd just learned how to change beliefs. So I
took myself through the pattern mentally right then (I was riding the bus at the time) and it
worked perfectly.

It seems to me that this is true of a lot of the NLP techniques. Once you realize that a certain type
of change is possible, you don't need the technique any more. If I need to have a certain resource
state -- say confidence -- in a given context, all I have to remember is that my body knows how
to feel confidence and the way to get that feeling is to remember a time when I was really
confident and remember what that feeling is like. Then I just need to hang onto that feeling and
imagine being in the problem context.

When we went through the technique this summer to change criteria [values], I was really
annoyed with my partner in the exercise because he just said it was stupid and refused to do it.
He said, ''If you want to change your criteria just do it; you don't need any technique.'' But
afterwards, I decided that he was right. The really important part of the exercise is the realization
that my criteria are not an ``environmental variable.'' Once I accept the possibility that I can
change them, it's not that hard to figure out how to do it.