Letting Go of Limiting Beliefs About Weight Loss

"Anytime you run into a wall or a closed door, the first place to try to open it is in your own mind." ~Source Unknown

If you did the Food Vibration Diary exercise I described last week, it's likely you ran into a lot of "walls and closed doors" about losing weight. These are all the beliefs about why losing weight is such an impossible and/or unpleasant task for you. Many others might have surfaced while you were tapping on statements related to your Food Vibration (you did do the tapping part of the exercise, right? If not, I recommend going back and taking some time to work through it before moving on to the rest of this post).

If you haven't done so already, it's a great idea to start noticing these beliefs as they come up throughout your day. It can be difficult to identify your own limiting beliefs, because you're so sure your beliefs are true that they are usually quite unconscious; you can't even see that they are there and that you can question them. This is one reason why it can be so helpful to do this work with some type of support person you trust (whether it's a friend or a professional), because they can more easily see where you are limiting yourself.

One way I have found helpful to spot my own limiting beliefs is to notice what I'm thinking when I don't feel good emotionally (i.e. angry, frustrated, discouraged). As Abraham continually reminds us, the Truth of Who We Really Are feels GREAT! So when we are feeling negative emotion, it's because we are believing a thought that isn't true (a.k.a. a Limiting Belief)

I made a list of some common Limiting Beliefs about weight loss here. Remember, if it feels bad when you think it, it's a Limiting Belief. I recommend writing these Limiting Beliefs down as soon as you spot them (they're slippery, so they'll try to go into hiding again if you don't corral them somehow!)

What to Do Once You've Spotted a Limiting Belief:

Let's take a common Limiting Belief about weight loss: "It's really hard to lose weight."

This statement APPEARS to be true because many people can find plenty of evidence to support it in their experience. The thing is that you are always looking for evidence to support your beliefs, and so you will selectively perceive only the data that reinforces your current beliefs. And, just to keep things interesting, the belief WILL be "true" for you as long as you believe it! So, how do you start to shake loose of a Limiting Belief that is firmly entrenched?

A good first step is to ask yourself "Where did I get this belief?" A belief is just a story we made up that we decided is true; we made up the belief based on our life experiences (or more accurately, our perceptions of our experiences). Write down any and all SPECIFIC incidents you can think of, including things people have said to you in the past, that reinforced your Limiting Belief. This might include specific details about how hard you worked to lose weight in the past and what type of results you got. It might include the fact that your mother has told you, ever since you can remember, that losing weight is a struggle for every woman in your family, that's just the way it is!

Once you have a list of SPECIFICS, you can start to tap through them one at a time. You may find that some of them go down to a zero intensity fairly quickly, and others seem to be a bit more unwilling to budge. That's okay. The stubborn ones often give you some really good clues as to where you need to look next to excavate a Limiting Belief once and for all.

Another little trick I like to use when I'm having trouble letting go of a Limiting Belief is to "Ask for Evidence". This is a really simple technique that often works marvelously well! All you do is decide what it is that you WANT to believe, and ask The Universe (or God, Source, or whatever feels good to you) to show you evidence that what you WANT to believe is true.

I find it most powerful to use this in a EFT setup statement as follows:

"Even though I've always believed that it's really hard to lose weight, I ask the Universe to show me evidence that losing weight can be accomplished with joy and ease."

Then, tap:
-one round on the Limiting Belief ("It's really hard to lose weight")
-one round on the new, desired belief ("Losing weight can be accomplished with joy and ease")
-a third round alternating the Limiting Belief and the desired belief (make sure to finish with the DESIRED belief!)

You may be pleasantly surprised to see how accommodating the Universe can be once you ask to see evidence of what you want. To add even more power to this exercise, make sure to write down any evidence you see that your desired belief is true. Now, whenever the old, limiting belief rears its head, you have plenty of documentation to the contrary, and you can easily send him on his way!

This is the third post in a series about Using EFT for Weight Loss. Earlier posts can be found here:

Using EFT for Weight Loss: 3 Key Areas to Address
Tuning in To Your Food Vibration

image by Federico Stevanin, courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net