Do you believe it?

One of my intentions at the New Year was to overcome the limitations of my particular chronic pain and get back to the gym and doing yoga. I've accomplished my goal, and I am looking forward to yoga classes and workouts for the rest of the year!

For a while though, it was really a struggle to believe it could happen for me - that I could get over the mental blocks and fears that come with chronic pain and get myself into the gym. My limiting thoughts were something like this: "It's just going to hurt more if I exercise." "I'll be too exhausted to do anything else." "What if I injure myself?"

Isn't it frustrating how how we sometimes get in our own way while we are trying to achieve our goals? You can set intentions and goals, be as positive as a cheerleader about them, doing affirmations and visualizations, but if deep down you don't believe that they can become reality for you - they won't, will they?

For example: you set a goal to go to the gym 3 times a week after work, or an intention to attract new clients to fill out the empty spots in your schedule or dream of taking your practice to the next level, and within a couple of weeks you stop working towards it because deep down you don't really believe you can achieve it anyways.

How many times has this happened to you? It sure has happened to me more times than I'd like to admit to myself. This is a pretty frustrating phenomenon.

How do you prevent it from happening?

I believe the key to working through these deep seated beliefs is to face them head on. Spend some time trying to understand them. Do you believe you can't succeed with your intention because deep down you know it's not realistic? (such as wanting to lose 50 lbs in just a few weeks). Or maybe you believe you can't achieve your goals because you don't believe you deserve to achieve them or you're afraid of what it means to your life and relationships if you are successful?

Whatever the reason, with knowledge of the limiting beliefs holding you back, you become empowered to work with yourself instead of against yourself.

It might mean giving yourself a realistic timeline to achieve your long-term goals, and setting bite-sized milestones to celebrate along the way. It might mean confronting some fears about yourself and deciding you deserve success and moving forward anyways. Or, it might mean taking a closer look at your life and relationships and rallying the people around you to become your cheerleading team.

You might also realize, as a result of your time reflecting, that the goal you didn't believe in wasn't something YOU really wanted to do for yourself anyways. It might have been motivated by cultural or peer pressure or be something someone else encouraged you to do.

With this new knowledge of yourself, you can set goals that feel right deep down and know that you can and will succeed.

Of course, it can be really hard to identify limiting beliefs - I mean if you knew what they were you'd have changed them by now, right?

That's where having an unbiased supporter comes in. Someone who can see and hear you from an objective, impartial perspective to help you get to the root of what's holding you back from the success, abundance, health, and happiness that you desire.

If you are a wellness professional having trouble maintaining a healthy balance between life and work and bringing in the clients you want - stay tuned for a new program I'm designing with exactly you in mind. It will help you move past the blocks holding you back so you can shift into abundance and balance.