Very often I sit down and start writing… I’ve always had a craving to write and to share my thoughts hoping to not just ‘share’ a piece of my mind but to also receive feedback and impulses that help me expand my horizons and my consciousness. But then something stops me from continuing let alone posting and publishing.

It happens every week when I am writing and preparing my weekly yoga class. Each time I experience something, or I see or read or witness something that stops me and makes me reflect I discover something, a message or an inspiration that I see worth sharing in class, hoping to not only move my students physically but also mentally and emotionally.

I have about 3-5 Minutes at the beginning of a class for a bite sized philosophical idea. And often, after class some would stay a while longer talking and sharing their thoughts and feelings. They don’t know how grateful I am for these moments and what a great gift it is from them to me. They give me a piece of their mind and their lives and I receive ideas and insights and with them the wider perspective, which is something i am always looking for. I learn so much about us humans, including myself and how we all, at the end of the day, face and deal with the same ‘shit’ one way or another.

So almost every week this happens and every time I wish I had more time to philosophise, to discuss and to listen. I am a curious person by nature and I want to know more about life and how it treats us and how we treat it back.

So every week I am reminded of my craving to write. Writing for the sake of writing and for the sake of listening and communicating. I know that there are many like me, interested in this experience called life. Interested in how to manage our human existence and the whys and hows of being here.

So I sit down and start to write but before I even finish old and familiar thoughts start creeping up:

“Nobody will read this, so don’t waste your time.”

“Who the hell do you think you are Ingy, that people spend their precious time reading what YOU think”.

“Why should anyone be interested in what you THINK?”

‘What you THINK is exactly that, and should remain where it is, inside your head alone”

So I stop writing.

Sometimes, I manage to ignore these thoughts, but then some more limiting type of thinking rises. You know them? These thoughts that tell us we are not capable of doing certain things? The ones that keep us from doing what we wish and dream to do. We all have them.

LIMITING and pretty much imprisoning us, instead of feeling and being free to do exactly what we are supposed to do in this life: grow, explore, experience.

“You don’t know how to write”

“ You should take a writing course before you start a blog”

“ What if your text is full of mistakes when you post it”

And many more “what ifs”.

I end up deleting what I wrote. And I move on to doing something else.

Despite knowing that these voices are nothing but limiting beliefs about myself.

Despite knowing that I should face them, because if I don’t I would be missing out on knowing myself and I would miss out on growing and expanding and in doing so I would risk not finding out all the potentials in me that should be explored and expressed.

Despite knowing that it is not worth it and that it is even destructive to fear what some may say or think about my writing skills or the lack of them, or that my thoughts are stupid or trivial or whatever else anyone may think.

So, here I am, taking a leap of faith. I am going to finish this and I will post it. And whether or not someone reads or even comments on this I will have done it. I will have faced and not caved in to a voice that has been keeping me in a comfort zone and limiting me from doing something I have been wanting to do for a long time.

And if you happen to be still reading this and nearing the end of this text and you feel like you know this too then please leave me a comment or maybe even a kind word to support me, let me know I’m not alone here :) and I would love it if you share with me your thoughts. Maybe even telling me about YOUR limiting beliefs or if you don’t want to be public about that, tell me what it is that you wish to do but always felt inhibited or self-conscious about. How about we support each other and rise above ourselves by lifting each other up?

With much love,

Ingy

Self limiting thoughts and a first step to overpower them