The stories we tell ourselves about who we are and what we can or cannot do determines our reality. The problem is, so many of these stories are rooted in beliefs learned from childhood when we lacked the proper understanding of life or may have been someone else’s beliefs pressed onto us. The core beliefs we have about ourselves need to be reexamined every once in a while to be sure that they are serving us well.
Often limiting beliefs may have led to addiction in the first place, so when it comes to breaking an addiction, it is crucial to first break any limiting beliefs surrounding it. The way you “break” a self-limiting belief is to reframe it in an empowering way.
One of the basic self-limiting beliefs in substance abuse is that you can’t imagine life without your drug(s) of choice and that life would be too boring without it. For instance, if you are having trouble believing you can quit drinking alcohol, begin to reframe this belief by first realizing that there is a layer of social conditioning in believing you need to drink to have fun. It is merely your perception that alcohol leads to a good time, but is that necessarily the reality when you always end up crying alone after a long night of drinking? Instead of letting alcohol hold all of the power, the real power is in choosing to quit which will free you from your addiction and dependency on having alcohol in your life and to having a good time. Choose to focus on the true freedom that life without addiction brings and see that you are an active participant in choosing what you want and are in control of your life.
To help identify some of the self-limiting beliefs that may be fueling your addiction, try following these steps.
Step 1: Identify a judgment you make about yourself
A judgment could sound like “I can’t tell anyone how I feel” or “nobody likes me.”
Step 2: Ask “Why?”
When you ask yourself why you believe this judgment is true, you are looking for the deeper, underlying belief in the response. One way to know that you’ve gotten to the underlying belief is that it can hurt or sting to say it out loud.
Step 3: Question and forgive the underlying beliefs
By casting doubt on these beliefs, you start to intellectually rationalize what is false and what the real truth is. Questioning is followed by forgiveness when you can trace back to the beginning of those negative beliefs and then ultimately decide to let them go.
Your beliefs create your reality, so it is important to overcome any self-limiting beliefs you may harbor. By breaking through your self-limiting beliefs, you then can find lasting recovery. If you or a loved one is struggling to remain sober, they may need to address their self-limiting beliefs. At Avalon Malibu, our licensed, experienced professionals can help to find the treatment that fits your individual needs best. Call us at (844) 857-5992 to find out more about how we can help you.
