Why LOGIC Can’t Change Your Mind: My evidence-based Exercise to Reprogram Core Beliefs
Have you ever reached a plateau in your career or finances?
Around the same time that I got trained in EFT/Tapping, I had a SAVINGS plateau. As soon as I had a certain number in my bank account, my car would break down or my CPA would say I owed taxes. I felt like the universe didn’t want me to have a financial cushion.
Last week I wrote about the financial glass ceilings that make practitioners struggle to feel financially secure.
Glass ceilings are the invisible barriers standing between your current life and the life you want to create.
I promised to dive deeper into the limiting beliefs that keep your ceiling in place and to teach you an exercise to shift them.
Want to sample the exercise that I teach all my students?
PART 1
Picture your ideal life 1 year from today.
Picture who you are as a person, leader, friend, partner, parent, etc.
Observe the energy, body language, mindset, and inner talk of this future self.
Observe the quality of their/your relationships, daily habits, achievements, and free time.
Write down or visualize this ideal future. Turn up the vividness dial. Get excited about it.
PART 2
Once you get a good sense of your ideal future, notice what limiting beliefs creep in that diminish the excitement. Common beliefs I hear from students are:
Ehhhh, not gonna happen.
It’s not actually realistic in 1 year.
I don’t trust myself to stay consistent.
Is it dumb to have this dream?
I don’t want to get my hopes up
If you can’t discern any limiting beliefs: Great! GO for it! Start taking tangible action steps toward your ideal future. Then, write down the inner voices that emerge that tempt you to give up or play small.
You have a dream, but you also have inner voices that creep in to sabotage your dreams.
Limiting beliefs are normal.
Limiting beliefs stem from the survival part of your brain. The survival brain wants to predict potential worst-case scenarios so you can prepare for and avoid them. Like a helicopter mom, the survival brain wants to help you, but it actually hurts you.
The survival brain: Believes that success is staying in your comfort zone (even if it means living a small stagnant life).
The strategic brain: Believes that success is expanding your comfort zone (even if it means taking risks and facing momentary failure).
Survival or Strategic: We have a choice. Stay in your comfort zone OR take the risk.
What does this have to do with my lack of savings back in 2011?
When I did the above exercise and visualized my ideal future, I got excited (at first): Financial security, a loving partner, helping hundreds of people heal from trauma, teaching other healers how to make their practice evidence-based and trauma-informed. Sounds great, right?
When I did part 2 of the exercise and started cold calling people, outlining my book, and raising my prices, my limiting beliefs revealed themselves:
Sneaky ways my limiting beliefs sabotaged my career:
I would procrastinate on writing by focusing on menial tasks (like cleaning and admin) instead of the harder tasks (like writing and pitching to editors.) Why procrastinate?
Because I had the belief: If you write a book, people will take you as a “know-it-all.
I would never write marketing material because I felt like sales were “slimy.”
Deep down I had the belief: If you want to make money doing healing work, it means you don’t actually care about people.
When I traveled home to preppy New England, I would lie about my job title. I’m an educator, a yoga teacher, a (fill in simple title here) because…
Secretly I believed: An EFT Practioner is not a REAL career.
When people asked if I had a Psychology Degree I would feel small and stumble over my words because…
Deep down I had the belief: You are not credible without a Clinical Masters or PhD in your field.
Limitng beleifs are sneaky.
Logically I knew that I could help people without the letterd PhD after my name.
Logically I knew that it didn’t matter what my parents’ corporate friends thought as long as my clients were happy.
Logically, I knew that in order to support others I had to support myself and not just give away free sessions.
But my emotional brain was singing a different tune.
My limbic brain held memories of :
my mom being excluded from our conservative neighborhood for being a Reiki healer
my dad nearly going broke after trying to be an entrepreneur
my wealthy grandmother being financially taken advantage of by family who weren’t as well off
Neuroscientists have proven that the part of your brain that logically understands what to do to reach your goals (i.g. boundaries, daily habits, affirmations etc.) is not the part of your brain that makes the final decisions (i.g. staying in your comfort zone, not taking the risk, not setting the boundary, etc).
What part of your brain makes your decisions? Your emotional brain (aka limbic brain).
That is why you say you won’t have another drink, but then you feel nervous and those nerves make you reach for another glass.
You say you will break it off, but then you feel fear and that fear makes you stay inside the stable (yet stagnant) toxic relationship.
You say you will write the book, but then resistance makes you scroll Instagram instead.
Get the idea?
To change your behaviors, you must communicate directly to the part of your brain holding the steering wheel: Your limbic brain.
This is why I’m so drawn to EFT/Tapping. It’s like a walkie-talkie to your limbic system.
I teach students to tap on limiting beliefs like “I will fail.” While it feels debilitating at first, it suddenly feels “unlikely” after a few rounds of EFT.
I teach students to tap on related memories like, “Dad failed when he went bankrupt.” While it feels so personal at first, it suddenly feels separate: “That was his story. Not mine.”
Tapping doesn’t require logic. Tapping creates emotional regulation which quiets the survival brain so that you can see your beliefs and memories through clear eyes.
Example: Oh, dad went broke because he didn’t plan or consult ANY outside help, and he chose a business that was 90% overhead and way too many local competitors. I will never wind up like him. My business has ZERO overhead. I already know people who need my work, and there’s really nothing to lose except making some extra income.
Here’s what you can do.
Part 3 of the exercise is identifying the memories that reinforce your beliefs.
For example, you don’t just believe, “I shouldn’t get my hopes up.” You have a series of memories where you got your hopes up and then ended up disappointed 😔 These series of events created a generalization called, “Don’t get your hopes up.”
Your limbic brain turned a series of events into a generalization. That generalization is still dictating your mood and behavior.
Once you identify some past memories, you can learn to tap on one specific memory at a time.
Tapping breaks apart generalizations so you can see your memories as PAST MEMORIES instead of PREDICTIONS about your future
I teach you how to tap on these memories in a trauma-informed way on Day 1 of the Level 1&2 Training. In session 2, I teach you how to uncover these core beliefs and the memories at their root more specifically. Then in session 3 we dive deeper into goal setting, and in session 4 (phew) we move into how to make these goals and shift stick…for good.
Some of my students come to the training for their own healing.
Others come in order to support their families and clients.
For me, I came for my own goals and walked away filled with creative ideas about how I could share these tools with others.
And here we are now.
Virtual Live & Recorded: The entire October 7th Training (plus 4 follow-up sessions) includes lifetime access to an online portal of recordings, exercises, cheat sheets, and bonuses.
Check it out (and Add to Cart by October 1st for bonus live calls).
Next Steps
View All modules and bonuses here.
Ready? Start with full pay ($795) or payment plan here ($199 x4).