Breaking Free of Limiting Beliefs
Full moon blessings, friends! Welcome to the second installment of our three-part monthly series exploring the top themes (understanding what’s essential, limiting beliefs, and boundaries) that surface most consistently in my readings, mentoring sessions, and five years of full and new moon tarot curated insights.
Last month, we focused on cultivating the essential to better understand ourselves through our fundamental needs and values. This month, we're diving into limiting beliefs, those subtle yet powerful stories we tell ourselves that shape our reality and often hold us back from our truest potential. Let’s dive in!
I want to share something vulnerable with you. A few months ago, I found myself trapped in the exact patterns I help my clients navigate. I was caught in endless mental loops, overthinking every decision, and feeling paralyzed by self-doubt.
During my daily tarot practice, I kept pulling cards from the suit of swords: the 8 of Swords, 9 of Swords, and 2 of Swords. Card after card, these images stared back at me revealing figures with eyes closed or covered, trapped by their own thoughts. At first, I was frustrated. Why wasn't I getting clearer guidance?
Then it hit me. The message wasn't about external circumstances at all. These cards were showing me that I had become a prisoner of my own mind. My thoughts (specifically my limiting beliefs) had created invisible walls around me, and I was choosing to keep my eyes closed to the truth of my own power.
That realization changed everything. I realized I needed to move from my head to my heart, from analysis to intuition, from thinking my way out to feeling my way forward.
The irony wasn't lost on me. Here I was, a coach who helps others identify and transform limiting beliefs, and I was completely caught in my own web of "I'm not experienced enough," "Who am I to think I can help people," and "I need to have it all figured out before I can guide others."
This experience became the catalyst for diving deeper into understanding limiting beliefs, not just intellectually, but experientially. And that journey led me to create the worksheet I'm sharing with you.
Through my own process and working with clients, I've discovered that limiting beliefs aren't just thoughts we think. They're entire ecosystems of protection that we built when we were younger and had fewer resources to navigate the world.
Limiting beliefs are survival mechanisms that have outlived their usefulness. Mine certainly had. The belief that "I need to be perfect before I can help others" might have protected me from criticism early on, but it was now preventing me from stepping into my purpose and serving the people who needed what I had to offer.
The breakthrough came when I stopped trying to think my way out of these patterns and started listening to what my body and heart were telling me. Every time a limiting belief arose, my chest would tighten, my breathing would become shallow, and my shoulders would creep toward my ears. My body was showing me the truth before my mind could rationalize it away.
Here's what I wish someone had told me earlier. You cannot think your way out of a thought problem. Limiting beliefs live in the realm of the mind, but transformation happens when we engage our whole being. When I finally stopped analyzing my limiting beliefs and started feeling them, everything shifted.
Instead of asking "Is this belief logical?" I began asking "How does this belief feel in my body?" Instead of gathering evidence for or against a thought, I started noticing what created expansion versus contraction in my chest. This wasn't about dismissing the mind, not at all, it was about remembering that the mind is just one tool in our toolkit, and sometimes it's not the right tool for the job.
The Body Knows Before the Mind Does
One of the most powerful discoveries in my journey was learning to recognize the physical signatures of limiting beliefs. Your body responds to these beliefs before you're even consciously aware of the thought pattern.
Common Physical Signs I Notice:
Sudden tension in shoulders, jaw, or chest
Shallow breathing or holding my breath
A sinking feeling in my stomach
Fatigue that seems to come out of nowhere
Feeling physically smaller or contracted
The Emotional Landscape:
Anxiety without a clear external cause
Feeling overwhelmed by simple decisions
A sense of being "stuck" or paralyzed
Self-doubt that feels disproportionate to the situation
The urge to hide or make myself invisible
Learning to catch these signals early has been a game changer. Now, when I feel that familiar chest tightness, I know a limiting belief has been activated, and I can address it before it takes over my entire day.
I used to think that changing limiting beliefs was about replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. But that approach never stuck for me because it felt forced and inauthentic.
Real transformation happens when we:
Acknowledge the belief with compassion rather than judgment
Feel how it lives in our body instead of just analyzing it mentally
Understand its protective purpose rather than vilifying it
Create new beliefs that feel true and expansive rather than just logical
The limiting belief "I'm not experienced enough" didn't disappear when I tried to replace it with "I am incredibly experienced." That felt like a lie. But when I shifted to "I have valuable experience and perspectives to share, and I'm committed to growing," something in my chest opened. That belief felt true and expansive.
As you use the worksheet I've created, I encourage you to approach this work with curiosity rather than force, compassion rather than criticism.
Remember:
These beliefs developed for good reasons when you had fewer resources
They're not character flaws—they're outdated protection systems
Transformation is a process, not a one-time event
Your body and heart are wise allies in this journey
Pay attention to:
How beliefs feel in your body, not just your mind
What creates expansion versus contraction
The stories behind the beliefs—when did they first develop?
What your Essential Self (your authentic core) knows to be true
Today, I still pull sword cards in my tarot practice, but they no longer feel like warnings. Instead, they feel like gentle reminders to come back to my center, to trust my inner knowing over my mental chatter. The limiting beliefs haven't completely disappeared (I'm human, after all), but my relationship with them has fundamentally changed. Instead of being trapped by them, I can recognize them, thank them for trying to protect me, and choose a different response.
This work has given me something I didn't even know I was missing, the freedom to be imperfect and still valuable, to be learning and still worthy of taking up space, to be human and still capable of helping others transform their lives. That freedom is available to you too.
Your limiting beliefs are not the truth of who you are. They're old stories that you can choose to rewrite. The same inner wisdom that brought you to this newsletter, that made you curious about your own patterns, is the same wisdom that will guide you toward your most authentic, expansive self.
Trust the process. Trust your heart. Trust that you have everything within you to break free from the mental prisons you've unknowingly created. The door was never locked. You just forgot you had the key.
Ready to begin your journey?