Many highly sensitive people long to banish the self doubt we can so often be plagued with.
For years, I suffered with this myself.
I would always second-guess my choices and decisions.
Always quick to compare myself to others. I was riddled with self doubts that I could ever achieve what they had.
Even though I had so much knowledge and experience I still doubted my abilities to reach my goals and dreams.
When I discovered how to reframe my thoughts and beliefs, things really started to change for me.
This involved not only the tools I use as a Rapid Transformational Therapist but also many mindset hacks and strategies I have learnt over the years.
I’ve been studying psychology in many forms since my 20s. Having a thirst for self-improvement has guided me to the exact courses, certifications, coaches and mentors that I needed.
In this post, I want to share some quick tips to help you banish any self doubt that may be lurking around for you.
You’ll learn some mindset hacks to rewire your self limiting beliefs to set you up to achieve what you want to in your life.
Comparisonitis
As I mentioned earlier, I used to be very quick to compare myself to others.
From years working with many clients, I know this is extremely common.
What I discovered recently however, is that as HSPs we often compare ourselves to non-HSPs. By doing this, we make it so much harder for ourselves. We truly do ourselves a great disservice.
Highly sensitive people are wired differently and we have different brains. Therefore comparing ourselves to non-HSPs can lead to disappointment, not feeling enough, massive self doubt, and so much more.
Once we learn more about our HSP trait and give ourselves credit for the wonderful gifts we have, then we can leave the comparisonitis behind.
It’s not a case of HSPs being better or non-HSPs being better, we’re just wired differently and each of us has our advantages and our challenges.
And because we are in the minority as HSPs the world is set up differently for us. Especially in the western world we are taught to hustle, to juggle as many tasks as we can, to ‘get over’ ourselves if we feel overwhelmed and can’t keep up with others.
But remember, we’re wired differently so we don’t have to keep up with others.
In fact, as HSPs, once we acknowledge our trait and learn how to look after ourselves, we can actually get more done than non-HSPs.
Yes, one of our many superpowers!
I believe there are three keys to banishing self doubt and overcoming self-limiting beliefs.
1. Awareness
As I mentioned earlier, our HSP brains are wired differently to non-HSP brains.
When we have this awareness, this is the first step to self-acceptance and self-compassion.
So become aware of certain limitations you may have as an HSP.
An example could be, being overstimulated easily because we process everything around us much more deeply and we take in so much more information.
In a previous post, Do you have the HSP trait?, I talked about how we have 50-100 paths of information coming into our brains. Compare that to a non-HSP who has three or four paths of information.
So naturally we become more overstimulated.
However once we are aware of this we can take steps towards turning this into a superpower.
2. Self talk
This brings me to the importance of the words we say to ourselves. Our self talk.
Are they real or are they made up? Are they limiting our potential? Are they adding to our self doubt?
If they’re made up, and not in our best interest, we get to decide to say different words.
We get to decide to rewire our own self talk. We have a choice.
Self talk is covered in more depth in a previous post if you want to dive into this further.
The most important words you say in your life are the words you say to yourself.
– Marisa Peer
3. Repetition
We have anywhere between 6,000 and 70,000 thoughts going on in our heads every day. Most of them are the same, they’re looping, on repeat.
In fact 95% of these thoughts are repetitive. So if these repetitive thoughts and words you say to yourself are negative, how do you think that affects your actions, your behaviours and your emotions?
Most of these thoughts are subconscious. You can never outperform your subconscious mind but you can rewire it.
And by rewiring it I mean by creating new neural pathways which I like to call grooves. So think of your neural network as grooves and the way to rewire these grooves is to create a new set of grooves that are in service to you. To your dreams and desires.
Once these grooves are in place, the old grooves or old thoughts, will in time, be erased.
Just imagine if that 95% of your subconscious thoughts that were once negative are flipped around to be positive. Think of the possibilities that open up for you.
Expect it to be uncomfortable to start with because the mind loves what is familiar and will do its best to keep the unfamiliar out of your reach. But with repetition you can make the unfamiliar, familiar and create your new grooves, your new neural pathways.
To get through the uncomfortable, you need to be 100% committed – no matter what. You need to remain committed to repeating your new thoughts over and over.
And it can take time, It can take a few weeks, a few months or even longer.
Because these old grooves, these old thoughts, in many cases have been around for years, decades …
How do you do this?
Going back over the three keys you start with first become aware of a limiting thought you have about yourself.
Don’t judge, just be aware of it.
Gently thank it and let it know you’re ready to let it go.
Next, change the thought to something more positive.
Finally is repetition.
When I work with my clients in an RTT session, I make a transformational recording with their new words, their dreams and desires, and as they listen to this every day. This allows them to lay down new grooves, new neural pathways.
You can do this yourself however, which I’ll get to in a minute.
As an example, a self-limiting belief of mine used to be – that I was too quiet, too shy and I could never put myself out there.
Now I know that one of my superpowers is that I have the ability to really help others because of my intuition. I can sense the true potential in someone and I can help them to uncover this.
Creating a power statement
So I created my new set of grooves by changing my words and my thoughts. I replaced ‘not wanting to put myself out there’ to thinking of all the people I could help by sharing the wonderful gifts I’m so blessed to have.
With this awareness and knowledge, I created the following power statement – ‘I confidently attract the most wonderful clients who I joyfully serve with my gift of intuition.’
Then I wrote this power statement on two post-it notes. One I kept next to my computer so I saw it every day when I was working. The other, I put in my bathroom so I saw it throughout the day.
I also added it to a self hypnosis recording that I made for myself. I listened to this every day, sometimes twice a day, for about three months.
What you can do is to record your power statement on a Voice Memo app or similar on your phone. Then listen to it every morning and last thing at night before you go to sleep.
Remember, repetition is key!
As HSPs, I know you are very creative and will come up with some awesome power statements so you can turn your self doubt thoughts and words around. I would love you to share those in the comments below or send me an email via the contact form.
And if you have any questions, please let me know.
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