Hi all,

I'm new to the forum and having had a quick look around this seems to be an amazing resource. But here's the first question of many...

I'm engaging in some belief change work with kayakers who have hit a barrier in their development. In the cases I've worked with so far I've always taken the limiting belief from the specific context and worked it up to a very general and BIGGER limiting belief which when changed has filtered back to the specific context and also to many other contexts. So in this way the chnage work delivers so much more. My question is, is it generally the case that limiting beliefs will always be able to be worked up to the general and powerful limiting belief or will I find people whose limiting beliefs are context specific and if this is the case will the change work be effective at this context specific level?

In one of the cases, when asked to think of a belief that was totally true and unshakebale (e.g. the sun will rise tomorrow) the subject offered the belief that "God will return". I was a bit phased by this and chose to redirect to a neutral belief. Would it have been a problem to go ahead with this, I'm cetain for that person it would have been incredibly powerful.

ANy thoughts and comments welcome.

Oh and thanks again for all of the support and Learnings Michael. My mind is in creative overdrive.

Colin

Hi Colin,

One of the key principles of NLP and Ericksonian Hypnosis is utilization. In other words, use what the client gives you.

I have, in my time, made use of past lives, alien abductions and even one fellow who thought he was the premature reincarnation of Princess Di. Did I believe that any of these things were actually the case? No. Did I make use of them anyway? Absolutely.

The question is, I think, this one.

Is the belief in question linked to a problematic situation or behaviour from the client's perspective in the context of their own lives?

In the three previous cases I'm mentioning here, these were not problematic beliefs for those people. That is to say, they weren't linked with any kind of behaviour that you, and perhaps more importantly, he would think of as being problematic in most situations and these people didn't want to change those beliefs. In cases like that, it is my position that it's ecological to make use of them even if you don't agree with them.

For example, the guy who thought he was Princess Di just that that as a little background believe it didn't really affect the way that he lived his life with the possible exception of the fact that he had an a somewhat unusual fascination with Duran Duran, women's fashion and land mines given that he was a thirtysomething business man. If the guy thought he was Napoleon or Jesus and was no longer able to function in life as a result of this conviction, then it would've been a quite different situation, I think.

Others may have different opinions about this and I'll be interested in seeing what other points of view or experiences might be.

And as for the support and learnings, you're very welcome indeed, my friend.

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Colin,

I think that one important thing to remember is that 90% of beliefs are created in the first 6 or so years of life. Following with the neurological levels, beliefs effect many capabilities, which effect many behaviors, which effects even more contexts.

Unless the person had an imprint experience yesterday, the beliefs are going to effect many different contexts. In fact, they always will.

If you set out to establish a limiting belief , you will limit that individual !

As a Sports' Coach I prefer to have no Limiting Beliefs, but rather set Reachable targets , that will enhance a person's Performance !

Limiting Beliefs are catching and can prove negative in rewriting records , and achieving greatness as demonstrated by when Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile !!

So many hundreds of people did the same thing , once that barrier had been broken.....that I personally believe it sounded the "Death Knell" , of Limiting Beliefs forever !