A 5-Step Exercise to Let Go of Limiting Beliefs
Recently, Gwyneth did a session with energy healer Lisa Cooney with cathartic results: “I was gagging, heaving, my whole body was shaking, I was soaking through my clothes,” GP wrote about the experience in a subscriber-only goop newsletter. “Releasing, releasing, releasing.”
No matter what personal pain point you come to Cooney for—relationships, malaise, anxiety—she’ll ultimately guide you to an early-childhood experience where you felt that trauma for the first time. She’ll connect the dots between past and present. And she’ll help you energetically untangle the link between what you believed about yourself then and who you are now.
Lisa Cooney’s Exercise for Shifting Limiting Beliefs
The idea behind this practice is to get under the hood of your negative thoughts. You identify a belief rooted in your prior trauma, investigate how it got locked in the body, recognize how that belief is untrue, and practice releasing yourself from your own baggage. It’s simple, but it’s powerful when you do it consistently.
Run through the following questions one at a time when you feel emotionally triggered. You could write your responses down in a journal if you’d like, or just answer them in your head.
1.
What is happening right now?
2.
Where do you feel it in your body? Place your hands there and breathe.
3.
When have you felt something similar before?
4.
What did you decide about yourself when you first felt this way?
5.
What will you do to change your reaction to this feeling?
Take your hands to heart center and the lower abdomen. Emphasize to yourself that the past is in the past and acknowledge how you have changed. Celebrate that you have honored your body by embracing what you felt. Open your eyes and state that you are free.
Lisa Cooney, LMFT, is a therapist, author, and energy worker based in Dallas, Texas. She offers digital courses in the ROAR Method, which she developed to shift negative beliefs created by trauma, as well as one-on-one Access Bars and ThetaHealing sessions.