How to Uncover Your False Truths

Have you ever heard yourself say that you cannot or won’t do something, as if it’s a rule that you’re required to live by? Does this rule limit your growth or happiness? If so, you may be playing into your “false truths”: your self-limiting beliefs that you assume to be true only because you’ve held them dear for so long and haven’t questioned them yet. Here’s how to uncover your false truths.

Listen to and observe yourself.

One method to uncovering your false truths is to listen very carefully to how you communicate with yourself and others. What statements do you hear yourself say that are based on past perceptions rather than current evidence? Do they form a behaviour pattern for you? What effect does this pattern have on your life? Does it limit your choices to a very small subset of life’s possibilities?

Question your statements and your beliefs.

Don’t believe everything you think. For example, if you say that you have to take care of something for someone else, is that a self-imposed obligation? Is it based on a belief that something bad will happen if you don’t do it? Is your self-worth conditional on doing the task? If this was a rule that you’ve lived by in your past, does it still make sense for you today? If you cannot defend your belief when you question it, it’s a false truth.

Changing your thinking changes your behaviour.

You have the capacity to change your thinking by making different choices. Your choices lead you to your actions. Responding to your past beliefs with a “where did that come from?” can be the first step to opening up to possibilities rather than living within self-imposed limits. Uncovering your false truths allows for new ways of thinking, and in turn, new ways of being. Would you rather be stuck within the limits of your old beliefs or open yourself up to new possibilities?

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