Limiting Belief workshop

Take one belief that runs your life and check whether it is actually true.

15–20 minutes · Once, then revisit when the belief resurfaces · Free

What it is

A limiting belief is a rule about yourself you stopped questioning a long time ago. "I'm bad at this." "People don't stay." "If I slow down it all falls apart." They feel like observations rather than opinions, which is exactly what makes them powerful.

This exercise is a simplified thought record — the core move of cognitive behavioural therapy. You name the belief, rate how true it feels, gather the evidence for and against it as if you were a reasonably fair outsider, and then write a version that fits the evidence better. Finally you re-rate it.

The re-rating matters more than it looks. The goal is almost never to go from 100 to 0. It's to discover the belief was 85 rather than absolute — because a belief with a crack in it stops running quite so much of the show.

How to do it

  1. Write the belief in the plainest words you can. Not "I have some self-esteem stuff" but "I am a burden to my friends."
  2. Rate how true it feels right now, 0 to 100. Feels, not thinks.
  3. List the evidence that supports it. Be fair — do not strawman yourself.
  4. List the evidence against it, including things you would count if a friend said them about themselves.
  5. Write a more accurate belief. Usually a hedged, boring sentence rather than an inspiring one.
  6. Re-rate the original. Note the number, and come back to it in a few weeks.

What you might get from it

  • Puts distance between you and a thought, so it becomes something you have rather than something you are
  • Produces a written record you can bring to a therapy session
  • The re-rating gives you a number to track over months rather than a vague sense of progress

What the research says

Evidence: Strong. Cognitive restructuring is one of the most studied components of psychotherapy. This exercise follows the structure of a thought record as used in Beck's cognitive therapy and Ellis's REBT — the technique underneath most CBT for depression and anxiety.

  • Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders.
  • Ellis, A. (1962). Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy.

Where that runs out

This is a single exercise, not a course of therapy. A real thought record also captures the situation, the emotion and what you did next, and a therapist would work through it with you rather than leaving you alone with it. Treat it as a supplement to therapy or as a way to think more clearly — not as treatment.