Sep 25, 2020
Say Bye to limiting thoughts
Wait, what limiting thoughts? How to let them go?
This is part of the Letting Go series — part 2
Noticing my limiting thoughts
“You are not smart enough.”
“C’mon, you can’t be serous about this…”
“What are you thinking?”
“That is going to kill you!”
“This will never work.”
“Don’t you dare!”
“No, don’t do it, you are crazy 😩 ”
I got those voices in my head, sometimes whisper meekly, and other times hurling at me loud and clear. Once in a while, I label these “the naysayers”.
Letting go my limiting thoughts
I learned a ton from the Feminist Survival Project 2020 episode on the topic of the Madwoman.
My Madwoman is pretty powerful in me. I imagine my Madwoman to be very pale and has huge flaming red hair. She is a walking encyclopedia of my past failure, my anxiety and my shame.
I used to be unaware of my Madwoman, I thought she is 100% ME and I can’t change ME (you can hear this limiting thought was loud in me for quite a while).
Perhaps this was how I name my shame, labeling those limiting thoughts as my Madwoman?
Thanks to the Nagoski sisters, I now also learned how to care for My Madwoman with compassion.
I now ask my Madwoman,
“What are you really afraid of?”
“Thank you, I hear you, you are tired.”
“Darn, that sounds bad, please rest, I will handle this…”
I find those deep emotions in me and then I distant myself from my limiting thoughts. This distance helps me
- to study them
- to mitigate the risks,
- to reduce the weariness and rest
- to watch my anxiety and let it pass/mitigate
- to find where they come from and let them go
One step at a time, one thing at a time.
