• Understanding what “limiting beliefs” are
• Identifying our main limiting beliefs
• Starting to analyze them (aspects, causes and consequences…)
• Improving our active listening skills

Duration: 3 hours

Step 1 : Theoretical introduction (15 minutes)

Start the session with a brief theoretical introduction to the limiting belief.

A limiting belief is a mental image that makes us think that we are not capable of doing some specific things. It is usually linked to our education or/and our past experiences, especially failures.
A belief can be defined as a person acknowledging that something exists or is true, without needing any proof of it. Starting from that definition, we can easily understand how they can sometimes help us achieve things and will sometimes limit us. The limiting beliefs are the ones that prevent people from realizing what they want to do. Those can be social or personal beliefs and while they might not have real basis we feel as if they were real obstacles in our way.
Limiting beliefs are the “don'ts” and the “shoulds” that we define for ourselves to guide our actions.

Examples of limiting beliefs :

• To be successful in life I need to sacrifice myself
• I cannot trust people because I've been betrayed
• I cannot follow my dreams because If I don't succeed I won't be strong enough to be back on my feet

Step 2: Mutual Interview Groups (55 minutes)

Invite the participants to gather by 3 to share about an action that they would like to do but they don't, focusing on Why they do not do it.
Give them first 5 minutes for individual reflection: What is the situation? Why do they not take action?
For 10 minutes each, each person will then exposes his/her situation to the 2 others, whose job will be to seek the limiting beliefs in his/her story. Ask the “listeners” to take notes of the limiting beliefs they recognize in their partners' speech.
After everyone has spoken, invite the “listeners” to tell each “speaker” the limiting beliefs they identified in his/her speech. The speaker will then say which propositions match the most his/her case in his/her opinion.

Step 3: Detailed analysis of one limiting belief (1 hour 30 minutes)

After a break (15 minutes), invite the participants to choose one limiting belief among all those they have pointed out previously that they would like to analyze more deeply.
Precise that they won't have time to all do the exercise: some of them will dig into their case, some others won't, but they will help the others to dig into theirs which is a nice exercise too.

In practice, ask the participants to question their limiting belief through the lens of:

• the science (what the science says about it: sociology, psychology, ethnology, etc.)
• other people's point of views (what people think and say about it?)
• their contradictions (what is contradictory in it?)
• their causes (why it is as it is?)
• their consequences.

One will talk and lead the analysis on his/her case. The 2 others will ease the process by questioning, improving thus their ability to listen actively and ask relevant questions.

When the analysis comes to its end, roles switch, allowing another member of the trio to analyze her/his limiting belief.

• A video projector (if you introduce the limiting belief through a video)