Change your Thoughts and Beliefs and Change Your Trajectory

Could LIMITING thoughts and beliefs be determining your life path?

Ask yourself this question: Am I am CAUSING the EFFECTS in my life?

We’ve all heard the incredible stories of those that have been able to change their thoughts and beliefs, and ultimately change their lives. Star Rose Bond has one of those stories of shifting from SURVIVING but THRIVING against the odds and doing just that. A child of chronic instability, including alcoholism, poverty, and sexual abuse, she wound up incarcerated and on the streets.

Those experiences led to her FOCUS on what was actually holding her back. The answer? Her own limiting thoughts and beliefs.

Today, she is a licensed psychotherapist, speaker, and personal coach with a graduate degree from Columbia. As a trauma expert, she shows others how to turn their lives around by changing their thought patterns and the core beliefs that hold them back.

Here are 4 tips to help you change your own trajectory for the better:

1. START WITH YOU

When Star was struggling to RELAUNCH her life, she knew that the only thing she had control of was the relationship between her and herself. This realization happened when she was still young. As she matured it allowed her to take accountability for her actions – and her future.

In order to change courses in your own life, start with the relationship between YOU and YOURSELF. Be willing to own up to your role in your life choices. Only then you can create and cultivate change.

2. STOP BLAMING EVERYTHING (AND EVERYONE) ELSE

It’s time to stop relying on everything – and everyone – else outside of yourself to define you. In the end, YOU are responsible for your own actions – and reactions.

When you STOP blaming where you are in life on outside influences, a shift happens. Over time, what’s happening on your INSIDE gets reflected in what’s happening on the OUTSIDE. And that’s when transformation really begins.

3. RECOGNIZE YOUR PLACE

Before we go on, it’s important to note that while our life story does sometimes lead to resilience and empowerment, not everyone has the resources to get there. This means that in some cases, outside influences can impact your journey.

Star was a poor person with an uphill climb but she had one privilege some others don’t – she’s white.

While earning her graduate degree at Columbia, she was a single mom living on food stamps. One day, she was in a classroom discussing social services and their impact on lower income participants – her very own circumstance! Sitting next to her classmates, many groomed for the Ivy League, she listened as they tried to discuss a topic they had no first-hand experience with. Their responses shaped her own journey and helped her deal with some of the SELF-LIMITING BELIEFS she was holding onto.

Today, Star has been studying race, gender, and class for the last 15 years and she recognizes her place in our society. Her advice is to know your place, so that you can help others and be a part of a solution and advancement for all.

Be humble and LISTEN to the voices that don’t look like you or come from where you come from. Open both your heart and your mind to their stories. We all still have so much to learn. It’s a continuous conversation, but holding that space will guide you on our own journey while honoring others.

4. DON’T LET YOUR THOUGHTS BECOME YOUR REALITY

Think about this statement: Your REALITY tomorrow is what you’re thinking TODAY.

Negative thoughts can become your reality if you let them. But you have the ability to change your thoughts! Be willing to interrupt the ones that no longer serve you. That’s resilience and empowerment.

COMMIT to constant conversation with yourself. In this way you can bring awareness into your everyday experience so that when you think a negative thought or a repetitive self-criticism, you can intercept it and pivot in a more positive direction.

5. EXPLORE YOUR BELIEFS

We all have a handful of core beliefs, some of which are negative. Do any of these find their way into your thought pattern?

• I’m not enough
• I’m not worthy
• No one is going to love me

These are just a few of the destructive beliefs we can hold inside. However, once you recognize them you can implement exercises and practices that intercept those bad beliefs and actually change the course of your neurobiology.

That’s because your neurobiology is LINKED to your beliefs and thoughts. When you work to cultivate a NEW biological landscape, you can literally alter your brain.

By taking the right steps today, you can change your thought patterns and core beliefs that are holding you back and alter your trajectory for the better.