Some beliefs are a bit shy and don’t come out when we ask them to at first. So we need a way to allow them to emerge. The thought discovery method, is one way to get them to come to the surface.
Ignacio’s invention – Nachos.
Photo by Herson Rodriguez on Unsplash.com
When the maitre d’ of The Victory Club in Mexico, saw a group of American women enter his restaurant in 1943, he had mixed feelings. He was glad to have the business of course. He enjoyed serving these ladies who came in often. But there was a problem. He couldn’t find his chef. Not wanting to turn away paying customers, he went into the kitchen to look for something he could serve.
He didn’t find much.
All he had was cheese, jalapenos and chips. What could he do with such meager ingredients? He decided to put them into an oven to melt the cheese over the chips and jalapenos. As a result, he created a new dish. Since Ignacio was often called nacho for short, the dish was called nachos.
Ignacio’s invention was a bit unexpected.
He certainly didn’t think he’d create a new dish when he woke up that morning in 1943. This is similar to what happens when you go in search of limiting beliefs, you too may find something you don’t expect. Especially, when you use a technique for finding beliefs we call the Thought Discovery Method.
The Thought Discovery Method is a way to use the mind’s tendency to wander to find limiting beliefs. It often helps clients discover limiting beliefs they didn’t know they had.
To use this technique, you do the following:
First define the issue you are working with
Next, you take a moment to notice the feelings and thoughts that show up and write them down.
Finally, you ask “What would someone have to believe to have these thoughts and feelings in this situation?”
Here’s an example.
Annie had a fear of public speaking. When I asked her to imagine speaking in public in the future, she could feel some nervousness. When I asked her to notice some thoughts, she paused for a moment then said “I’ll do a bad job. I’ll forget what I have to say. I’ll be embarrassed.” Each of these thoughts helped us find some limiting beliefs.
I’ll do a bad job led us to “I’m not capable.”
I’ll forget what I have to say led us to” I’m not smart enough.”
I’ll be embarrassed came from “What makes me good enough is impressing others.”
Another client I worked with named Thandie was procrastinating when writing her book, I had her imagine writing the book. Her thoughts were “I’ll screw it up. I’ll start and won’t finish, so why bother.”
I’ll screw it up led to “I’m not competent.”
I’ll start and won’t finish came from “I don’t have what it takes to complete things.”
As is typically the case, many of the thoughts helped us discover limiting beliefs.
But what if you don’t have any thoughts? What do you do then?
Try this experiment. Sit silently for a few moments and think of nothing.
…
Really do that. Think of nothing for maybe ten seconds or so.
..
It’s likely thoughts showed up without you trying to make them show up. Even people who’ve meditated for years say their mind is rarely empty for long. The mind is a thinking machine. What can sometimes happen when a person says they have no thoughts when imagining a problematic situation is that they think the thoughts are not relevant. Here’s a clue: They are all relevant.
One mistake that can get in the way is holding onto an idea of what thoughts you should be finding. Instead, write down every thought that comes to mind.
Summary
- Thought discovery is a way to find limiting beliefs using our thoughts
- It involves imagining a problem, noticing thoughts, then connecting thoughts to beliefs
- If you don’t find thoughts, just let some time pass, thoughts will usually emerge.
Next step
Using thoughts to look for limiting beliefs is just one way we help our clients discover all the obstacles in the way of producing lasting change. We teach a course that teaches you how to eliminate a limiting belief in 30 minutes. You learn our 8-step process with tiny increments. By the end you will feel a sense of mastery. To join the course, you must be on the waiting list first. Click here to join the waiting list.
Thank you for sharing this. Actually Bashar (channeled by Daryl Anka) has been teaching this method for over a decade, but didn’t call it anything. Unfortunately he hasn’t been able to make a revolutionary contribution to eliminating limiting beliefs with a fool-proof, scientific method, like you and Morty have with TLM.
I’ve used this method that I first learned from him, with little results. Then later on I learned from you guys that the same event often leads to us forming several different limiting beliefs, and that the same behavior can have numerous supporting beliefs. Knowing this I didn’t even bother using this method much, because what’s the guarantee that I can find all, or even just half of the underlying beliefs with this method? I can never be sure, even if the behavior is gone, because it might be gone (for reasons unrelated to eliminating beliefs) despite a few supporting beliefs still remaining. But I’m sure you have other, more efficient methods you use to find all underlying beliefs, that you teach in LMT2.
When are you planning to start the next one and how can I join the waiting list?
Before reading your answers to what underlying beliefs you’ve found for these thoughts in the article, I stopped to contemplate on them. Sometimes I came up with the same ones as yours, but other times with different ones that could also be 100% appropriate underlying beliefs for those thoughts/meanings. Which shows that we can’t expect too much from a method like this. For example, these are the beliefs I came up with for:
“I’ll do a bad job. I’ll forget what I have to say. I’ll be embarrassed.”
I’ll do a bad job led me to several equally valid beliefs, “Nothing I do is good enough”, “I’m not competent” and “I’m not capable”, all of which, and more that I didn’t think of, could have caused the thoughts; while it led you specifically with that client to “I’m not capable.” Actually, without knowing the list of the most commonly held limiting self-esteem beliefs, and having had plenty of experience working with limiting beliefs using TLM, chances are slim that I’d have been able to consciously come up with an accurate belief. Not to mention, that this also requires the ability to tell for sure if I have the belief or not. Because just because a belief I come up with sounds logical, it doesn’t mean I actually hold it and should try to eliminate it. It sounding logical is not proof that I hold the belief, but for many people who are not familiar with TLM, it would be proof.
Originally I wanted to go through all examples, but it’s getting longer than I intended and we all have limited time available to read comments and reply to them, and I want to respect this, so just 1 more question:
You wrote, “I’ll be embarrassed came from ‘What makes me good enough is impressing others.'”. I came up with non-survival strategy beliefs as sources, including “I’m not good enough”, that your finding is a survival strategy belief for. While your other 2 findings were not survival strategy beliefs. Was there an indication in the client’s thought that it was going to be a survival strategy belief, or did you just come up with a bunch of possible underling beliefs and asked her if she believed them? In that case, there was no proof those actually contributed to forming the thought, only that she was holding them. What was your actual proof that the beliefs you came up with really caused the specific thought, and not some other belief did it that you thought caused another thought, or even one that you didn’t think of?
I’ll be embarrassed came from “What makes me good enough is impressing others.”
I didn’t mean to add that last line.
you have an unique way in approaching facts
Helpful.
thanks Sam. I’m so glad
so helpful!
Thanks
Dr. Malak Nasr, PhD in Christian counseling
Thanks Malak for taking the time to write. So happy it was helpful. That’s our goal.