3 Methods to Overcome Limiting Beliefs Forever

Beliefs help us make sense of reality.

They begin forming as soon as we’re born.

Through life experiences, events, emotions, and language they become deeply rooted. 

Like a pair of sunglasses covering our eyes, beliefs filter how we perceive the world, people, life experiences, and ourselves.

If the sunglasses are tinted “not good enough”, then we will interpret what we see and feel as evidence that we are “not good enough” – because all incoming sense data is molded in real-time to conform with our beliefs.

In most cases, we don’t even realize we’re wearing them.

We walk through life feeling and acting on beliefs that have been programmed into us since childhood. And although beliefs themselves are neither good nor bad, limiting beliefs may cause us pain, hold us back from achieving the things we really want, disrupt our peace of mind, lead to issues in relationships, and cause persistent toxic emotional patterns that thwart our success and fulfillment.

The good news is there are multiple methods created in the last 30 years that will clear limiting beliefs forever.

And, there are several clearing limiting beliefs techniques to choose from.

We’re going to provide a rundown of each method, including who created them, how they work, and how you can get started learning each today.

The Lefkoe Method

…it’s not our pain that causes our suffering – it’s the meaning we give our pain that causes our suffering… Dissolve your meaning, stop your suffering.”

– Morty Lefkoe’s  2013 TEDx Talk


This is the foundation that The Lefkoe Method is based upon – first unlearning what you’ve learned in the past that keeps you stuck, then dissolving the false meaning you’ve given to events in your life. 

Who is Morty Lefkoe?

morty lefkoe the lefkoe method

Morty faced self-esteem issues for most of his life. He’d overcompensate for them, but his feelings about himself didn’t change. Two failed marriages. Several failed career paths. Morty got to the point where he knew something needed to change. He tried therapy and read self-help books, but nothing seemed to change – until he realized that the negative beliefs he held about himself were holding him back,  and at age 45, he created TLM.

 

Morty Lefkoe was the founder and president of The Lefkoe Institute up until his death in 2015. He first discovered The Lefkoe Belief Process (LPB) in 1986, and later wrote a book on it titled “Re-Create Your Life: Transforming Your Life and World with The Lefkoe Method”. 

 

Over the course of his life, he appeared on over 100 radio and TV shows, wrote over 100 articles for outlets such as The New York Times, and spoke to institutions such as The American Psychotherapy Institution, American College of Counselors, and many more. 

 

The Lefkoe Institute has helped hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world overcome limiting beliefs, and is also used by therapists to help their clients. The institute offers sessions, courses, and training to this day, and is headed by Morty’s late wife, Shelly. 

 

Creation of The Lefkoe Method

The Lefkoe Method came about as an accident. Morty sat on an airplane one day with five hours of nothing to do, mulling over his life. He was a business consultant at the time, and he was struggling to figure out why after so many tries he couldn’t get new clients. 

 

By chance of thought, he identified a behavioral pattern. 

 

He followed that pattern with a question: if beliefs were the cause of that behavior, then what was the belief?

 

He came across the belief, recognized and praised by others, “I’m someone who overcomes obstacles.”

 

Then, he landed on the big realization: he needed obstacles to prove that he was unstoppable. Even if he had to create the obstacles himself.

 

He then wrote it all down and asked himself more questions, such as where he had gotten the belief, and why. He felt a profound shift.

 

Later that day, he booked a new client.

 

Through the notes he took on that plane ride, he created the first version of The Lefkoe Method (TLM).

 

How The Lefkoe Method Works

Step 1: Identify a behavioral pattern

The first step in how to overcome limiting beliefs applies to both behaviors and feelings. The process begins with the description of the behavior/feeling. 

 

“Feeling patterns could include fear, hostility, shyness, anxiety, depression, or worrying about what people think of you. Behavioral patterns could include phobias, relationships that never seem to work, violence, procrastination, unwillingness to confront people, an inability to express our feelings, sexual dysfunction, or anti-social behavior.” Source.

Step 2: Discern the belief

Next, the participant is asked what they think is a logical belief-source for their behavior/feeling. This is a non-judgemental exercise to allow the underlying beliefs to come to the surface. The Lefkoe Method invites participants to speak the words of the belief out loud, noticing how it feels. Does it “ring true”? Does it feel uncomfortable to say? These are strong indicators that a belief is present.

Step 3: Discover the source

After identifying what limiting beliefs should be cleared, the TLM facilitator guides the participant to discover the source of the belief.

 

“Then, the client is asked to look for the earliest circumstances or events that led him to form the belief. Fundamental beliefs about life and about oneself—for example, self-esteem-type beliefs—usually are formed before the age of six. For the most part, they are based on interactions with our parents and other primary caretakers, if any. Beliefs in other areas of life, such as work and society, are formed at the time those areas of life are encountered.” Source.

Step 4: Validation

Realize that the belief was a reasonable response to the earlier experience. Most children would have interpreted the experience to mean the same. The idea is to not judge the client for forming the belief, but instead, realize that it was a natural response to the situation/life events.

 

Step 5: Finding other interpretations

The experience didn’t have to lead to one specific belief. There are multiple ways to interpret any given situation. This exercise is used to give perspective on the event and show that there are multiple, logical conclusions to the event along with the belief they hold. 

 

For example, if the belief “I’m not enough” was formed by an overly-critical mother, there are multiple ways to look at it that are all logical and valid:

  • “My mother thought I wasn’t good enough, but she was wrong.
  • I wasn’t good enough as a child, but I might be when I grow up.
  • I wasn’t good enough by my mother’s standards, but I might be by the standards of others.
  • My mother is a very critical person and would act that way with everyone, whether they were good enough or not.
  • My mother’s behavior with me had nothing to do with whether I was good enough or not; it was a function of my mother’s beliefs from her childhood.
  • My mother’s behavior with me had nothing to do with whether I was good enough or not; it was a function of my mother’s parenting style.” Source. 

Step 6: Ask the question: did you see it in the world?

As we form beliefs by seeing events unfold in the world, the answer is yes. 

“It seemed to the client that every time his mother criticized him or failed to praise something he was proud of, he could “see” that he wasn’t good enough.  He was so certain that his belief was out in the world to be seen that he said to me, ‘If you were there in my house, you would have seen it too.’”

 

Morty’s core philosophical claim is that events have no inherent meaning. All meaning is created in our minds. The meaning we create and assign to events is what creates false, limiting beliefs that warp our perception of reality. 

 

The point is to realize that the participant never saw the belief, they only saw behaviors/events and interpreted them as “proof”. This is a critical step in how to overcome limiting beliefs. In the above example, there are numerous other interpretations to explain the participant’s mother’s behavior. Therefore he never “saw” that he wasn’t good enough. He saw his mother behaving, created meaning to explain her behavior, and locked in the interpretation “I’m not good enough” as a self-limiting belief.

“After the client realized that he never really did see his belief in the world, I asked: “If you didn’t see ‘I’m not good enough in the world, where has it been all these years?”  He pointed to his head and replied: ‘In my mind.’” Source. 

 

(Optional) Step 6: Question: did the events that led to the belief make you feel the belief was true?

The Lefkoe Institute makes the distinction between visual people (those who know reality by seeing it) and kinesthetic people (those who know reality by feeling it). For those who hold beliefs through feeling them, this step is added.

 

Participants are led to realize that the emotions were only caused by the meaning they gave the events. They then revisit the old events and experience them with a new meaning, creating new positive or neutral emotions in the old memories. This allows the participant to let go of the belief at an emotional level.

 

Step 7: Overcome limiting beliefs!

“When we recognize that something we have held as a belief (the truth) is, in fact, only one of several alternative meanings of what actually occurred (a truth), when we realize that we never saw the belief in the world, and when we realize the events had no meaning until we gave them one, the belief literally disappears.” Source. 

 

Step 8: Creator vs. creation

This step is all about realizing that the participant is the creator of their life and beliefs.

 

“The client discovers that he ultimately is not the sum total of his beliefs—along with the behavior and feelings that accompany those beliefs—he is the creator of those beliefs.  He is not merely a “creation,” he also is the “creator” of the creation.” Source.

Want to Learn the Lefkoe Method Yourself?

 

Shelly Lefkoe (Morty’s Wife) offers 1:1 facilitation sessions, online courses, group trainings, coaching and more on the Lefkoe Institute website. We encourage you to check them out!

The Clear Beliefs Method

“Our beliefs are formed by our experiences, and our beliefs then shape our experiences. Because our experience is multidimensional, our beliefs must be multidimensional. To change a negative or limiting belief completely and permanently requires a multidimensional approach.”  Source. 

 

To summarize the technique: The Clear Beliefs Method consists of 15 different techniques and tools that are customized to the client’s unique needs and personality. Rather than treating everyone with the same tool, Clear Beliefs Coaches are able to address deep-set patterns, including beliefs, habits, reactions, traumas, and unproductive thoughts. The multidimensional approach enables rapid and complete healing and clearing at the root of the psyche.  

The Clear Beliefs Method is a product of Lion Goodman’s 40+ years of researching inner healing and personal development methods and synthesizing and refining the processes that worked to produce rapid change. It is available to individuals through their personal coaching program, and to coaches, healers, and therapists as a training in these methodologies.  

  

Who is Lion Goodman, PCC?

lion goodman clear beliefs method

After graduating with one of the first degrees granted in Consciousness Studies in 1975, and failing at his first entrepreneurial venture (a mail-order catalog of consciousness tools), Lion became a traveling salesman as a way to make money while exploring the U.S. At 26 years old, he had a terrifying near-death experience that changed his life forever. During the 8-hour ordeal,  he had a profound out-of-body experience and an awakening of his conscious awareness.  He used forgiveness, kindness, and communication to negotiate a mutual release from the violent situation, and his attempted killer was similarly profoundly transformed by the experience. 

 

This event kick-started Lion’s journey into understanding the human predicament.  He spent the next 40 years studying various healing modalities, psychology, spirituality, philosophy, linguistics, and the sciences, using his multidimensional perspective to create the Clear Beliefs Method. He has trained more than 500 practitioners in 45 countries around the world, and he serves as CEO of the Clear Beliefs Institute. 

 

Lion has taught workshops around the world, written five books and hundreds of articles, and has been involved with the men’s movement for over 30 years. to learn more, visit LionGoodman.com.

Creation of the Clear Beliefs Method

Following Lion’s near-death experience, he studied more than 20 different techniques for clearing limiting beliefs. He analyzed the elements from the processes that worked best, and identified seven elements in common: 

 

  1. Most techniques begin at the conscious level of the mind. This is an important first step, but beliefs need to be cleared at the subconscious level. Techniques which utilize mental analysis and logic do not touch the subconscious mind, which is where our earliest beliefs are stored.

  2. Our “core memories” are difficult to access at the conscious level. Our earliest memories (and conclusions) were formed before we had language. They are buried deeply and do not respond to words or language. (This is the problem with talk therapy.)

     

  3. Methods that require muscle testing can be unreliable and do not work for many people.

     

  4. Tapping methods are useful to shift the energetic signature of a belief, but the effects are usually partial or temporary.

     

  5. Belief-clearing methods that tell you what to believe,  or make you dependent on the practitioner, are not empowering. Nor are they ethical.

     

  6. Laying new beliefs on top of old ones serves only to energize the old negative or limiting beliefs, which jump up and re-assert themselves.

     

  7. If the results of a process are temporary or partial, the belief will return to the individual’s experience. This means that the technique did not clear the belief from ALL dimensions of the Self.  

 

Taking all of his observations into account, he combined the aspects that worked from all the successful methods and created new ones to fill in the missing ingredients. He then tested  them extensively on himself and his clients.  After years of research and development, he synthesized his own methodology, which he now teaches worldwide: The Clear Beliefs Method.

How the Clear Beliefs Method Works

Step 1: Recognize that whatever’s happening that you don’t like, there is a core  emotional experience at the source of the problem or behavior.

 

The cause of our behavior lies in the subconscious mind, deep beneath the surface.  This is where the structure of the personality was built, and where you can find almost all causes of behavior.” Source

The belief that was created was a way of making meaning of the pain or discomfort, and an adaptive strategy was created to prevent it from happening again. Once the underlying belief has been determined, recognize that the belief was created for a good reason at the time, but is untrue, and was never true.

Step 2: Get to know the belief intimately 

Through this step, the client brings to mind the way it feels to carry this belief – the experience, feelings, and memories at the core. The client connects with all of the sensations, feelings, and images that are associated with the belief. This is where the Clear Beliefs Method invites the subconscious mind out to play.

Step 3: Follow the belief down to its root

This step is to follow the belief down to its creation and source – that is,  its subconscious roots.

 

[The belief-creation] process begins in our earliest years. Newborn infants try to figure out how to survive in their new environment.  Our parents want to help us, so they give us their beliefs – the ones that worked for them. They tell us who we are, what we are, and how we should behave. We want to survive, and align with them, so we take on their beliefs willingly.”

 

 Beliefs can be inherited from family, cultural, and ancestral patterns, indoctrinated into us by (often) well-meaning authorities, or are conclusions based on experiences and unresolved events.

Step 4: Disassociate from the belief 

The participant understands their role in creating or taking on the belief, now entering their superconscious mind. This gives them the power to uncreate the belief and to “dissociate” from it.

 

“To delete a belief permanently, the methodology needs to impact not only the conscious mind, but also the subconscious mind and the superconscious mind (Higher Self).  It should reach into unconscious patterns, and also into the distant past, to release inherited family, cultural, and societal karma (unresolved experiences).” Source.

Step 5: Make the decision to let the belief go

The client makes a conscious decision as to whether they are ready to let the belief go. Reinforcing conscious choice prevents indoctrination by the practitioner.  The client examines their belief and decides whether the belief is beneficial or harmful, and whether they want to release the belief or not. 

Step 6: Involve all parts of the self

The conscious, subconscious, and superconscious mind all work together to destroy the belief, utilizing all aspects of consciousness. 

 

“It is designed to work with all three levels of the mind – the subconscious, conscious, and super-conscious. We use embodied mindfulness,  guided visualization, and other processes which are inherently multidimensional and multisensory – just like consciousness itself.” Source. 

Step 7: Replace the belief

Now that the old belief is gone, there is empty space for a new one. The participant chooses the new, positive and empowering belief they want to plant in the open space. 

 

“The positive belief aligns the client with their highest intentions and their virtuous nature. This affirming belief or declaration is now able to create its intended reality without resistance.” Source.

Belief Self-Diagnosis

Lion offers  a method to examine your beliefs through the Belief Self-Diagnosis Exercise, which he offers in  his free eBook, “Clear Your Beliefs.” ”This technique can be used to discover your negative and limiting beliefs without outside guidance.. 

Step 1: Write down your limiting beliefs

You begin by asking yourself the question, “What do I believe about ______?” on various topics such as “myself, relationships, money, health, and others.  Answer and write down as many as possible without judgment. 

Step 2: Answer questions about the beliefs 

You then review your answers and look for the ones that carry the strongest reaction. You then ask yourself a series of questions, including, “Is this belief detrimental or beneficial?” “Did someone else indoctrinate me? If so, who?” and “Why did I choose to take on the belief? What does it give me?”

You continue the process until you choose the “Big 3” beliefs you want to transform with the Clear Beliefs Method.  You then choose a new belief that you would prefer to have after the negative belief has been cleared.  

It is strongly recommended that you bring your answers to a coach for a clearing session. This is an excellent first step to become aware of your internal belief structure, and identify the most important ones to clear. 

Want to Learn the Clear Beliefs Method Yourself?

Lion Goodman and his wonderful team offer immersive group training programs for coaches to help their clients clear beliefs. We highly encourage you to check them out!

The Sovereign Mind Method

Our beliefs are created and rooted through our senses.. Beliefs created through trauma and adversity often don’t make logical sense to us today – they make emotional sense. When you clear all logical, visual, and emotional sensory roots a belief has into your mind and body, it stops making sense – and quite literally becomes nonsense.”

The Sovereign Mind Method is a synthesis of modalities, tools, and philosophies that allow anyone to rapidly and permanently transcend their own limiting beliefs without always requiring a trained facilitator.

It’s distinct from other methods is that it’s a simple, learnable, self-directed skill.

In our philosophy, beliefs are a multi-sensory construct created in order to make sense of what we were feeling and seeing during new life experiences. Beliefs are made permanent via interlocking emotions / sensations rooting them into the body, and memories / images / thoughts rooting them into the mind.

Who is Nick Rundlett?

 

nick rundlett sovereign mind method

 

Raised in a home with a turbulent father, Nick grew up with several core limiting beliefs, including:

  • I’m not good enough
  • I don’t deserve love
  • I need to be successful

 

These beliefs pushed him to achieve great success in sales, become a mentor to high-potential youths, and create a 6-figure business by the age of 25. It all looked great on the surface, but his external veneer of success covered up a stressed-out workaholic with imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and perpetual anxiety.

Maintaining the high pressure he put himself under for years completely burnt him out.

He decided things had to change, so he spent $50,000 and a year of his life pursuing various coaching programs, plant medicine retreats, books, seminars, and therapies to overcome and integrate his shadow. 

Today, Nick truly loves helping good people solve problems.

It’s what makes him come alive and gives his life purpose.

He deeply values safe, loving connection with authentic people seeking to make the world a better place.

Creation of The Sovereign Mind Method

When the MindFix Group helped Nick clear “I’m not enough” in a single conversation, he became ravenously curious and obsessed with learning how to clear beliefs without depending on a facilitator.

This led to his discovery of what he calls “Somatic Defusion”, a simple breakthrough process by which the mind literally clears and releases all negative emotions tied to the old toxic belief forever. This was the final key required to turn overcoming beliefs into a teachable, self-directed skill.

After facilitating hundreds of sessions and refining his model, Nick launched Sovereign Mind on a mission to help 1,000,000 people free themselves from the sense of “I am not enough”.

 

How The Sovereign Mind Method Works

The Sovereign Mind is an iterative process that combines meaning making, somatic experiencing, visualization, and various modalities to help you transcend false beliefs.

Step 1: Discover Discover Your Belief System (BS)

You can’t change what you don’t know.

Therefore the first step towards progress is discovering what your self-limiting beliefs are.

Surface level problems like “I can’t convince my boss to give me a raise” always stem from deeper and more foundational beliefs like “I’m not good enough” and “I can’t trust myself”.

When you clear the toxic root beliefs, you simultaneously clear all beliefs that grew from the toxic roots over time.

 

Beliefs are virtually always clustered together in Belief Systems.

It’s possible to clear “I don’t deserve love” yet still struggle with a sense of “Nobody loves me”. To achieve the most extraordinary transformation, you must fully map out the entire Belief System in whatever area you’re seeking transformation.

We offer a wide variety of tools, from Sentence Completions to Emotional Inquiry to Somatic Testing to help people discover the full picture of self-limiting beliefs causing their suffering.

Step 2: Clear Your Belief System (BS)

Now that you understand what your Belief System is, the next step is to clear each belief one by one by clearing the sensory TIES they have into your mind and body.

  • Thoughts – If you don’t think it’s true, you won’t believe it logically.
  • Images – If you never saw it was true, you won’t believe it visually.
  • Emotions – If you can’t feel it, you won’t believe it emotionally.
  • Sensations – Therefore, it makes no sense.

Once you know, see and feel that those beliefs were really just stories and interpretations you projected onto your true life experience (sense data), they immediately and permanently lose power over you.

We clear the Belief System belief by belief, sense by sense.

We clear Logical Sense, Visual Sense, and Emotional Sense with the simple processes below.

Clearing Logical Sense (Thoughts)

“Are you open to the possibility that ‘I’m not enough’ isn’t true, at least logically?”

 

If the answer is “yes” then we just proceed to the Visual/Emotional Sense processing as it’s unnecessary to process a non-existent sensory attachment.

 

If the answer is “no”, then we get clear on what memories, patterns, and traumatic events caused the belief in the first place. We seek to understand the earliest formative experiences.

 

We then create new compassionate possibilities to explain the events that unfolded, offering the conscious mind new explanations that make more sense than the old story/projection.

 

For Example:

 

Could it be possible that rather than “I’m not enough” – father’s behavior was an attempt to hold you to high standards so that you would grow up to be a successful adult?

 

Could it be possible that rather than “Men aren’t trustworthy” – that the man who assaulted you was a criminal deeply detached from any sense of ethics, respect, and boundaries – and that that one man is not a representative sample of all men who may possess genuine ethics, respect you, and respect your boundaries?

 

Could it be possible that rather than “I am unlovable” – that mother was periodically neglectful towards you due to her own unprocessed childhood trauma which she didn’t heal prior to having you? That she loved you to the best of her ability, but was emotionally unavailable due to her internal struggles which were never your fault?

These compassionate explanations make more logical sense than the old belief.

Once it’s extremely obvious that the old belief is not the only story, we ask the question:

 

Is “I’m not enough” the only story for your life – or is it just one of many?

 

So long as their logical mind recognizes the toxic belief is not the only possibility, we’re clear to proceed to clear the Visual Sense.

 

Clearing Visual Sense (Images)

 

Belief is vastly deepened when you see proof. That’s why they say “seeing is believing”.

 

If you’ve never seen it, you won’t believe it. 

 

Good News: You can’t see meaning dangling around in 3D space.

 

You can see events unfolding, people behaving, and things happening. That’s raw sense data. Everything beyond raw sense data is an interpretation and projection onto the raw sense data.

We ask the question: “Did you ever see this belief at any point in your life?”
It’s not possible to see a belief.
We can only see sense data.

The participant scans through all memories attached to this belief, and fails to find it existing anywhere in their past. Just like a child stops believing in Santa Claus when they realize they never saw proof of his existence, we stop believing “I’m not good enough” ever existed tangibly in our reality.

We credit the Lefkoe Method for this brilliant approach.
The implication of this discovery is tremenous:

We create our beliefs through our visual sense. We perceive sense data, create meaning to explain it, and that meaning becomes our reality. When we create new meaning, we create a new reality.

Once you’re crystal clear they you actually saw it, you’re free to proceed to the next step.

Clearing Emotional Sense (Emotions + Sensations)

 

Human beings feel emotions and physical sensations in their bodies during difficult or novel experiences.

 

We label these body sensations with self-created meaning such as “not good enough”.

 

The label is then permanently fused with the feeling until that association is cleared.

 

When someone says they “feel not good enough” – what’s actually happening is that they feel sensations in their body: like shame, sadness, and anxiety in their heart and stomach.

 

For them, those physiological sensations mean “I’m not good enough”.

 

To fully clear the belief, we sever each emotional and physiological root the belief has in the body – sensation by sensation – until all sensory roots are fully severed. There are typically 1-3 emotional roots per belief, such as sadness, tension, or fear in various regions of the body.

What feelings or sensations are tied to “I’m not good enough”?

The participant tunes into their body, and lists their feelings:

  • Tension in my throat
  • Anxiety in my stomach
  • Sadness in my heart

 We invite them to tune into one sensation at a time, and simply ask:

“Does tension in your throat mean ‘I’m not good enough?”

The true answer is “no” 100% of the time.

As each emotion is cleared, participants immediately feel lighter because the emotional energy is no longer bound and restricted to that location. It simply exits the body, and they never feel “unworthy” or “like a failure” ever again because they realize they never felt that way even once in their entire life – it was a self-created illusion which they’ve defeated.

 

We offer multiple tools and techniques to sever deeper emotional roots.

No root is too deep to withstand the truth.

Step 3: (Optional) Is any Part of you NOT ready to let go of the belief?

Sometimes, the participant is seemingly unable to sever the visual/emotional root of a belief.

Nearly 100% of the time, this indicates that a Part of them is unwilling to let go.

“Parts” are sub-personalities that live within us which we can communicate directly and build relationships with. They’re responsible for meeting certain needs, adapting to environmental stressors, and in a healthy sense they possess different gifts and abilities when fully integrated into our “Higher Self”.

Parts will often resist letting go of beliefs that meet core needs for Safety, Identity, Love, Belonging, and Freedom.

In such instances, we must lovingly and compassionately engage in a dialogue with the part to bring them on-board to letting go of the belief before the Somatic Defusion can fully take effect and clear the belief permanently.

You can inquire proactively any time you face resistance during your Sovereign Mind process:

“Is there any part of me not fully ready to let this go?”

If a part of you answers “Yes, I don’t want to let it go” – walk through the  steps in our article:

“Parts Work: How to let go of self-limiting beliefs”

Proceed to the next belief

Keep going and repeating the process with each belief in your Belief System that’s holding you back! The process moves belief by belief, sense by sense. With each belief cleared, you’ll experience more freedom, returning to who you authentically are without limitation.

Ready to overcome limiting beliefs?

You truly don’t have to live 20 more years feeling “not enough” or “not worthy”.

You have what it takes to learn how to overcome your love, money, success, and fulfillment blocks rapidly and permanently.

It’s simple – even fun – with the Sovereign Mind Method.

We invite you to take initiative in your personal growth today.