Beyond IBD: transcending chronic illness

Cloudscape by Rebecca

I did not ask, “Do you have self-limiting beliefs?” We all have self-limiting beliefs - unless you have attained “enduring, transcendental happiness” through enlightenment, in which case you probably don’t need to read this post.

For the rest of us… this three part series from Andrew Leigh at The Creative Instinct challenges us to: acknowledge that we have self-limiting beliefs; recognise how these beliefs shape our destiny; and work at identifying these beliefs. Whilst reading these articles I had a ‘light bulb’ moment (actually, it was more like a ‘fluorescent tube’ moment - the idea flickerd once weakly… it flickered again… and just when I was about to give up on it all together it buzzed to life).

I saw clearly how the numerous beliefs we hold about every aspect of our lives, including our health and inflammatory bowel disease, could easily limit our potential for success and happiness.

Why are self-limiting beliefs dangerous?

Andrew observes that whilst some self-limiting beliefs are obviously negative, others are more subtle:

Self-limiting beliefs can permit ‘success’ but will put unconscious boundaries on that success which we will find very difficult to cross.

An obvious negative self belief may be: As a sufferer of Crohn’s Disease I can never have a successful career.
A more subtle, but nonetheless damaging self belief may be: I have a good job, but because of my Crohn’s I won’t be able to progress up the corporate ladder.

The real killer, and the quote which got me thinking, is:

… we don’t experience our personal self beliefs as perceptions (which might or might not be accurate) – we experience them as granite hard truths. And so – being the truth, we accept them and live our lives within the limitations set by them…

… [but] they are not the truth of who you are – they are simply an unhelpful version of the truth that can be changed if you decide to.

There is no spoon

As I said, reading this wasn’t quite a light bulb moment. But the idea took root and I began to make a few connections.

In Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking? by Brian Clark:

…changing your perspective and seeing things differently than you currently do. People like to call this “thinking outside of the box,” which is the wrong way to look at it. Just like Neo needed to understand that “there is no spoon” in the film The Matrix, you need to realize “there is no box” to step outside of. You create your own imaginary boxes simply by … accepting certain things as “real” when they are just as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid delusional.

Seth Godin is a highly influential and creative thinker and writer on marketing, change and work. From his blog and his book small is the new big:

On thinking big… and the difference between a meeting of high-powered executives and room local CPAs -

They [the execs] were starting with the same raw materials as the group in the second room [the CPAs]. The difference, I think, was that a long time ago, the people in the second room had made a decision about what they deserved, or what they were capable of, or what they were going to stick with. And it was a bad decision.

On Lies to protect the status quo (from the small is the new big printed version):

It fascinates me that we’re so gullible, that people will embrace patently false ideas if it helps them deal with their fear of change.

On the power (and the fear) of self determination and on success and work:

None of the people who are racking up amazing success stories and creating cool stuff are doing it just by working more hours than you are. And I hate to say it, but they’re not smarter than you either. They’re succeeding by doing hard work.

Hard work is about risk. It begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Hard work is about training yourself to leap over this barrier, tunnel under that barrier, drive through the other barrier.

What if?

What if the only difference between us and all the people we admire — all the people we think are ‘better’ than us in some way or another — is that they believe and they try, and we don’t?

If our perception, our self belief, shapes our reality, then what if we changed our perspective? Could we change our reality?

Of course, in life, there are always challenges and genuine limitations. And having a chronic illness is certainly one of them. But how many times have you heard a story about a person who has overcome great hardship or disability to achieve something remarkable? Have you assumed and accepted that you cannot do certain things because you have IBD, without really questioning the basis of those assumptions?

Do you believe that:

• if you have IBD you can’t be an athelete?
• if you have a chronic illness you can’t hold down a job?
• if you have Crohn’s you cannot travel extensively because you might get sick?

You may think some of these sound quite reasonable, even sensible, but rarely is truth so absolute. When we realize “there is no box”, we can start thinking more freely and creatively about our own lives.

Use the The Creative Instinct tools and ask yourself, “what are my self-limiting beliefs?”. What perceptions have you have accepted as ‘truth’ which need further examination?

Rebecca

• Realise your dreams with one small step
• Do you have trouble starting and maintaining good health habits? (Part 2)
• Reducing stress
• The art of idleness
• Are you exuberantly imperfect?