Do You Think Your Beliefs Are Holding You Back?

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I share the sentiment of writer Eckhart Tolle when he says, “The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not the voice in your head — but the one who is aware of it.”

Now then, if we are not that voice or those voices in our head, who are we?

We are the one observing that reality. The consciousness that precedes thought, the space in which thought, emotion, or perception occurs.

I am not my mind; I have a mind.

Let me repeat this so you can internalize it like a mantra: I am not my mind; I have a mind.

Consciousness is the attentive manifestation of the mind, the part responsible for perceiving, judging, and remembering reality. Meanwhile, the unconscious mind is the part that knows and stores all the experiences lived by the conscious mind. The unconscious is like a constantly moving storage unit, a hard drive that collects every step we take in the world.

The unconscious can also collect and store external information that hasn’t necessarily passed through consciousness. This potentially dangerous phenomenon is called unconscious learning. Because this information stored in the unconscious is neither useful nor beneficial to us, it has the potential to be very harmful.

A common example of this is subliminal messaging, which passes directly from the senses to the realms of the unconscious. These messages are widely used in modern advertising, both commercial and political or ideological.

Consider this: according to renowned cell biology researcher Bruce Lipton, 95 percent of our brain operates subconsciously, while only 5 percent is conscious. Or, citing Sigmund Freud’s famous analogy, the mind is like an iceberg — the visible part is much smaller than what is hidden beneath the surface.

If I bring my conscious awareness to repetitive, unconscious thought patterns and begin to manage them, the unconscious becomes very useful, as all the information and experience it holds becomes available to us. As author Napoleon Hill wrote, “Man can become the master of himself, and of his environment, because he has the power to influence his own subconscious mind.”

We Are What We Think And Feel

What you say to yourself predicts — it predicts your future, your lon­gevity, your health, your quality of life, and your prosperity. Your word is a sermon.

Behind every “I am not capable,” there is a judgment. Beneath an “I don’t deserve it,” there is a system of unconscious beliefs. Do these thoughts sound familiar?

Behind every belief, we hold a perspective on life and our self-im­age. From there, we create self-judgments and interpretations about ourselves, which remain in our minds continually. Then, they move to our subconscious and manifest automatically.

You’re probably wondering how these beliefs originate. Our beliefs are installed in our subconscious, in that part of the iceberg that we don’t see. That’s why we have to peel back our beliefs layer by layer until we reach their origins, like detectives.

Become a detective for a moment, and identify and investigate your most powerful self-judgement beliefs:

1. What aspect of myself am I judging at this moment?
2. Can I define my self-judgment in one sentence?
3. How do I feel when making this judgment? What consequence does it have?
4. Can I forgive myself for self-judgment?
5. “I forgive myself for judging myself as …”

A belief is nothing more than a practiced vibration.

“Very nice,” you may already be telling yourself, “but how is it possible to transform my reality?”

There have been moments in my life when I have felt lost. There have also been times that I have felt that I needed something more. Then, one day, I made the decision to break the strings that controlled me. I let go of this constant sensation of heaviness, of not being able to achieve what I set out to do, of not being good enough for this or that.

When I decided that I wanted to stop feeling like a victim, I began asking myself to honestly look at what was happening to me, how I could feel fulfilled, and how I could walk the path toward happiness. That was enough for me to start changing the course of my life, and a single question encompassed it all: What do I believe in?

It may seem like a strange thing to ask in the middle of so much doubt, but I recognized that if I was buying into the story that I wasn’t good at something, or that there was no future for me outside of my country, it meant that I believed in something that was not in alignment with my values, nor with who I truly wanted to be: my true essence.

That’s how I realized that what I believed about myself and my real­ity was powerful enough to hold me back and even put obstacles in my way. So, more questions followed: What do I want to believe in? What does the real Ismael believe in?

Through these inquiries I realized I not only didn’t believe in myself but that I hadn’t even identified what it was I actually believed in.

A belief is a state of mind in which an individual assumes the knowl­edge or experience they have about a particular event or matter to be true. When it becomes objective, the content of the belief presents a logical proposition and can be expressed as a linguistic statement in the form of an affirmation. To go even further, taking the definition of my mentor, Tony Robbins, “Beliefs are the compass and maps that guide us toward our goals and give us the confidence to know we will arrive.”

Thus, beliefs guide our lives; they are ideas we consider to be true and to which we give total credibility. However, oftentimes we do not stop to think about what we believe in and, for that reason, some of our beliefs become stumbling blocks on our path.

The Defective Mirror Of Our Limiting Beliefs

In other words, beliefs are statements and ideas derived from our perception that filter communication with ourselves and influence our behavior. The only thing that prevents us from getting what we want in life is simply the story we tell ourselves, which equates to our belief system.

Beliefs are born within us, from our own convictions. This may not seem like a problem because, in theory, if our beliefs originate in us, they should be able define us without any problem. However, these beliefs are also influenced by the outside world. That is, we all have various beliefs that we have acquired through personal experiences or have con­sciously or unconsciously allowed our environment to impose upon us.

All events, big or small, shape our beliefs. The curious thing about beliefs is that, because they originate from within us, they do not neces­sarily align with reality. It is very different to talk about perceived reality versus actual reality. Our brain does not distinguish between what is real and what is simply a perception, which is why our beliefs have the power to make the unreal seem real.

Consider the following story from an unknown author:

THE MINERS

Six miners were working in a deep tunnel, extracting minerals from the depths of the Earth. Suddenly, a collapse sealed the exit of the tunnel, leaving them trapped. Stunned and silent, they looked at one another. With a quick glance, they assessed their situation.

Thanks to their experience, they immediately realized that the real problem would be oxygen. If they managed everything correctly, they had about three hours of air left, or at most three and a half.

People outside would certainly know they were trapped, but a collapse like this would require digging through the mine to reach them. Would they be rescued before their air ran out?

The expert miners decided they had to conserve as much oxygen as possible. They agreed to minimize physical exertion so, turning off their lamps, they all lay down on the ground. Mute from the anxiety of their situation and motionless in the darkness, it was difficult to gauge the passage of time.

Incidentally, only one of them had a watch, and thus he became the center of all questions: “How much time has passed?” “How much time is left?” “What about now?”

Time stretched out — every couple of minutes felt like an hour — and the desperation with each answer only deepened the tension.

The leader of the miners realized that if they continued like that, anxiety would make them breathe faster, which could kill them. So, he ordered the man with the watch to be the only one to track the passing of time. No one would ask any more questions; he would inform them of every half hour that passed.

The man with the watch followed the order, and when the first half-hour passed, he said, “Half an hour has passed.”

After this, there was murmuring among the men and a tension that could be felt in the air. The man with the watch realized that as time passed, it would become increasingly unbearable to tell them that the final minutes were approaching. So, without consulting anyone, he decided to inform them after forty-five minutes instead of the agreed-upon thirty.

There was no way for them to notice the difference, so no one suspected it. Encouraged by the success of the deception, the third time he informed them, he did so almost an hour later, and just like before, he said, “Another half hour has passed.” The five miners believed they had been trapped for a total of an hour and a half. They all agreed on how long time felt inside that tunnel. The man with the watch continued the same pattern: every hour, he told them that only half an hour had passed.

Meanwhile, the rescue team rushed to complete their task. They knew in which chamber the miners were trapped, but they also knew that it would be difficult to reach them in less than four hours. Indeed, they managed to break through after four and a half hours. They expected to find all six miners dead but, incredibly, they found five of them alive. Only one had died of asphyxiation — the one with the watch.

This is the power that beliefs have in our lives. This is what our conditioning can do to us. When we believe and trust that we can move forward, our possibilities multiply. As the Roman poet Virgil once said, “They can because they believe they can.”

Reprinted with permission from The Art of Listening to Yourself: How to Tune In to Your Intuitive Voice by Ismael Cala (July 2026, Destiny Books).

Ismael Cala is a Cuban journalist, bestselling author, international lecturer, and visionary producer. Recognized as a global authority in executive mindfulness, innovation, productivity, and high performance, his work inspires leaders and dreamers alike to unlock their highest potential. He is the creator and host of the acclaimed podcast “The Abundance Revolution” and resides in Miami, Florida.

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