Dear One,
Have you ever noticed how challenging it can be to allow in success, joy and celebration? How terrifying it can be to feel happy? To feel powerful? To feel love?
In the omnipresent words of Marianne Williamson, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”
This phenomenon has been called having an “Upper Limit” by author and teacher Gay Hendricks. Or having an “INTERNAL glass ceiling”, as I once heard my dear friend and luminary, Claire Zammit, call it.
I’ve seen this pattern evoke the most brutal of Inner Mean Girls amongst my clients and students, as well as in my own life. The Inner Critic rears her ugly head shouting Big Fat Lies like “You don’t deserve it” or “The other shoe is going to drop” or “What makes you so special?” or “People won’t like you if you get that promotion/award/money.”
Ouch.
Often the upper limit sabotage happens on the subconscious level. We don’t even realize that we’re doing it to ourselves.
So take an exploration here and examine the following:
-Think back to a time when things were going really, really well…a peak experience. Maybe it was a time when you received a big bonus at work and you felt fabulous in your body and you were madly in love with a new boyfriend.
-Notice if you ended up creating anything in your life that led to sabotage or self-bullying. Did you end up having a full blown binge on ice cream every night for 3 weeks, pretending to celebrate, but then gaining 15 pounds? Did you pick a fight with your beloved? Get in a fender bender? Notice if your Inner Mean Girl or Inner Critic wanted to kick you off that happiness high and enforce an Upper Limit on you.
-Become aware of the part of you, your Inner Mean Girl, that is addicted to struggle, to failure, to sabotage.
-And also become aware of the part of you that is the dreamer and believer. The part of you that KNOWS to the core of your being that you are worthy of success and happiness.
-See the paradox. You have a part of you that wants to succeed and believes you deserve happiness (your Inner Wisdom) and a part of you that wants to fail and believes you are unworthy (your Inner Mean Girl).
-The next time you are experiencing a win in ANY area of your life simply notice the part of you that wants to sabotage.
-Next, consciously decide that you are worthy of receiving and allow your Inner Wisdom to guide you. Release your Inner Mean Girl’s Big Fat Lies and lean into the part of you that desires true success. Make a conscious decision to revel and celebrate your happiness and successes.
–Use an intentional creativity practice to stimulate your right brain and dissolve your Internal Glass Ceiling. This is exactly what my dear friend and visionary artist, Shiloh Sophia, and I did in our Awakened Woman painting class.
-Let me know how it goes on my blog!
I remember a distinct Upper Limit experience in my life. I had just signed my first book deal and received my advance check, my daughter Annabella was thriving, I felt deeply connected to my husband, I was making more money than I ever dreamed possible in my business AND I received word that I had been selected to receive a Women Who Dare award from Girls Inc. It was a true peak experience for me.
My reaction? I felt like I was crawling out of my skin. A huge Inner Mean Girl attack ensued where I felt unworthy, like a fraud and was certain that the other shoe was going to drop. I remember being in the shower sobbing uncontrollably, totally baffled as to why I felt so sad and scared when everything was going so good. Dreams were coming true! I felt an almost irresistible urge to sabotage it all…to pick a fight, collect evidence that I was an imposter, overeat, overspend, over commit.
But instead I sat with those feelings and did NOT let my Inner Mean Girl make my decisions. I became aware of what was going on and simply noticed. It was a profound experience.
I then utilized an intentional creativity process to dissolve my Internal Glass Ceiling and Upper Limit.
What is intentional creativity? It is using a creative process as a tool for individual, social and spiritual transformation.
I invite you to join Shiloh and me for the Awakened Woman painting class series to uncover a story and Upper Limit that has been holding you back. Leading the class was a life-changing experience for me personally. I worked with the upper limit of “more success equals more stress” and allowed it to disappear before my eyes. Big shift!!
During this revolutionary video class we will guide you in a step by step breakthrough process to:
- Identify and expose your biggest foundational lie….often your Upper Limit
- See the truth of how you’ve been playing this story out and change it
- Discover the voice of your inner wisdom, your truth telling Muse in all her glory
- Reveal your own hidden truths so that they hide no more. This breakthrough process from me, Amy Ahlers, will be coupled with the Intentional Creativity teachings of Shiloh Sophia
- You will paint and write your Illuminated Manuscript of Truth
- Experience Visionary Imagination to access a powerful internal voice and image of your Awakened Woman within.
- Paint color-filled icon on canvas of this inner wisdom based messenger muse.
This process is designed to lead you to get to the heart of your inner truth so that every area of your life that your truth touches can be viewed in a new light – eyes open. Awake. Transformed.
Sometimes it’s harder to claim the truth about about ourselves because we see just how powerful we truly are!”
(Please note: this was only the 3rd time I’d put a paint brush to canvas in my adult life. And the painting I ended up creating blew me away and allowed me to release a HUGE upper limit. YOU can do the same regardless of your painting experience!)
Sending you a vision of your life beyond your upper limits,
Amy Ahlers, The Wake-Up Call Coach
Bestselling Author of Big Fat Lies Women Tell Themselves
CEO of Wake-Up Call Coaching
Co-Creator of Inner Mean Girl Reform School, Inner Wisdom Golden Circle,
Find Your Calling and Visionary Ignition Switch
www.WakeUpCallCoach.com
1.888.929.2531
admin@wakeupcallcoaching.com
P.S. THANK YOU for all your love and wisdom from last week’s post about the pain I’ve been experiencing in my last few days/weeks of pregnancy. I am always so touched by how much you care. I feel so blessed to have a community of light workers! I’m happy to report that a true miracle has occurred and the pain has dramatically decreased…hooray!
P.P.P.S. Want to rock your Dream Project? I am so excited to share that my dear friend and creativity rock star, Katherine Torrini in offering a free Creative Breakthrough Call: Create the Time, Money & Inspiration to Rock your Dream Project. She has a passion for helping Closet Creatives get unstuck, get productive and get happy, and she had the 
GO HERE to sign up and get all the details about this free Creative Breakthrough Call: Create the Time, Money & Inspiration to Rock your Dream Project
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