Rewiring Limiting Beliefs

Renatta Tellez
Oct 24
3 min read

Turning awareness into transformation

This is where the real work begins — the rewiring. Because awareness alone doesn’t change the brain.

You can know something isn’t true and still feel trapped in it — like piling information on top of resistance. That’s because survival wiring creates tunnel vision.

When your nervous system is in protection mode, it narrows what you can see.

All your energy goes into defending, proving, or bracing. You end up anxious for knowing better but not being able to feel better.

SCIENCE INSIGHT

Your brain doesn’t erase old wiring — it builds new pathways that get stronger with repetition.

Every time you catch a familiar pattern (“I’m falling behind,” “I can’t say no,” “I have to hold it together”) and shift how you respond, you’re literally changing your neural map.

That’s neuroplasticity — your brain’s ability to rewire itself through repetition and emotion.

Although the old idea that the “left brain is logical” and the “right brain is creative or emotional” is outdated, it can still be a helpful metaphor here. What’s actually happening when you shift out of survival mode isn’t about left versus right — it’s about which networks in the brain are dominant.

Under threat or stress, the brain’s survival circuitry (amygdala, limbic system, threat response network) takes over.
When you regulate and shift state, you bring online the prefrontal cortex, insula, and networks that allow for empathy, intuition, and big-picture thinking.

So when people use “right brain” language, what they’re often really describing is the move from a reactive, narrow state into a calm, connected, integrated one.

This shift doesn’t happen through theory. It happens through practice. Real-time, simple, repeated reps.

COACHING INSIGHT

Survival mode isn’t just a reaction. It becomes your home base — your way of being. The place you keep slipping back into without even realizing it. It’s like muscle memory. Your brain reaches into its old filing cabinet and pulls the same pattern, over and over again. And when you’re in it, all clarity is gone.

What I want you to remember most is this: you cannot outthink survival. You have to shift out of it. When you’re deep in a challenge, trying harder to think your way through, all you’re really doing is creating more survival strategies. More defenses. More looping.

The key is the moment you catch it. That’s your opening. Your job is to move your attention out of that loop and into the part of your brain that’s calm, wise, and steady. The heart-centered brain. The one that doesn’t get defensive or spin stories. The one that can see clearly.

And this isn’t just mental — it’s physiological. When that part of your brain comes online, everything changes. Your breath slows. Tunnel vision fades. Your field of vision expands. You can hear yourself again. Options and possibilities start to appear that didn’t exist a minute ago.

And from that place, you choose what actually matters. Not from fear. Not from sabotage. From calm.

Real change doesn’t come from pushing harder, from forcing motivation, or from overthinking strategy. It happens in those small, ordinary moments when you catch the saboteur’s voice, shift your state, and come home to yourself. Every single time you do it, every single breath, you’re rewiring who you are becoming.

This is not woohoo. This is neuroscience.

REFLECTION PRACTICE

This is where the rewiring actually happens — not in theory, but in the small, ordinary moments.

Catch it. Notice the micro-thought that signals the old belief. It might be something as quick as “You’re behind,” “Don’t say no,” or “Hold it together.” That moment of noticing is everything.
Acknowledge it. Don’t fight it or spiral into it. Just name it. “There it is.” That simple awareness already loosens its grip.
Shift your state. Lower your gaze or close your eyes. Take one slow breath. Press two fingertips together until you can feel the ridges. Notice a few sensations — the air on your skin, the sound in the room, the weight of your body. This is where survival brain quiets down and the wiser part of you comes online.
Bridge statement. From that steadier place, say one true, grounded sentence that reflects the belief you’re building: “I move one meaningful thing forward now.” “Clear boundaries build trust.” “Asking for support is wise leadership.”
Micro-action. Take one small step that lines up with that statement. Something real. Something doable. That’s how new wiring starts to form.
Repeat. Each time you do this, you’re laying another track in your brain. Rep by rep, the old pattern loses its power because you’re no longer feeding it.