Black Community: Limitations Built in the Mind Kills Progress.

Black Community: Limitations Built in the Mind Kills Progress.

(ThyBlackMan.com) I was always taught one of the greatest threats to individual, and community, progress was the limitations that we place on our minds. Once we decided something cannot be done in our head it’s almost a guarantee that we have lost the battle of learning a new thing. Limitations that are built within the mind almost always kill progress; while we may think it’s a personal thing… it filters into our family and our community. This can be said in the areas of education as well as spirituality. The limits that we place on ourselves often stem from areas of insecurity based on what we do or do not know.

A great example of this is when our children go to school, we find that they are able to absorb information when they are not intimidated by the classroom. A child that is prepared, learning at grade level, and has a solid support system has a better chance of keeping an open mind in an academic setting. This is a good recipe for progress.

Children that are not prepared academically are not able to learn in the environment by which they are in, or they do not have the support that they need from home struggle. They may make the learning environment to be oppressive, and they may not know it, but their insecurities are already creating blocks and walls in their mind around learning. I’ll never forget having a conversation with a 21 year old about reading; she told me she hated reading and later I found out she hated it so was because she could not do it. There could be no progress because she was illiterate, but more importantly she had determined in her mind that reading was hard, and it was something she could not do.

Some of us grew up being told not to use the word can’t. What we didn’t understand at the time was the reason was to train ourselves not to place limits on our mind. The limitations that can be placed in one’s mind are not limited to academics or education. Sometimes after having gone through different kinds of hurt and trauma, the limitations can come for an emotional space in our minds that tell us we are not lovable, we don’t deserve to be liked, or that happiness is not meant for us. Once those mental walls go up, it is very difficult to tear them down; even when you have a support system around you that pours love and kindness into you, that constantly tells you how great you are and uses the spirituality that you believe in you must be willing to let in all of those things. If you are unwilling to confront the limitations that have been placed in your mind, based on the hurt that you have experienced, there can be no progress in moving forward. Some of us are lonely, hurting, and isolated because of these limitations.

Finish story here; Black Community: Limitations Built in the Mind Kills Progress.