A coaching exercise to personify your limiting beliefs & stories, AKA masks
by Victoria Cumberbatch at victoriouscoach.com
Last updated August 18, 2026
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Each of us carries a collection of stories within us. These stories are formed from the compilation of past experiences, beliefs, and perceptions. While some of these stories can be empowering, others often hold us back. They are the narratives we tend to live by unconsciously.
Outdated internal stories are like a script written long ago, but instead of editing or updating it, we keep playing the same scenes over and over again. These stories can limit our potential, add to or create unnecessary stress, and prevent us from seeing new opportunities or from seeing what’s worth celebrating. They often manifest as harsh self-talk, self-doubt, fixed mindsets that keep us stuck in the past, and so on.
Changing these stories is not just about feeling better—though that is certainly a part of it. It's about reclaiming our power and agency. This is all about Level 3 Growth Zone. Doing this work and practicing it for the sake of progress, will permeate positive affects into every sphere of your life.
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The Exercise
One powerful way to shift these stories is through a process called personification. By giving these internal stories a persona, we can externalize them and see them more objectively. This supports us in challenging and changing them more sustainably.
1️⃣ Grab your writing utensils and consider the story that is top of mind for you right now. It might be attached to self doubt in communicating with authority figures, or choosing to play small and not vocalizing your wants or needs when asked, or over explaining a point, etc.
2️⃣ Imagine your outdated story as a character.
3️⃣ Now consider, how old you were when this mask formed to protect you.
What was happening around you in that moment? Who else was there? What are the feelings within your body? Is there a smell, or any other sense that you can noticed?
Begin to write the story of your protection mask, with the final step being a name that you give it.
*One of Viki’s Masks, for reference*
From my RezKit workbook, which you can purchase here.
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☝🏽 So what?
Well, when you begin to notice some of those aspects you placed in the story that have to do with your senses, or your default response, or how your body feels → you may now have a new awareness of this particular story being triggered by something in your environment. Sometimes subtle, sometimes overt.
You have a choice now, whereas before you did not.
The choices are: status quo [keep everything as is], change my environment, pause and reassess, put the mask on the shelf and choose how I actually want to respond to this current situation [not the one my old story remembers].
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Questions to Ponder
- What came up for you at all with this process?
- What did you forget/suppress that actually has had a larger impact than you thought?
- What’s possible for you going forward, with this mask data?
- How can you catch yourself when your mask is triggered?
- How can you pivot from the protective mask to something different?
Further Resources
ShadowWorkJournal.DrNLaPera.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkci7RMzgZA
