Cultivating Connection- Working With Limiting Beliefs

Cultivating connection,

Working with limiting beliefs meditation.

I was contemplating and reading and a thought came into my head about how I can't see the back of my body that that is something that's actually impossible without a mirror or taking a photo.

It's really difficult to see the back of your body.

So this made me think about what it is that is possible and what it is that is impossible.

Every morning during COVID I used to find quotes and affirmations to post to my group at work in the chat and one of them was impossible translates as I'm possible and I think that was something coined by Audrey Hepburn.

I really like quotes and sayings because you can find little lessons in them every day.

I do yoga as a regular practice.

I was enrolled in doing an early morning intensive and this idea of stretching and extending your body this idea of extension and expansion is in contrast with the notion of retraction and limitations.

So where are our limits?

Do we sit with them?

Do we accept them?

Do we not question them?

And doing so how does that create the story of who we are?

Or do we try to explore them and change them and shift our idea of them?

What stories do we tell ourselves?

Are we resigned to those stories or do we see the extension of what it is and what it could be?

Do we offer ourselves another perspective?

Is it final and complete?

Or do we even go there?

I mean if we went to the unknown in what way is the initial fear then changed and different?

In what way might we surprise within us the territory that we have not yet explored?

It may lead us to find within us other unfamiliar stories that lead us to other places we've never known within ourselves.

What is this self-expansion and self-exploration that stretches us,

Molds us into another way of being and seeing and feeling and knowing and doing?

And then what is it that we become because of it?

You know this reminds me of my mum when she bakes bread.

The process of the flour,

The water and the yeast levitating in that process of making dough that changes the ingredients into something completely different before it is baked,

Before it becomes bread.

It's the hard work of the kneading,

The punching,

The stretching,

The time to rest that enables the dough to change.

This process is necessary for expansion and transformation to happen.

This work is purposeful as the dough will then levitate.

In the same way we also need to do the hard work that stretches us,

Strengthens our heart,

Our spirit,

Our soul.

So she often makes the sign of the cross before the cutting of the dough because bread she says is a sign of life.

So the impossible versus I'm possible.

Discovering the territory that we're not able to reach or get to.

How do we sit with knowing that we have our limitations and how do we come home to our body and appreciate it?

How do we reach and push and gently stretch ourselves beyond what is impossible?

Do we even go there or are we resigned to it?

And so now coming to this meditation sit quietly,

Sitting feet firmly on the ground,

Closing your eyes,

Noticing the sounds outside the room,

Just noticing the sounds inside the room.

Notice how you are sitting.

Now is the time to adjust.

If you need to find a more comfortable position you want to be able to sit or lie in meditation so as not to disturb the posture that you're in.

You want to be able to stay in meditation in that posture for the duration of the meditation.

So we'll be here for about 10 minutes.

So now in sitting here and finding your posture focus on the breath that enters and leaves your nostrils.

Just notice,

Let the breath be as it is.

Turn your focus inwards.

Let go of how you think things should be.

Just let go.

Allow yourself to feel a sense of letting go.

Let things be as they are.

Simply be here.

As you feel a sense of letting go allow the shoulders to relax down the back.

Let your eyes soften.

You want to remain sitting strong like a mountain and at the same time soft like the pillow of compassion,

Calm,

Relaxation.

And as you let go recall someone,

Someone you admire.

In what way have they influenced you?

What is it that you admire about this person?

What specifically?

What did this person teach you?

When you adopted what you learned from this person how did things change for you?

What did you do to enable that change?

Or was it something you embraced as a value that you now continue to hold dear?

I want to tell you a story about the baby elephant.

You may have heard this story before.

The thing about meditation or hypnosis is that metaphors are better processed by the unconscious mind,

Are better absorbed sometimes without us even realizing the impact.

And so the story of the baby elephant goes like this.

When a baby elephant is trained it is tied to a rope.

The rope is tied to the log and as a baby the elephant is restrained and cannot break away.

As the baby elephant is trained and grows it learns that it is not able to escape.

It's not able to break the rope and therefore as soon as it feels a tug it automatically stops itself from even trying.

The brainwash of failure and limiting beliefs is like that rope.

A strong animal like an elephant is tethered and tamed eventually restrains itself even when it has choice.

It believes that it cannot break free.

It continues to behave in limiting ways and so we are the same.

We hold ourselves back.

We become the prisoners of our past.

The lessons learned from how we limit ourselves in some way versus the lessons that give us the freedom to be ourselves.

Meditation will teach us to see the difference,

To be the authentic self.

We hold limiting beliefs that stop us from even trying.

You are not your past actions.

You are not your past failures.

You are not how others have treated you.

You are here.

You are present now.

You are here in this moment full of potential.

You are here in this moment and you are what you are doing right now without restraint untethered and free to explore in the wonder of what is available to you.

Gently pressing beyond your boundaries to expansion and then take courage with the breath.

Expansion is love in action.

This stretch towards what is important,

What has meaning,

What brings you to the light.

You may feel discomfort.

Discomfort is where you are motivated to act.

Discomfort is where change unravels.

What is it about fear that tangles,

Spins you the yarn that knits the brow the furrow of offense.

The shroud that blankets vision like the shade of cataract removed by swift operation reveals the wonder of sight.

You did not know it because you did not consider that space until the shroud was dissected.

Flicker of vibration.

Stay with your breath.

You were filled with a new sense of wonder where you find yourself in this noise of every day.

You do not stop to consider your beauty,

Your spirit as essence of transcendence.

This dance,

This beat of a pumping heart.

It's like a beacon drawing others into your power and your strength because this is the truth of who you are.

Let go to honor yourself.

Relax back into it.

All will be well.

All will be well.

All will be well.

For this too will pass.

Trust and allow things to be as they are.

For this is how it is.

Surrender to the self and let go.

Release the grip of fear.

These stories that divine us as intricately linked to who we are in every moment like the breath.

Sit in peace.

Visualize your spine as a conduit to the energy that flows through the body plugged into the earth's vibrational energy force.

Place your hand upon your heart and another on your abdomen and as you take the deep breath into your heart space count to five and as you release the breath and feel this vibration in your face and imagine that the breath is coming and going from the heart space.

Breathe in again to a count of five and as you release the breath imagine the breath is being pumped through the heart space.

Again breathing into a count of five and release the breath through the heart space.

Allow the breath to resume its natural rhythm as if from the heart.

Allow the heart to heal your limitations and bring you a sense of calm,

Strength and love for who you are,

What you bring,

What you offer the world as authentic,

Genuine and sincere.

Be at ease as you feel an expansion towards your natural full heart and in a presence of harmony and soul the vibrational enhancement that draws you to your power,

To your freedom,

Strong and at the same time a softness.

As you sit here listening to the words of Virginia Woolf who wrote life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged,

Not a checklist of to-do.

Life is a luminous halo and in this life is spontaneous and beautiful.

Take your attention to the sounds you can hear,

Observe the sensations in your body,

Begin to move your body,

Awakening noticing how you feel,

Open your eyes,

Awake,

Alert and present.

You are here now.