Detach From Limiting Beliefs

*"You're either attaching to your beliefs or you're inquiring."* — Tara Brach

The goal of this practice isn't to get rid of your inner critic—it's to become aware of it. Every time you notice a self-critical thought, you're not failing. You're gathering feedback and learning the patterns of your mind.

Your brain's threat detection system is always scanning for danger, and it doesn't always know the difference between a real threat and an imagined one. It also has a natural negativity bias, meaning it's wired to focus on what's wrong before what's right.

The more often you repeat a negative thought, the stronger that neural pathway becomes. But awareness begins to change the brain.

Here, you'll learn to observe your thoughts with curiosity instead of believing them, you'll weaken old patterns, strengthen self-compassion, and develop greater confidence, emotional resilience, and freedom from self-judgment.

Transcript

Hello and welcome back to Day 5, Detaching from Limiting Beliefs. Let's start as usual with a centering practice. Find a seat that's still and comfortably yours. Bring one hand softly over your heart space and the other hand resting softly on top. Breathe to my count. If you need shorter or longer count, Please adjust for yourself. Exhale everything you have. And inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Exhale 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Exhale 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Six, Continue counting yourself. Breathe intentionally into your heart space, Chest, Sides of the ribs, The upper back. Great, Now with your inner gaze resting at your heart space, Repeat after me. I am here. I am home. I am here. I am home. I am here. I am home. I am here. I am home. Beautiful. One of my favorite teachers, Tara Brock, Says, You're either attaching to your beliefs or you're inquiring. So as you make your way through this lesson today, Please remember the goal is not to be rid of, But to become aware of your limiting beliefs. The fruits of this practice is feedback, Not failure. You're just getting to know your patterns. If they keep popping back up time and time again, Which trust me friend, I get it. The point is to be aware. Sometimes we don't have control over when the patterns stop. But we can do some things. To have a little bit of influence. At the end of the day. The outcome. Is not up to us. In the words of outcasts, You can plan a pretty picnic, But you can't predict the weather. So let's do our best and see where things go. We're going to start with understanding the brain. The threat detection in the limbic brain knows no difference between something that's happening in real time and something that's imagined. And it will favor negative thoughts over positive ones. It's called the negativity bias, And it's there to serve our survival. So, The more a negative thought plays in your mind, The stronger that part of the brain becomes. In short, The more you think about something, The more you think about it. Negative beliefs take a hard toll on us mentally, Socially, And emotionally. Worrying that you'll never get free from the belief, Stuck in the fight flight of thinking about it, Increased cortisol, Attachment to the belief itself because it plays on repeat, All of these things can arouse anxiety. Isolation from believing that something about yourself makes you separate, Thinking that you're not the only one going through it, We start to cut ourselves off. It also stops us from doing certain things or taking risks that might cause growth. Because we're merged with the belief. Maybe all of this is information that you've already gotten, And maybe not. The solution is mindfulness. Mindfulness meditation is a practice that can teach you to gain some control of the focus of your attention. While you may not be able to change the words or the pattern, You do have some leadership over where you put your attention. In one study that scanned the brains of new and experienced meditators, The experienced meditators show less activation in the part of the brain responsible for rumination of negative thoughts. There's so much hope in that, Right? So let's do a mindfulness practice. This is a combination of RAIN, Tara Brach's method. R-A-I-N And then the work of Rick Hansen, A happiness researcher. He calls this installing the good. So we're going to combine the two, Beginning with rain. RAIN is an acronym, The R stands for recognize, A is allow, I investigate, And N nurture. Please start by recognizing a limiting belief that you've attached to in some way. It might be, I don't belong or I'm bad, There's something wrong with me. Take a moment. Notice what is true for you. And next, The A in rain, We allow it to be here. This too is welcome here. Remember from the lesson on befriending your emotions, The mantra, Welcome here. This too is welcome here. You can invite it into the warm, Cozy heart space. Hold it with loving care. Welcome here. It's natural to want to fight with the belief. To want it to be gone now. Just for these moments, Can you allow it? Now the next step in the process, The eye of rain, Is investigate. As you sit present, Allowing this belief to be there. Notice in your body if you have a felt sense of where this belief lives. Where is it taking refuge? What does it feel like? Maybe it's tingly or tight or warm or open, Dense, Heavy, Light, Spacious, Sticky, Or anything else. You can also ask yourself, As part of this loving investigation, In yoga we call this inquiry svadhyaya. You can ask yourself, How has this belief affected my life? How many moments have been sacrificed to the belief? And this might feel like a sort of soul sadness. The next and final step of RAIN, The N, Is to nurture. What does this part of you need? Imagine a loved one, A friend or family member or a pet there by your side. What would they say that would feel comforting to you? If this comfort were a glowing orb of light, What color would it be? Imagine this glowing orb of light suspended right there in your heart center. On your inhale. Sense or imagine that the light is getting brighter and brighter and brighter. Breathe fully and smoothly. As you exhale. Sense the light getting dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. Until it's just the size of a pinpoint at the very center of your heart chakra. To the very core of your being, All the way down to the cells. As the light brightens on your inhale, You can imagine this feeling of comfort. Illuminating your whole body from the core out to the periphery, The arms and the hands, The tips of the fingers. Up through the neck, To the head, The face, The ears. Down through the torso, Front, Sides, And back. Down the legs, Out the tips of the toes. As the light shrinks down to just a pinpoint, This comfort nourishing you at your very center, The core and essence of who you are. At the bottom of your next exhale, You can release the visualization. Bring one hand over your heart center and the other on top. Rest them softly. Return back to that phrase, Those words that you would want someone to say to comfort you. And three times. Say that from you to you. As you start to bring your awareness back into the space of where you sit, Open your eyes slowly. Take a look around, Take note of what you see. In front of you, Above you, To both sides and behind. Up and down. Thank you so much for your courage to do this work. It's not always easy, But I have found it 100% rewarding. Tomorrow we'll explore people pleasing. Until then, May your thoughts be peaceful. May your words be kind, Especially toward yourself. And may your heart be full of joy. Bye for now.