Building Self-Belief

This guided journey is designed to help you unlock your inner reservoir of confidence, fostering a deep sense of self-assurance that will empower you to overcome self-doubt and reach your fullest potential. This meditation invites you to explore the rich landscape of your thoughts and emotions, uncovering the roots of self-doubt and insecurity. Through mindful awareness and deep breathing exercises, you'll gradually release the negative self-talk and limiting beliefs that may have held you back.

Transcript

Welcome to Day 6 of Living a Purposeful Life,

A challenge here on Insight Timer intended to help you live a life that is in alignment with your values,

Your goals and your priorities.

Let's jump in to today's session.

Welcome to Living a Purposeful Life,

A challenge here on Insight Timer to help you go after a life that feels aligned with your values and your vision.

My name is Valerie Korr,

And in today's session,

We'll be focusing on how to build self-belief,

In other words,

How to access the deepest wisdom within you.

I believe that a voice of deep wisdom resides in each of us.

That voice is often buried,

But when we surface it,

When we train our ear to listen to it,

Then that voice of wisdom can be a force of transformation in our lives.

Let me begin by telling you how I finally found that wisdom inside of me.

For most of my life as a civil rights activist,

I only knew how to grind my bones into the ground.

I was always comparing my suffering to the people I was serving,

And so of course I was never worthy enough to care for.

I thought I had to make myself suffer in order to serve.

I had a voice in my head,

And I think this voice exists in each of us,

Especially those of us who are born into a society that teaches us to hate our bodies.

That voice I called the little critic.

It would tell me,

You're not good enough.

You're not strong enough.

You're not beautiful enough.

You're not enough to do that,

To say that,

To go there.

My whole life,

I have been wrestling with that voice inside of me,

And then,

And then I became a mother,

And as soon as my son landed on my chest,

I looked into his eyes,

And I said,

Oh,

You are so smart.

You are so good.

You are so brave.

My husband,

I mean,

He's a newborn,

Right?

And my husband is looking at me and saying,

Why don't you speak to yourself that way?

The great black feminist visionary,

Audre Lorde,

Once declared,

We can learn how to mother ourselves,

And so I got a journal,

And I began to write in the journal as though I were writing to my own beloved child,

But I was speaking to myself.

I would always open the entry with,

Wise woman here,

Wise woman says,

Oh,

My love.

She calls me my love.

She's very sweet.

She would say,

Oh,

My love,

You are tired today.

The children just got out of the house.

You're sitting here to do this recording.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

You only have to be present.

She's talking to me all the time.

Every day now,

It's been eight years since my son was born,

And every day,

Listening to the wise woman speak to me is how I finally began to learn how to love myself.

How do you speak to yourself?

Only when we speak to ourselves with love and compassion and care can we begin to truly believe in ourselves.

Now I'm really curious about what the deepest wisdom in you looks like.

I'm interested in what that voice in you sounds like,

And so I'm going to invite you on a guided meditation with me,

And I invite you just to surrender,

Just to be curious about what might surface.

So wherever you are right now,

I invite you to find a comfortable position.

Just make sure that you have contact between your body and the earth.

It could be your back on the bed.

It could be your feet on the ground.

Go ahead and take a moment and get comfortable.

Good.

Let yourself rest into this moment.

Nowhere to be,

Nothing to do except to be here now.

You have arrived.

Notice the difference between holding your body up and letting the earth hold you up.

I invite you to take a deep breath in now,

Almost as if you're taking in the breath from the earth itself.

Let it come,

Let it go.

Turn your attention inward with a sense of curiosity,

A sense of wonder at what you are carrying in your body at this moment.

And as you begin to scan your body,

Starting with the crown of your head,

I invite you to notice where you feel tense and constricted and where it feels spacious and easy.

Without judgment,

Almost as if you're letting your attention be as light as a feather,

Scanning the length of your body,

Being curious at what's there.

Starting with the crown of your head,

The space between your eyes,

Your jaw,

The saliva in your mouth,

The dark secrecy of your throat.

Notice your neck and your shoulders.

Notice the space around your heart,

The breath in your lungs.

Good.

Notice your belly and the seat of your body.

Notice the length of your spine,

The upper back,

The mid back and lower back.

Just noticing what is there.

Bringing your attention to your right arm all the way down to fingertips.

Your left arm all the way down to fingertips.

Good.

Noticing your thighs,

Your knees,

Calf.

Noticing both of your feet.

Just being curious at what your body is holding in this moment.

Good.

If your deepest wisdom lived in a physical location in your body,

Where would it be?

Check your throat,

Your chest,

Your belly.

Let yourself land on one place.

Good.

And rest your attention there.

If your deepest wisdom that resides here had a color,

What colors do you see?

It could be one color or many colors.

Just let it come.

Good.

If your deepest wisdom inside of you had a shape,

What shape would it take?

And you don't have to overthink it.

It can just be the first thing that you see,

Animal,

Object,

Landscape.

If you see a lot,

Let your attention settle on just one shape.

And if you see just a sliver of something,

That's okay too.

Let it be a sliver.

Whatever you see.

Hold it for a moment with that light touch of your attention.

Good.

I invite you now to get curious about the space around your deepest wisdom.

What does that spaciousness look like?

Feel like?

Good.

We're going to grow this space together.

I invite you now to take a deep breath from the earth itself.

Let it come.

And as you do,

Imagine that you are sending that breath to that place of deep wisdom inside of you.

Good.

Nice.

Let it come.

Let it go.

Let it come.

Let it go.

Keep breathing like this.

Deep,

Steady breaths.

Sending breath to that place inside of your body.

Imagining that with every breath,

That wisdom inside of you is growing larger,

Clearer,

Stronger,

More vibrant,

More powerful.

Let it come.

Let it go.

You are giving it more life with every breath that you take.

Good.

Allow it to grow luminous inside of you.

Allow it to become more and more present,

More solid.

Keep breathing and notice what that feels like.

Let it come.

Let it go.

This place of deep wisdom inside of you has been aching to be seen,

To be heard.

This place of wisdom inside of you has been waiting for you to get quiet enough for you to hear something that you need to know.

I invite you now to rest your breath and let yourself get curious about what this deep wisdom has to say to you.

Let yourself listen.

You might hear words.

You might see images.

You might just feel sensations.

Whatever it is,

Let yourself receive it.

If you're hearing a lot or experiencing a lot,

That's good.

If you're just waiting for something to come,

As if you're on the brink of something,

Let yourself surrender.

In this moment,

You can hit pause to let yourself hear and listen,

Or you can just wait for a moment as you receive.

Good.

I invite you now to make a movement that consolidates that wisdom that you have received.

It could be a hand to your heart or a hand to your belly.

It could be a stretch or a nod.

Whatever is available to you,

I invite you to consolidate that wisdom.

Let it run through the rest of your nervous system,

As if a little bit of it is going into the earth,

So that your body holds this wisdom and the earth is holding it with you.

Honoring whatever experience you had,

Knowing that there are no wrong answers,

That anything that you experienced is information for you.

And if you enjoyed this practice,

Know that you can always come back here to be with this presence of deep wisdom inside of you.

That this deepest wisdom is always available to you.

Listening to this deep wisdom within you.

Receiving that guidance,

Receiving that care and that love is how we begin deeply to believe in ourselves.

To show up to our lives as our best selves.

And this is not merely a self-care tool.

This is a practice that has the power to change the world around you.

I want to leave you with a passage from my book,

See No Stranger,

A book that in many ways is a story about how I finally came to find the wise woman in me and let her lead me.

I believe that deep wisdom resides within each of us.

Some call this voice by different sacred names,

Spirit,

God,

Jesus,

Allah,

Aum,

Buddha nature,

Vaheguru.

Others think of this voice as the intuition one hears when in a calm state of mind.

Whatever name we choose,

Whatever name you choose for the voice inside of you,

Listening to your deepest wisdom requires disciplined practice.

You see,

The loudest voices in the world right now are ones running on the energy of fear,

Criticism,

And cruelty.

The voices we spend the most time listening to,

In the world and inside our own minds,

Shape the way we see,

How we feel,

And what we do.

When I spend time listening to people who are speaking from their deepest wisdom,

I can feel understanding,

Inspiration,

And energy nourish the root of my own wisdom.

But,

And this is really important,

I must not lose myself at the feet of others.

My most vigilant spiritual practice is finding the seconds of solitude to get quiet enough to hear the wise woman in me.

Thank you so much for going on this journey with me.

I invite you to share in the discussion forum the image of your deepest wisdom.

Whatever came to you,

Whatever you experienced,

Whatever you heard,

Because I find that the more that we share our deepest wisdom with one another,

The more we build our collective wisdom,

Our collective belief,

Our collective strength.

Thank you so much.

Reviews

Lovely!

Beautiful! Thank you 🙏✨❤️🌸

Fantastic

Love that thank you

Beautiful and inspirational thank you

So beautiful

Thank you! That was lovely

Maravillosa reflexión u meditación, muchas gracias! ☺️

Really good

This is such a powerful meditation every time I listen to it. Thank you.

It's so refreshing to hear a voice of inner wisdom

Wonderful advice! Thank you!

Beautiful, thank you 🙏

I am happy, I am healthy, I am Helen 💜 thank you for this gift 🙏