What are limiting beliefs and how can you set intentions?
I will do an intention setting practice within the visualization but I'm also going to invite you to do this more often.
Because it really works best with grounding,
Visualization and gratitude.
Which we're going to do.
So my tip is,
If you suffer from procrastinating behavior or you really want to work on your limiting beliefs,
Set one simple intention for today and set one bigger picture intention.
And what you do,
You set something that comes from a nice compassionate voice.
Which is achievable,
So that's the small one and the bigger one has to do with your future.
But in this one you will include emotions and senses,
Which we will do in the visualization.
So you focus on what you want,
Not on what you don't want.
Where focus goes,
Energy flows.
So what is an intention setting sentence for example,
Coming from a compassionate voice?
Well,
When I work with my students who want to finish writing their thesis,
I don't want to hear,
I just want to graduate.
That's not a nice voice.
You will not feel motivated,
You will not listen to that,
Instead you will do the opposite behavior right?
You will not want to work.
So if it comes from a compassionate voice,
It might be something like,
For this session,
It would be lovely to or I would like.
It would be lovely to work on my limiting belief,
I don't feel good enough.
Or I would like to feel better about my limiting belief,
I don't feel good enough.
So it's a realistic and in a kind voice.
So this is for example an intention you can set for today.
For the bigger picture I really want to work on,
I don't feel good enough in school or in my personal life.
But you know,
I've been talking too much and we haven't been practicing anything for a while now.
So are you ready to get started with the visualization?
We will start with grounding and do one of the mindfulness techniques.
There you go.
And we will start with one sense.
We will start with vision.
You can still keep your eyes open.
I'm going to ask you to focus on any object that you see around you.
Notice whatever catches your visual attention.
So really focus on one object.
And really look at its color.
Is it very bright?
Or is it dark?
How does the shape look like?
Can you really look at its form and think will it feel cold or warm?
And now you can shift your attention from vision to hearing.
Open your ears to all the sounds around you.
Perhaps you will be aware of more sounds than one,
Usually my voice.
And besides my voice,
Do you hear sounds which are far away or nearby?
Maybe there are sounds from within your body,
You can hear yourself breathe.
And gently move your attention to your sense of taste.
And really sense the taste within your mouth,
Just as it is right now.
Is it sweet?
Is it bitter?
Maybe it's even neutral.
And if you notice you have begun to analyze your taste or you are thinking about the taste,
Come back to simply sensing the taste.
And now let's move on to the fourth sense,
Your sense of smell and bring your awareness to it.
Do you smell something specific or something neutral?
It doesn't matter what you smell as long as you stay open and are aware of your experience of smelling.
And now let your attention shift to the sense of touch.
Pay attention to whatever sense of contact or touch comes into your awareness.
Maybe you feel a slight breeze,
You feel your clothes against your skin.
Or maybe you make contact with the floor or with your feet.
Okay well done.
We are going into the next phase.
For this one you might open your palms in your lap.
If you haven't done so already make sure your feet are touching the floor.
And sit as comfortably as you can.
You might even want to close your eyes and take a deep breath in.
And breathe out.
And let's go inwards,
Into your body.
And ask yourself how am I feeling?
It might be helpful to state out loud the emotion and give it a number from 1 to 10.
For example anxiety is 6.
Happiness is 7.
And once you've given it a number it might be helpful to breathe through the emotion and touch it with your hands wherever you feel it in your body.
For example anxiety my chest 6.
Well done,
We are going on to the next phase.
Can you think of a recent moment when you felt awful,
You felt perhaps sad or hurt or lonely?
Could be today,
Last week.
I really feel that.
And to what limiting belief does this relate to?
I don't belong.
The world is dangerous.
I am not good enough.
I need to be perfect because.
And I'm going to ask you to state out loud your intention and what limiting belief you want to work on today.
Well done.
Now you can visualize yourself as the adult that you are in a safe place,
A green field.
You might even see your favorite trees or there is some water near you.
But it's a neutral safe place for you.
You are here as the adult that you are working on your limiting belief.
And you are just observing as the adult you can stop anytime or you can focus on your breath if it gets too difficult.
But you can visualize and ask your younger version,
The youngest version,
You can see perhaps there are multiple versions.
But can you ask you,
Your younger version to help you with this limiting belief?
And see them walking towards you.
They're coming nearby,
They're walking towards you.
And have a look at their face.
How are they behaving?
Maybe they look scared or happy.
And see them stopping in front of you.
And take time to say hello and introduce yourself as the adult that you are.
And ask them for help.
Can you help me with this limiting belief?
Ask them how did this limiting belief show up?
They might tell you,
They might not know.
Perhaps you see this limiting belief happening again.
Remember you are observing as an adult and you can stop anytime.
And just breathe through this.
And ask your inner child,
Your younger self.
Is there anything you would like to say about this core limiting belief?
Do you want to say something to your inner child?
Something back about this limiting belief?
Like I see you and I'm here to take care of you now.
Or yes,
I hear you and I will pay more attention to you from now on.
And what is your inner child expecting from you?
So the first step is becoming aware of your limiting beliefs.
And then the second step is allowing and accepting those feelings.
And that's what we've just done.
And now the final,
Well the next step is comforting our younger self.
So there's maybe something you would like to say to them.
A message or you can give them some advice,
Some comfort like your favorite toy as a child.
I might it feel a little bit weird but let's give it a shot.
Maybe they want to play.
And it's almost time to say goodbye to them.
And you might want to ask them if you can give them a hug or say goodbye.
And somatic studies have shown that if you give yourself an actual hug right now,
That might really work.
Say goodbye to your younger self.
And say thank you for your help and see them walk away.
And whilst they're walking away,
You can place your hands on your heart and say it out loud with me.
I do belong.
I have a safe place within me.
I am good enough.
I am perfectly imperfect.
I am doing my best.
Thank yourself for taking this time apart for you.
And thanks to all the other participants here,
All the other meditators.
Thank you for sharing honestly and open.
And is there anything else you are grateful for today?
And can you have a final check in before we close?
How are you feeling right now?
What emotions are you feeling and have they changed?
You can move around your body,
Open your eyes and come back.
And please open the camera and share.
How was this experience for you?
Share in the chat.
If you really would like to talk,
You can raise your hand so we can take turns.
Or please share in the chat.
Also if it's not for you.
For example,
We will go into it right now.
You can share and then I will read it later.
But just a quick recap of what we've done.
And we've done quite a lot in just a brief time.
We did a grounding with the five senses mindfulness technique.
Maybe it's not your cup of tea.
Personally I don't like it.
But for some people it really helps you ground them.
We did a bit of emotional regulation.
And this is really important for procrastinating behaviour.
And also just acting upon your limiting beliefs.
I can go into this more later if you like.
But I also have a great picture in the link to the pdf of why it's important to work on emotional regulation so that you work on your limiting belief.
We did an intention setting.
So don't try to work and fix all your problems in one day.
Trust me,
I've tried.
It will not work.
And we chose one limiting belief.
An intention setting is really important.
We did an inner child visualisation.
Honestly and I based it on schema therapy.
Scripted re-scripting.
It really does wonders.
Researchers are really backing it up that we can then rewire our brain.
But again maybe you know today wasn't a great day for you.
It might work differently.
Another day.
Or maybe you were like yeah I want to dive into this later.
And we did some gratitude.
Researchers really show just simple things like I'm grateful for this and this.
You open your eyes and you really focus on all you're grateful for.
You will of course not only attract but feel more great about yourself and what you have in your life.
And we did affirmations.
What I would like to say about affirmations is I've made them according to the limiting beliefs and you should believe them.
So don't try to do.
Studies have shown this.
Don't try to do affirmation which you don't believe which I did in the beginning that was my mistake like I feel great about myself.
I felt horrible.
And then it just became this negative loop right.
So either make them realistic or somewhat what you believe.
Okay I see a lot of people sharing in the chat by direct messages.
Which is lovely.
Thank you for sharing that.
But then I won't share them in the workshop.
But it is a very pain.
It could be a very painful meditation as well.
It could be quite emotional.
But this is not an easy subject limiting beliefs.
But also please help if you liked it or if you enjoyed this meditation or you felt like I did something today.
I really appreciate it if you do.
So I put in a slide of a little bit of homework.
And I really invite you to do this.
To set what we talked about one small intention for today.
It doesn't necessarily have to be about your limiting belief.
But if you can pick one thing you would like to achieve that day for example in your studies like finish that paragraph.
You will work more towards it than if you be like I need to finish my whole thesis in a day.
That could be indeed your bigger picture.
But if you constantly focus on only I have to finish and you think you have to finish your thesis in a day you will start to procrastinate and not work.
With those intentions I invite you to even write it on a post-it paper.
And I have one next to my laptop.
And I see it and I work towards it.
Or next to your bathroom mirror.
And I am a teacher meditator on Inside Dime.
It's a free meditation app.
I don't gain anything by this by sharing this.
But I have many talks there.
Also about time management,
Reduced perfectionism,
Working with your inner critic and more visualizations if you're interested in anything like this.
So we're almost out of time.
Thank you so much for being here.
