Tara Brach - Reflection: Waking Up from Limiting Beliefs (2016-06-01)

Episode Date: June 5, 2016

Reflection: Waking Up from Limiting Beliefs (2016-06-01) - A guided meditation that addresses limiting beliefs surrounding interpersonal conflict. Full talk, "Real but Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs" is at: https://www.tarabrach.com/real-not-true/.

The following reflection is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or reflections or to join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. And take a few moments to allow yourself to settle, to feel your body and your breath, feel your intention that we might remove the veil that cover what's right here, the beliefs that create a barrier between ourselves and loving fully. Just feel the sincerity of that intention and you might bring to mind some situation in your

life that gets you very reactive where you feel stuck, perhaps some conflict or some distance with one person perhaps, sensing when you're triggered and when you're feeling, that distance, that conflict, the separation, sense what you're believing. Again, just ask yourself, what am I believing about myself or about the other? What does it mean to me if that person's treating me in this way? What are you believing? The belief might land on that person's bad or wrong, might also land on I'm not lovable, I'm not worthy.

And don't worry if you're not sure, because this is a practice. you can, it's a life practice really and we're just getting a taste here, you can revisit it. But just to sense if you're believing in some way that you're failing or the other person is, and ask yourself that question, that simple question, is it true? Is it possible to sense that it's real but not true? Is it possible to sense it as a map or a representation that's probably been there a long time conditioned by the culture and by our personal history, and ask yourself the question,

what's it like to live with this belief? And this is the map that's guiding you. I'm bad, you're bad, you shouldn't, I'm failing. What's it like? What's it like in your body and your heart when you're living with this? Can you sense the pain of the belief? You might sense how long you've been living with this belief, how familiar it is, and how it's really affected your life over years and years.

Just let your heart witness that. And you might ask, so what does the hurting place inside me, the vulnerable place most need right now? Just in a very genuine way, just listen in, just sense underneath that belief there's vulnerability. What does that place need? And you might put your hand on your heart or your hand on your cheek as a way of communicating and being with yourself and sense if there's any words,

any message, any reminder that in some way would be healing for the part of you underneath that vulnerability underneath the belief, the fear place, the hurting place. What does it need? It could be just simply a... message of I'm here, I care, I'm sorry and I love you, you can trust, trust your goodness,

see if you can just let in the compassion and the care. And since that you're inhabiting that place of compassion, that awareness that's tender, and from that vantage point, you might ask, well, what would my life be like without this belief? What would it be like? Who would I be without this belief? If you no longer believe this, if this map was no longer shaping your life, what'd your whole sense of your own being be like? Can you get just a glimmer and then let go and relax in that space? Illusion only exists because it's not investigated.

We close as we opened with the words of Rumi-A. I must have been incredibly simple or drunk or insane. to sneak into my own house and steal money, to climb over the fence and take my own vegetables. But no more. I've gotten free of that ignorant fist that was pinching and twisting my secret self. The universe and the light of the stars come through me.

I'm the crescent moon, put up over the gate to the festival. Namaste.