We all have narratives in our minds. A beliefs system which is partly a result of our first impressions, our past and history and partly the fruit of our present fears and limited perceptions. Meditation comes handy since it trains us to watch our thoughts and investigate them.We learn to take distance from them so that we can stop identifying ourselves with those limited beliefs. We become aware that they might represent a portion of the truth, not the whole picture. Becoming aware of those false beliefs creates space in our body and space in our mind, it frees us from the suffering that most of those thoughts create. "I am not good enough, smart enough, beautiful enough" and all the other subconscious messages we keep storing in our mind are self - soboting our well-being all the time. We feel separated from others but also from ourselves. We judge, monitor, have standards both for us and others. And the more we perpetuate our inner conversations, the more we feel separated. And probably we hurt others. We stop feeling we belong or we don't let others feel they belong. Surely our Western contemporary culture doesn't help. We live in a world that is constantly judging, evaluating, making us feel inadequate, scared, not enough. Yet, waking up is possible. Recognizing our system of beliefs, our emotions rising from those beliefs, is the first step. To look beyond that sense of separation and embrace our vulnerability is the next.
Ask yourself, what do l believe in? And also ask yourself, what's behind that belief?
Is it skillful? And can you bring your awareness to that belief and see what is telling you?
Can you hold it with kindness, with self-compassion?
And then ask yourself, is it true? Is this l believe in, true? And even though you may affirm it is, asking the question to yourself is already opening up new possibilities, creating space for new answers later on.
Then, try to feel how it is like to hold that limited belief. And ask yourself why you need to hold onto it. Is it because of fear of letting go, of uncertainty? What does it feel like to imagine yourself free from that old belief?
Can you make any room for the possibility of living without it? What if by letting go of who and how you are you also stop believing what others are like? Who we truly are is way behind our limited beliefs. Becoming aware of our and others' potential free us deeply.
It makes us capable of loving more openly.
Pausing and asking yourself if what you think is true gives you a new perspective, it gives you that space and distance to discern what you are feeling from what is true. And maybe it helps you let go of those patterns of thinking or at least to feel what it would be like to live without them. Until then, stop, investigate, embrace whatever you believe with kindness, keep asking who you would be without those stories. And trust that waking up from your trance is possible.
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