Meditation and shedding of limiting beliefs

It is so common to hear or even think the words “I don’t know how to meditate” but the truth is, we slip into a meditative state when we are fixating on a flickering candle or a bonfire, when we are creating art or baking a cake, when we garden or take a walk in grass or on a beach; simply put, the moment we lose our self in something we enjoy, we slip into a trance. Our brain actually slips into a meditative state every 60 seconds!

Just notice how often you get home and realize that you don’t completely recall the journey because your mind went into auto pilot. It is this state that allows us to enjoy a good book and let our imaginations run wild and it is this very same state that allows us to suspend our beliefs and enjoy our favorite movie.

While it is this state that makes advertisements so annoyingly successful, the very same state can be used by ourselves to reach deeper realms of our minds. By now we have all heard the term “limiting beliefs” and perhaps wondered how to go about changing our limiting beliefs from the inside out.

While I am not a professional in the realm of psychology or psychiatry, I have found a way that has worked for me and to slowly change my limiting beliefs over time. I cant stress this point enough… “OVER TIME”!

Here is what I do, it is similar to reciting a mantra but in a way that is customized for me, by me. The perfect mantra can be hard to find and traditionally is granted to you by a guru. For someone who is new to meditating it can take ages to really feel the way past the meaning of the words to the point where the sound of the words provides soothing as described in the book Passage Meditation by Eknath Easwaran. This book is really amazing and highly recommend it but I digress.

I was first shown the following technique at a seminar I attended in Dubai. Those of us in attendance were asked to assess our desires and come up with a limiting belief we wanted to change. With our eyes closed and our limiting belief set for altering, we were asked to scan ourselves and really feel our bodies starting at our toes until a sensation was felt in the palms of our hands. The feeling of heaviness or tingling or heat was then captured as a single word. In my case, it was “tingling”.

Next, we were asked to asses our emotional state and again, starting at our toes feel our way to a single, declarative, positive word set in the present tense that would describe our feeling once our goal was accomplished if our limiting belief did not exist. So, for example, if our limiting belief was that abundance was hard to come by and not meant for everyone we would believe we needed to live in a life of poverty without exception. If however, we did not hold such beliefs we would not stand in our way to achieve whatever we wished to achieve and the little voice that holds us back with “practical” reminders that our goals are out of reach, simply wouldn’t exist. The little voice would be busy thinking of ways to succeed rather than coming up all the reasons why we shouldn’t even try.

I decided that my word would be “success” and proceeded to the next step which incorporates the word “meditation” to the list. Finally, we were asked to come up with a short sentence or statement that is based in the present tense, is positive and is structured as a gratitude statement for having been granted access to the success of our goal. Armed with the words tingling, success and meditation I struggled to come up with a sentence short enough to remember but descriptive enough for the exercise.

I finally recalled a statement given to me once by a Sufi healer when discussing abundance… “abundance flows to me and through me”. Perfect! I had my words and my statement. Keeping in mind that it is habit that results in changed behavior, once you find your words and your sentence, keep it. Recite it over and over and if you have to change the sentence, at least keep the magical words as they will become the catalyst for your change over time.

Here is the technique and please keep in mind that this is not my technique, it is simply a technique I was taught and loved:

Recite your first word seven times to yourself

Recite the second word seven times to yourself

Recite the word “mediation” seven times to yourself

Recite the selected statement to yourself twenty one times

State “it is done”, count down 3-2-1 and clap to come back to the present

If you have fallen asleep, don’t worry, the process still works! Ready to try it?

Sit back, play the following track and come up with your own words, relevant statement and the let me know how it goes. Also, if you have by chance stumbled upon this technique before, please let me know. I would really like to give proper credit for this amazing technique.