It still catches me by surprise when something I hear hits my heart with a sharp, penetrating energy. It might be something I have heard many times or in many ways, but at this particular moment, I am caught by what I hear.
This happened when listening to Tara Brach’s “Freedom from the Prison of Limiting Beliefs” talk on Youtube.com
She talks about fear-based stories and beliefs, the limiting beliefs we hold.
She asks the question: “What are the most negative beliefs that you regularly cycle around? …The stories you tell yourself about yourself that have real negative judgments. Ones that in some way diminish the sense of your value, your goodness, or your worth…”
“…a core belief: I’m flawed; I am just plain unworthy, unlovable, bad.”
Boy did this hit me straight to the heart! Something that I have felt a large portion of my life. It brought tears to hear this and made my heart ache.
She also talks about feeling the need to be different for others to accept and love you.
She reminds us that this way of talking to yourself, these beliefs we look to validate and hold on to are actually “harmful fake news at the inner level.”
She goes on to offer suggestions of how to move past this feeling to a more hopeful space: self-accepting, self-compassionate, and self-loving.
I feel that the work I have done over the years has gotten me to a place of Thriving where I don’t feel this way all the time. But every once in a while, talks like this touch me and remind me where I have grown from and inspire me to keep doing the work!
This is a talk well worth listening to!