Is it possible to accept our limiting beliefs? Hug them and thank them?
Lena Nasiaskou is an Embodied Coach, Trainer and Facilitator, and she will guide us in a powerful meditation on limiting beliefs, we will discuss the impostor syndrome, the importance of the body and pratical tools to feel grounded.
You can find Lena here:
I think when we experienced situations or yeah, circumstances
Lena:that they throw us out of our regular normal way of doing things, then I
Lena:think these limiting beliefs are really kicking in a massively, unfortunately.
Lena:So, yeah.
Lena:And what can we do
Serena:Today I'm really happy to have here Lena Nasiakou embodied
Serena:coach with lot of experiencing using the body as a transformation tool.
Serena:We are going to discuss the importance of fighting, limiting beliefs.
Serena:The use of meditation in doing so, and Lena is going to share practical
Serena:examples to fight limiting beliefs.
Serena:Thank you so much, Lena, for being here with us.
Lena:Thank you very much for having me here.
Lena:It's it's lovely to work together and also to really take a moment.
Lena:Let's take a moment to discuss a, that, what do you have planned to discuss and
Lena:yeah, bring some light into the topics.
Lena:The, the focus, when you first asked me about being part of your
Lena:podcast, I immediately connected with it, with the topic of thing back.
Lena:And for me being black means paying back to myself, being back
Lena:to the moments that I feel good.
Lena:I do things well.
Lena:I feel good in my skin because there are so many moments I think, in our lives.
Lena:He has people that they are on maternity leave, let's say for a couple of months.
Lena:And then they have to go back to work or people who are, who face
Lena:the trauma or people who were in hospital had an accident, or even
Lena:people who were in a different role.
Lena:They were a team player, a team, a part of a team.
Lena:And then they became a team later and all of a sudden, it's, it's a very
Lena:new thing and it takes a couple of.
Lena:Months, maybe it takes time to test and come to the point that
Lena:you feel, oh, now I'm back.
Lena:I'm really back.
Lena:So that's why I'm very happy to be here.
Serena:Thank you, Lena and do you think we have the luxury of time?
Lena:No, actually now that you're asking, I think most of the times we don't
Lena:and that's counter productive because when we don't feel that we are working
Lena:or being at our best and we have to perform, you have to do it's even more.
Lena:It adds even more pressure.
Serena:Yeah, I have same feeling and, and this is why for me, it's a gift
Serena:to have you here because you are doing something really special for us today.
Serena:Do you want to explain what you are going to propose to our listeners today?
Lena:Yes.
Lena:Oh, you make me smile.
Lena:Let me say that the it's a gift and Yeah.
Lena:It's I was thinking that we can work with the topic of limiting beliefs and
Lena:imposter syndrome, because I think, I didn't know, but many, many people are
Lena:suffering from limiting beliefs, from beliefs that they hold about themselves
Lena:and they are really holding them back.
Lena:And that.
Lena:It's a topic that I would like to share with people so they can
Lena:really, they can really see that it's something that it is happening.
Lena:It's not only me or you, but it's like, it can happen to everyone.
Lena:And actually what's, what's interesting is that recently I read an interview from Tom
Lena:Hanks, the well-known actor, and then he says, and I have a cure so I can read it.
Lena:When are they going to discover that I am in fact, a fraud and
Lena:take everything away from me?
Lena:I mean, we all know.
Lena:And he's so well-recognized and he is a war awarded actor.
Lena:It's so interesting and it's not only him.
Lena:It the imposter syndrome, a syndrome, which is a, in few words, explained
Lena:it's a syndrome that we believe that what we have achieved is not because
Lena:we deserved it, but because it's because of luck and people are going
Lena:to discover they can away from us.
Lena:So it's something that it doesn't discriminate, age, sex,
Lena:gender the years of experience.
Lena:Nothing it it happens.
Lena:It can happen to everyone.
Lena:So, I think when we experienced situations or yeah, circumstances
Lena:that they throw us out of our regular normal way of doing things, then I
Lena:think these limiting beliefs are really kicking in a massively, unfortunately.
Lena:So, yeah.
Lena:And what can we do
Lena:mean I don't have a magic wand, but maybe we can start with what
Lena:is not good to do, because what happens if we have a limiting belief?
Lena:Let's let me tell you one of my limiting beliefs.
Lena:So.
Lena:A year and a year ago, a year and a half ago, I made the transit from the nonprofit
Lena:sector profits of the corporate work.
Lena:And.
Lena:It was so intense.
Lena:And so they figured out that I was questioning myself on a daily basis,
Lena:feeling that I'm not a good fit for corporate, but I'm not good enough
Lena:that maybe I should stop doing all the embedded learning things that I'm doing
Lena:can just be normal, regular trainer.
Lena:So what was going on is that I had this beliefs, let's say
Lena:I'm not a good fit for COVID.
Lena:Uh, I just wanted to post them away.
Lena:I wanted it.
Lena:I don't have this believe anymore.
Lena:I was like, yeah, if this is a struggle, I want, I wanted to put the side.
Lena:So this is one thing that we usually do.
Lena:And out like just a small thing to try now with uh people who listen
Lena:to us and also with you before we go to the main exercise just to embody.
Lena:And so with your tests, If you, if you can bring in your mind
Lena:now, your negative belief, how, what do you want to do with it?
Lena:What do you want to do with it and bring it in your mind and just put the
Lena:gesture in it, what you want to do with
Serena:it.
Lena:Yeah.
Lena:What are you doing with?
Lena:Yeah,
Serena:I was trying to create a ball to transform.
Serena:Like it's not longer a weapon that is hurting me, but it's
Serena:like our win that I can enjoy.
Serena:So I was trying to transform it in something different.
Serena:And you did something really powerful
Lena:I was pushing it away because I don't want to see it.
Lena:Like it's like I sit in front of me, but I don't want to say it.
Lena:It triggers.
Lena:And most of people have this idea.
Lena:They want to transform it.
Lena:They will not put it in their back.
Lena:They will not put it aside.
Lena:They don't want it as it looks like right now.
Lena:And this is very normal, but what it takes, if we want to work with
Lena:our limiting beliefs is to accept.
Lena:Now easier said than done.
Lena:I know that it's very easy to say.
Lena:Yeah, yeah.
Lena:Just accepted, but it doesn't happen.
Lena:So what we can do is one of the things that we can do is have like an embedded
Lena:process that can help us acknowledge say accepted and slowly let go.
Lena:And that was the plan for this for this book.
Lena:Cause if we can work together.
Lena:Online and everybody who is listening to that right now, plus who maybe doesn't
Lena:have a privilege in working with the core.
Lena:Try out this exercise.
Lena:So for the ones for listening to us right now, you only need to be in
Lena:a place that you feel comfortable, that there are no people around
Lena:you and you can keep sending.
Lena:So they can moment with a press pose now, so you can find this
Lena:place for yourself and then we can
Serena:start.
Lena:Okay.
Lena:We can start and that if you're seated, please stand up and we are simply
Lena:going to ground ourselves first.
Lena:So what's your feet fill your feet against the floor.
Lena:Relax your shoulders.
Lena:Take a slow breath, breathing slowly and
Serena:breathe,
Lena:and you can keep your case load.
Lena:Or you can close your eyes, close your
Serena:eyes.
Lena:They can either slow breath
Serena:and let it out
Lena:and blink in your mind now and topic that you want to
Lena:play or limiting beliefs around.
Lena:At topic that keeps you basically play and you want to work out right now
Lena:and now simply observe quits out of the limiting beliefs
Lena:that are connected with this.
Lena:Simply observe them without any
Serena:attachment.
Serena:And now they
Lena:can moment to place these limiting beliefs.
Lena:In front of you as if you were watching them in front of a screen,
Lena:maybe they're too, maybe are three, simply observe them in front of you as
Lena:if you were reading them on a screen.
Serena:And now they can moment
Lena:block.
Lena:No, let's this believes for how they protected you.
Lena:They can moment to see how these beliefs have been serving you.
Lena:And now imagine that this believes that they are in the screen,
Lena:they're coming closer to your chest.
Lena:They're coming closer to your heart.
Lena:And when you feel ready, open your arms and hug them while you're giving
Lena:yourself a big warm and senators hug
Serena:and when you
Lena:open your hands and let them
Serena:go
Serena:and take a deep breath.
Lena:Take another deep breath and exhale, Sarah,
Lena:lift up your face, relax your shoulders.
Lena:Feel your feet against the ground.
Lena:And when you are ready, you can open your
Serena:eyes.
Serena:Oh, thank you.
Serena:I was not ready to be brave.
Serena:Oh, it was really powerful.
Serena:And I didn't expect that.
Serena:Normally in the coaching session, what are you going to do after this exercise?
Lena:There's usually a conversation.
Lena:So after the exercise, I give her a couple of minutes in silence.
Lena:So the call take and really take it clean.
Lena:And then it's a discussion where the coaches can share what happened
Lena:in the visualization, how they see,
Serena:and what if we are alone doing that maybe because
Serena:we are listening to this.
Serena:What can we do after the visualization
Lena:with ? If you take a moment for yourself and a moment can
Lena:be five minutes can be one.
Lena:Let's take a moment to really take everything in , can
Lena:be that you wanna stay in.
Lena:Silence can be that you want to throw and express yourself in drawing can
Lena:be that you want to write down the clothes can also be that you're going
Lena:to save them with somebody that is really close to you or go for a walk.
Lena:Probably say ways of handling our own emotions are already yeah.
Lena:Valid.
Serena:Do you think it's something that you need to do multiple times?
Lena:Multiple times.
Lena:Yeah.
Lena:And what is interesting is that we will never get read, or we'll
Lena:never be like without any limiting beliefs, but would be great.
Lena:We would do one exercise and then it's done.
Lena:But if we keep doing this exercise or other exercises, we can, we can have
Lena:another exercise on power pose and later if you want, it really helped.
Lena:I do know that, oh, when these limiting beliefs kick in, when these feelings
Lena:and thoughts of I am an imposter comes, I have a tool that I can use.
Lena:I have a technique that I can put in practice, so I don't feel helpless
Lena:or I don't feel the overwhelm in the, the extent that I used to feel.
Lena:And slowly, slowly, They fade away, but unfortunately other
Lena:ones will come in the foreground.
Lena:It's, it's a lifelong, it's a lifelong learning.
Lena:It's a lifelong story.
Lena:So every time we can have something to work with them, that's the
Serena:yes.
Serena:And do you want to share anything else to our listeners?
Lena:Yes.
Lena:Actually I would like to walk you through the exercise and explain
Lena:why we did these different stages in the exercise and what helps.
Lena:Y Y hell what helps what?
Lena:So we started with grounding, putting ourselves and feeling that
Lena:the ground and closing our eyes.
Lena:And this is really great.
Lena:When if you observe yourself, when you have these limiting beliefs, mostly
Lena:we don't have our feet on the ground.
Lena:Either we are crossed leg or we are not really connected with.
Lena:So it really, really helps if we get connected first, if we
Lena:really start from another level, we start from the ground level.
Lena:So that's, that's the ground thing part then you visualize the topic
Lena:and the next part was observation.
Lena:So I ask you to simply observe the limiting beliefs in front of you and
Lena:try to see them like in a screen.
Lena:We held Jasmine now resay that the thought of visualization is huge.
Lena:And I think it's true because we read to the visualization, the unconscious
Lena:brain and our minds, our brain doesn't know that this is like mental health.
Lena:It thinks that this is the case.
Lena:So it helps us to disconnect the attachment from the belief itself.
Lena:So if I'm thinking I'm not good enough, and I have a judgment that this isn't
Lena:like a really bad thing to think about.
Lena:If I try to disconnect the attachments as sick as a thought,
Lena:it's a thought I'm not good enough.
Lena:Then it passes by.
Lena:He told her they reframes the whole belief.
Lena:So that's the reason that we took, there was a fake.
Lena:The next part is about acknowledgement.
Lena:Now what's interesting is that most people aren't aware that these beliefs
Lena:are there to protect us the surface.
Lena:Maybe not now rhythm to create them right now, because now they're unsufficient,
Lena:but we played them at the moment that they were there to protect us.
Lena:And I'll illustrate this with an example.
Lena:Like uh, if this baby elephants and when they are really small, they put them at
Lena:there's a pole and they tied their legs in the pole with a rope and the elephant
Lena:tries to escape and it cannot escape.
Lena:So it's in pain and everything.
Lena:So it learns to stay close to the road because it knows that if it
Lena:goes away, It will be in pain.
Lena:And what's interesting is that the elephant grows and becomes a huge pig
Lena:elephant, which weights tones, which can easily destroy the pole and run away.
Lena:But they don't do it because they are, they believe their belief that if they
Lena:go, if they try to escape from the pole, the pole will give them guidance.
Lena:It will be very painful.
Lena:So you see how things work?
Serena:Yes.
Serena:We need to do this visualization with the elephants.
Lena:That's a good one
Lena:is to make them free to make us free, but to make us free.
Lena:How has this been serving us?
Lena:So it has been serving the little elephant because it helped him not to have pain.
Lena:It avoided the pain and it served us in the past because of X and Y reasons.
Lena:So first before we let go, anything, we need to accept.
Lena:And then we have the acceptance part, which is really to take everything in
Lena:and have this Dell, both superpower for hug, to hug the beliefs and hug ourselves
Lena:because we tend to be super harsh on ourselves for we have this belief.
Lena:So January was and super genuine, big warm hug to ourselves.
Lena:It really helps to really feel an embody, how it is to accept these
Lena:beliefs, to acknowledge them and yeah.
Lena:To, to really accept them and have them close to us.
Lena:And then the last part, the letting go.
Lena:With a test here that we get open our hands and we can release
Lena:it and they can, they can go.
Lena:It's not that we are pushing them away is that they can go, they can
Lena:go because we have accepted them.
Lena:So that's, that's the whole idea of the exercise.
Lena:The three, three thumb thing, observation acknowledgement, acceptance, and let it
Serena:go.
Serena:So I have a question Did maybe can sound like a provocative one, but it's not.
Serena:Why do you think we forget that we have a body when we are working?
Lena:Oh, that's a good, I think, you know what, you know, I'm giving
Lena:three new courses and one of the things that I'm saying usually
Lena:in the beginning is that with.
Lena:From the neck up is everything.
Lena:Everything happens from the neck up.
Lena:And then our is a brain taxi and it's not, we get so much disconnected
Lena:with our bodies because it's not valued in their societies.
Lena:We are living in.
Lena:And it's so not true.
Lena:It's so not true.
Lena:Our but is really it's keeps the score.
Lena:There's a very nice book that they really love.
Lena:It's called the body, keeps the score and clearly does everything happens
Lena:in a very physical level and at the same time in the brain level and
Lena:according to ontological coaching which tackles the way of being, we are in
Lena:the world in three different ways.
Lena:One with our body, second one without fault.
Lena:And the third one with the moods that we live in.
Lena:So the emotions in the moves, and then the logical approach says that
Lena:these two ways of these three ways of thinking are he can imagine them as three
Lena:circles, that they are interconnected.
Lena:And there is so these are three circles that they influence each other.
Lena:And we usually, unfortunately.
Lena:We usually try to go only on a health level on what we are telling to ourselves
Lena:for what we are telling to others.
Lena:But if we try to incorporate a bit of the international layer and the
Lena:Bradley layer, we can see a lot of results just because it's so unknown.
Lena:It's unknown because we are so used to, we live in our body that we don't observe it.
Lena:It's like a fish is living in the water.
Lena:And when does the face know that it's not in the water anymore when you take it out?
Lena:So it's the same for us when we start observing our bodies and acknowledging
Lena:it in three, makes a very big difference.
Lena:It's like our face is outside and observing and understanding
Lena:that it's not in the water then.
Serena:I think we need to do a lot of things on this.
Serena:And do you have any advise on, be more aware of our body when we are
Lena:working?
Lena:Yeah, that's certainly simple taking like the one we did in the beginning with the
Lena:brown thing helps every time we fail.
Lena:There are a lot of thoughts coming into us to put ourselves on the
Lena:ground and take a deep breath, full the belly with the air and exhale.
Lena:That's something that people want to see that people that you are in the meeting
Lena:with or anything, but they will certainly feel the difference in, in our presence
Lena:so that that can make a big difference.
Serena:Thank you.
Serena:Thank you so much, Linda, for this beautiful experience.
Serena:Thank you for being with us.
Lena:Thank you.
Lena:It has been really lovely.
Serena:Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
Serena:I hope you will use this meditation in your daily life.
Serena:Please share it with friends.
Serena:You can find all the information in the description and also on their website.