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Within you is contained an assembly of beliefs—a vast collection of ideas you support, views and opinions on
various subjects, the ideologies, principles, and positions you endorse and hold dear. Beliefs express and govern
your attitudes; they filter your perceptions, and in many ways direct your outlook on life.
Types of Beliefs
Beliefs generally fall into two categories:
The kind of beliefs you hold have a profound influence on the quality of your life, so it behooves you to choose
those beliefs that are positive and uplifting. These beliefs increase the odds of your consciously creating a life of
happiness, fulfillment, peace, and joy.
You may like to think that you chose your beliefs and ideologies consciously and deliberately. You imagine that
through well-informed and critically reasoned thought you arrived at your current amalgam of beliefs about the
world.
Unfortunately, this is almost always not the case. Rather than being based on clear understanding and reasoning,
your beliefs are largely the product of inherited programming that you received as children from the
environment in which you were raised (a.k.a. parents, caregivers, siblings, teachers, religious leaders, peers, and
the media).
Just like computer software, these programs are installed on the hard drive of your subconscious mind,
regardless of the quality of their content. And unfortunately, without the correct uninstall software to remove the
program, they begin to run in the background subtly guiding your thoughts, speech, and behavior. To complicate
matters, as time goes on and you grow older, the programs get buried deeper and deeper in the subconscious
mind, making them harder to find and change.
Now, if your beliefs are expansive, nourishing, and life-enhancing, this programming process works to your
advantage. However, what if your beliefs are limiting (https://chopra.com/articles/8-limiting-beliefs-
that-are-holding-you-back-from-success) and not healthy for your well-being? Here comes the
power and benefit of meditation.
Enter Meditation
Meditation (http://www.chopra.com/live-events/weekend-within/) stands as a uniquely effective
tool to change or transcend limiting beliefs. Through its regular practice, meditation begins to slowly excavate
those beliefs that no longer serve you and make space for something new and more supportive. What follows
are the six key pathways through which this can take place.
Pathway 1: Transcend
By its very nature, meditation is a practice to transcend or go beyond the turbulence of your thinking process. In
doing this regularly, you also begin to bypass the crusty, old, and outworn beliefs you carry around with you
every day. The more frequently you do this, the more your limiting beliefs begin to lose their grip on you and are
less likely to influence your behavior in negative ways.
Through regular and consistent transcendence, non-nourishing beliefs, ideas, and concepts begin to weaken
and break up. Transcending is like a pressure washer for the soul. With time and regular practice, the dirt and
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grime in your consciousness becomes dislodged, revealing the uncontaminated field of pure awareness.
You recognize that everyone is a collection of myriad beliefs and from each unique perspective they are valuable.
The idea of needing to push one select narrative over others is an inefficient and often pointless use of your
energy.
With the expansion of space consciousness, you begin to actually see the subconscious programs that you have
been carrying within you rather than automatically activating them in response to a particular trigger or stimulus.
This is vitally important, for you cannot transcend a limiting belief until you know it’s there and how it influences
you. Once you become aware of it and bring it into your conscious awareness, you can begin to understand it,
and take steps to uninstall it and replace it with a more nourishing concept or belief.
With meditation however, you step into a non-conditioned reality where, if even for a nanosecond, those
conditions fall away. You peel the onion to its core and discover your true essence of pure potentiality. This
regular experience helps you to recognize that your beliefs aren’t as hard and fast as you once thought. You can
see them for the impermanent mental constructs they are. Further, with each visit into the non-conditioned
realm of awareness, you bring some of that expansiveness back with you, helping you to spontaneously release
those mental patterns that no longer serve you.
The limiting beliefs you consciously or unconsciously harbor are eventually consumed in the fire of higher states
of consciousness. As you begin to identify with your true nature as pure unbounded spirit, the entire concept of
boundaries and limits begins to dissolve. Ultimately, you are liberated from all constrictions into a state of totally
expanded awareness and can declare with certainty: I am not in the world, the world is in me.
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4/21/2019 6 Ways Meditation Can Transcend Limiting Beliefs | The Chopra Center
Sutra practice can be thought of as plastic surgery for the soul. By using specific and time-worn sutras in your
meditation practice, you can cause shifts in consciousness that can lead to powerful transformations of your
awareness down to the deepest level. The power of a sutra transcends the programming of the subconscious
mind by going to the core of your being and planting a seed of intention (https://chopra.com/articles/5-
steps-to-setting-powerful-intentions) within your soul.
In these ways, meditation can serve as a powerful tool to help you go beyond your limiting beliefs. Practiced
regularly, it will open the door to a world without limits.
Yoga teacher, author, and martial artist Adam Brady has been associated with the Chopra Center for nearly 20
years. He is a certified Vedic Educator trained in Primordial Sound Meditation, Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga, and
Perfect Health: Ayurvedic Lifestyle, and regularly teaches in the Orlando, Florida, area. Over the last several years,
Adam has worked to introduce corporate mind-body wellness programs into the workplace within a large,
Fortune 100 company. Adam is dedicated to helping people transform their lives through a consciousness-based
approach to living. He is the author of... Read more (/bios/adam-brady)
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Add a comment...
Nanda Cabral
Great explanation. Thank you.
Like · Reply · 1 · 41w
Marisa Bourtin
Great article, Adam!
Like · Reply · 1 · 40w
Marisa Bourtin
Thanks!
Like · Reply · 1 · 40w
Raisa Resseger
Great insight! Namaste
Like · Reply · 1 · 40w
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