Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to talk to you

about overcoming limiting beliefs.

So there's an old story about this.

A man was walking through the circus

one day and as he was walking past

the elephant camp, he suddenly

stopped, really confused by what

he was seeing in front of him.

There were these huge, powerful creatures,

these elephants and there were being

held there in the camp by just a small

rope, tied to their front leg connected

to a little wooden stake in the ground.

No chains, no cages, no steel.

It was completely obvious that

these elephants could at any moment

just break away from their bonds.

But for some reason they didn't.

And he was curious.

So he saw a trainer standing

nearby and he went up to him

and asked him, "Excuse me, sir.

But can you tell me why these elephants

are not going away when they clearly can?"

"Well," the trainer said, "when they're

very young and much smaller, we use

the same rope and stake to tie them.

And at that age it's enough to hold them.

And then when they grow up,

they are conditioned to believe

that they cannot break away.

They believe the rope can still hold them.

So they simply never try to break free."

The man was amazed.

These animals could break free from

their bonds at any moment, but simply

because they believe they couldn't,

they were stuck right where they were.

And like the elephants in this story, we

all tend to have ingrained stories about

who we are and what we're capable of.

Some of the stories are helpful.

Some of the stories are really unhelpful.

They limit our potential, block

our passion for life, and they

can really hurt our self esteem.

Much of our conditioning

was formed a long time ago.

Perhaps a parent, a teacher or a

peer said something, or we had a

particular experience that made us

decide we're not very smart, we're

not good at certain things, we're not

attractive, we're not a create, creative

person, whatever the stories are.

And when the stories we tell ourselves

are self-critical, self-doubting and

limiting, we really end up tethered

in place by our past conditioning.

We stay in our comfort zones

and repeat the same thinking

and behaviors again and again.

To find freedom of mind and unlock

our potential, we need to really

question and change our stories.

This really starts by challenging them.

So we can do that by asking

ourselves when these stories come

up, where did this story come from?

Is it entirely true?

Is it helpful?

Do I really want to keep

buying into this story?

Is it just some old conditioning?

So by questioning or challenging

our old beliefs, we can begin

to soften them and let them go.

So today I invite you to consider the

beliefs and the conditioning you might be

carrying that you might want to let go of.

As you continue to question limiting

beliefs slowly over time, you'll find

more and more freedom of mind and

create new landscapes of possibility

and creativity in your life.

So as always, thank you for your

practice and your presence here

with us and inviting you now to

settle in for today's meditation.