Mindfulness.com
Meditation
See all Meditation

Browse

Top articles

How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation?

Mindful LivingSleep
CommunityFor Work

How to Let Go of Limiting Beliefs

Melli O'Brien

00:00

00:00

Melli O'Brien

4.7

Duration

Scan the following QR code with your camera app to open it on your phone

How to Let Go of Limiting Beliefs

Personalized support for learning how to integrate mindfulness into your life. Delivered fresh everyday by our world renowned experts. Choose meditation duration:

Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness.

Today I'm going to talk about letting

go of limiting thoughts and beliefs.

So I'm going to invite you to

consider a metaphor for this.

Have you ever had the experience

of someone coming to your front

door to sell you something?

It, maybe some of you who are younger

won't have experienced this, but for those

who grew up pre-internet days, and I might

be showing my age here, people used to

come knocking at the door, selling things.

Maybe they'd sell encyclopedias

or vacuum or some makeup.

So somebody would come to

your front door and they would

start their sales pitch, right?

Could I interest you

in this vacuum cleaner?

How's your normal one operating?

You could probably upgrade it and

your floors will look amazing.

So, now, I never bought anything

from a door to door salesman.

I would just really simply and

politely say, no, thanks and

just wish them well on their way.

And in some ways this offers a really

nice metaphor for how our minds generate

these ideas and beliefs trying to

kind of get us to buy into something.

These thoughts come knocking at the

door of our awareness and try to kind

of give us their sales pitches of

beliefs and judgments and opinions.

Now if a door to door salesman came

with his vacuum and he started his

sales pitch to you, it's really

unlikely that you would just yell,

take my money I'm in without actually

listening to the rest of his pitch.

But this is often what we do with

limiting beliefs and thoughts.

We just buy into them immediately

without much consideration.

So with our minds, when they come to

the door of our awareness, you know,

we can hear that sales pitch and

just kind of politely say, no, thanks

mind, and just leave it at that.

Now I don't mean to say that we should try

and push the thought away or block it out.

What I'm saying is that we can

just know that our mind is a

thought generating machine.

It's constantly chatting away and

pitching us all kinds of things.

It wants us to believe in.

But we don't have to buy them.

That's a choice we have.

If we do buy into everything, we

might end up with a mental house

full of junk and clutter that

weighs us down and makes us suffer.

So we can become a little

bit more discerning with what

beliefs and thoughts we buy into.

And when we hear one that's not

helpful, we can simply smile kind

of at the mind politely and just

mentally say no, thanks mind.

So to be clear again, we don't

have to get rid of the thought.

We simply don't buy into it.

So today, as you go about your day, just

remembering, you don't have to buy into

everything the mind tries to sell you.

May be a good sales pitch, but if

you don't find it useful, you can

just kind of mentally smile to

yourself and say, no, thanks mind.

And then just put your attention

back onto something more nourishing.

In this way, you have a clearer,

lighter mind and heart and more ease

and awareness throughout the day.

So as always thank you for your

practice and your presence here

and just inviting you now to

settle in for today's meditation.

Get Unlimited Access

Start your mindfulness journey today.

A Mindfulness Plus+ subscription gives you unlimited access to a world of premium mindfulness content.

  • Over 1,800 meditations, sleep, calm music, naturescapes and more
  • Daily mindfulness video meditations 365 days a year
  • 100s of courses and tools to help manage anxiety, sleep and stress

Email Missing

We couldn’t detect your email with the SSO provider you have selected.
or

Mindfulness Guarantee

We are here to make a positive impact on the world. We never want to sell you something that hasn’t helped you live a better life. That’s why if you’re unhappy with any purchase from us, you have 30 days to get a full refund and your money back.

If you subscribed to Mindfulness Plus+ and are unhappy with your purchase, please get in contact with us within the 30-day period and we’ll refund your purchase.


Learn more about our Mindfulness Guarantee.

Mindfulness

Bring balance into your everyday life.

We believe in a world where everybody has access to the life-changing skills of mindfulness.

  • 2,000+ Guided Meditations
  • Daily Coaching
  • Sleep Content
  • Mindful Exercises
  • Mindful Radio
  • 10+ Courses from world-class teachers

Private Browsing

Added to your cart!

Checkout

Claim your free access

Create a mindfulness account and we’ll unlock this premium session in your account forever.

or continue with
By continuing, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Do you already have an account?

Start a free trial to play this session

7-Days free trial, cancel anytime.

Start 7-Day Free Trial

Finish personalizing your account

Complete a few quick questions to make your own personalized mindfulness plan.