[four-minute read; 15-minute optional practice]
We didn’t ask for impostor syndrome, yet here it is, preventing us from enjoying success.
The good news is that, like other negative thought patterns, impostor syndrome can be stopped in its tracks. The first step to accomplishing this is to learn more about it and where it comes from like our founder and CEO, Brian Tate, did. When we identify the unique reasons we struggle with it, and the thoughts and feelings that are attached to it, its power is broken. We can begin telling ourselves a different story, that we’re not impostors, we’re already successful, and the bar we’ve set for ourselves is unrealistically high.
Affirmations like these help, but they’re only as effective as we are aware of what’s going on in our minds at a given moment. Strengthening our awareness can help us identify whenever impostor syndrome is making an unwanted appearance in our minds. The best way to do that is through meditation.
10-Step Meditation for Impostor Syndrome
At its core, impostor syndrome—the feeling that we’re unworthy of our successes—is just that: a feeling.
Mindfulness meditation gives us the power to become aware of thoughts and feelings as they appear in our consciousness and the strength to let them go. (That includes the thoughts and feelings that constitute impostor syndrome.) By doing this repeatedly, we can loosen the grip that a negative pattern of thought, like impostor syndrome, has on our lives.
Here’s a 10-step mindfulness meditation you can practice right now that is tailored to help you overcome impostor syndrome. It will help you become aware of when the impostor in you is rearing its head and effectively counter it with presence of mind, openness, and self-compassion. Try it out for a few weeks and see how it works for you!
- 1. Sit comfortably, spine erect, on a chair or cushion.
- 2. Before you begin, take a moment to ask yourself a few questions and search your mind for the answers. (You can spend as much or as little time on this as you want.)
- What’s my motivation for sitting down to meditate each day? (For example, “I want to overcome impostor syndrome and enjoy my successes without feeling like a fraud or a failure because I failed to live up to the unreasonably high bar I set for myself.“)
- What’s my goal for this particular meditation? Try to keep it simple and attainable. (For example, “I want to avoid getting frustrated when I lose focus. Or, I want to be especially aware of thoughts that sound like impostor syndrome.“)
- What distractions are capturing my attention most strongly right now? Create a mental list of them, and resolve to stay aware of them and let them go when they do arise. For this particular meditation, add impostor syndrome to your list even if it isn’t distracting you right this moment.
