Mindfulness practice 10,
Finding your purpose,
Getting still,
Asking,
And listening.
Get comfortable in a seated position.
Breathe.
With your eyes closed or gaze down,
Focus on your inhales and exhales.
Let go of any distractions that come into your awareness.
Continue to breathe deeply and focus on your breath.
See if you can tap into the stillness around you.
As your thoughts arise,
Use the practice you are cultivating to just see them as thoughts.
Nothing to give your attention to.
Just observe them dispassionately without focus or judgment.
Come back to the breath and to the stillness that surrounds you.
That is always available to you.
Where your focus goes,
Energy flows.
Remember that you can choose to focus on the thoughts or stories that arise or you can focus on the stillness.
Know that it is your choice.
This is your practice.
See if you are willing to focus on stillness and experience your heart relaxing,
Slowing down,
Opening up,
Expanding.
From this place and space,
Ask yourself,
What am I here to do?
What is my life's purpose?
Pause.
Breathe.
Don't demand an answer.
Just sit in the stillness and allow yourself to receive your inner wisdom.
You may hear the question reflected back to you,
What is my life's purpose?
Sometimes that's when the insight comes.
Don't think of an answer.
Allow the answer to come from within you.
What do you know for sure?
What is so solid inside you that you instinctively know it is true for you?
What makes you feel expanded rather than contracted?
If you get a sense of what you should do,
Just let that come up and let it go.
That is your thinking mind,
Not your inspired self.
Sit and gently listen some more with an expanded awareness of patience,
Openness,
And a willingness to receive.
Breathe.
Allow.
Do your best not to second-guess or doubt what comes up.
Our conditioned self is right there waiting to shed doubt on anything that arises.
Gently offer gratitude to conditioned self for its protective skepticism and allow your inner wisdom to be heard.
Turn down the volume of your conditioned self and turn up the volume of your inspired self.
Sit and listen.
What does it have to say to you?
What knowledge can it offer that it has perhaps never or hardly ever been given the opportunity to share?
Be patient.
It can be very shy from years of being silenced.
Allow the voice to surface.
You can even have a gentle conversation with it asking,
What would you like me to know?
You might be surprised by what surfaces.
It could be a very subtle sensation in your body,
A whisper or a tingling somewhere in your body.
Sit with it and allow it to share its wisdom with you.
If nothing surfaces,
There is no need to feel frustrated.
Remember that this is a practice.
Tell yourself that this was a good start and you can engage in this practice as many times as you like.
Be patient.
This is not something we are taught to do.
We are all learning.
You When you're ready,
Take a deep breath and flutter your eyes open.
Stretch your body and take a moment to transition your focus back into the room.
Breathe.
Welcome back.
Feel free to journal now about your experience or about any ideas or insights that arose for you during this process.
