Understanding our inner purpose makes a significant difference in changing the ease with which we are able to create sustainable change.
I'd like to invite you to participate in an exercise that's slightly guided meditation but also written self-awareness introspection to identify your unique experience of purpose.
Now,
I didn't really know what my purpose was until I hit my mid-20s.
Prior to that,
I lived in a world of externally defined space.
My value,
My felt sense of beingness was cultivated by the world around me.
I didn't have it inside of me nor did I carry it within.
And when I started my own internal journey,
Goodness,
It took years for me to really get clear on who I was.
There's a couple core exercises that I did that really helped deepen my felt sense of me and invite in introspection without shame.
Shame is a core piece that gets in our way of wanting to examine who we are.
Been there,
Done that.
I often felt that I didn't live up to what I was supposed to be and therefore I stopped myself from trying.
I've spoken in a couple of videos about this idea of the fixed mindset.
Well,
That was the way I lived my life.
A growth mindset instead means that we believe we are truly capable of everything and anything.
It means that we look at every challenge as an opportunity,
That every difficult moment is simply a sunrise waiting to happen.
We just have to find the sunrise within.
So I'd like to invite you to find a piece of paper and a pen.
And just make a couple quick notes about how you value yourself.
And I'm going to encourage you to do a deep introspection.
When you think about what you bring to the world around you.
What are three core elements?
Now,
You may notice my language is specific to an external valuation.
What are you bringing to the world?
That's intentional.
I'm wanting us to look at the impact that you experience yourself as having on the world around you.
And now I'd like to invite you to write down three things that you need or feel fulfilled by in order to accomplish those three tasks in the first line.
These are the things that energetically fill you up that enable you to do whatever it is that you bring to the world around you.
And then finally,
One more column.
You can tell I love these columns if you've been watching these videos.
What does it mean about you when you've accomplished the items in row one?
Does it mean you're valuable,
Worthy,
Lovable,
Acceptable,
Adequate?
Very good.
I'd like to invite you to start to apply that gentle self haven and touch hands,
Arms,
Face,
In any order that feels comfortable and loving to you.
What you've written in column three is possibly a part of who you are or a part of what you're seeking.
And they often go hand in hand.
What you've written in column two are core facets of what you need to refuel,
To motivate yourself.
I want you to look at those items in column two and notice are these things that you choose to give yourself on a regular basis?
Just note right now mentally,
Don't write anything further.
Just check in on that.
Do you choose to prioritize giving yourself these things?
And then look over column one.
Notice those three items.
And what would it be like to let those go?
To not prioritize your energy stores on these three things,
To know that if they are meant to be,
They will be.
And if they are not meant to be,
They will not.
They're simply items that exist,
Experiences.
And then invite those three items in that first column to gently float away in clouds,
If only just for this moment.
And let's focus our attention on columns two and three.
When you are feeling all of those experiences in column three,
What happens to you energetically?
I'd like to invite you to find a time when you felt these ways,
Maybe one time,
Maybe three separate times.
Invite your mind to wander back across the course of your life and notice experiences or in a big,
Bold,
Vibrant experience where you felt this way.
Where you truly held that I am statement about these experiences.
And then notice,
Did you take or experience any of column two?
Any of these things that help fill you up?
Did any of these play a role in cultivating these experiences in column three?
And if yes,
Take a moment and pause.
Put a little star or a heart next to each one.
Each one of these choices.
And then I'd like to invite your mind to expand a little bit more.
Did you make other choices that helped cultivate the felt sense in column three?
Maybe going to bed early.
Maybe meditating in the morning.
Whatever it might be.
Maybe reaching out to friends,
Maybe asking for help and support.
Goodness knows whatever it is and start writing those items down in column two.
And hopefully your column two is growing.
When you have a moment,
I'd like to invite you to rewrite column two on a fresh page,
Fresh piece of paper or a new note on your phone or your computer.
Someplace where you'll see it,
Maybe even make it your wallpaper on your phone.
These are the things to do to fill you up.
These are the self-care choices that you know that when you do these items give you that sense of deservingness of worth.
See,
External locus starts with that column one.
We are defined by the world around us when we accomplish tasks,
When we acquire,
When we look the right way.
Let's invite that to step aside.
Because it's really column three that we want a better sense of self.
And it's the column two that cultivates our ability to get there.
