Inner Sanctuary

I read Shakti Gawain's meditation exercise about inner sanctuary to a small group this afternoon. The reading had a profound effect on one of them. She was able to articulate the experience to the group. She also said that my style is different from other meditation readers. My voice is louder and it gave a different kind of experience.

Another attendee said that she liked the fact that I allowed her to develop the meditation in her own way in her mind and did not force an experience. She found it be more of a free flow and less intimidating than previous readings.

A third attendee wants to find a recording of meditation so that she can give it to her mother.

Face your Vulnerability

What are you scared of? Face your fear! The moment you do that this nebulous thing - "fear" - dissipates and you feel a sense of release or freedom.

Allow yourself to be vulnerable! Face your vulnerability! Don't be macho. You will open doors to an entirely new world.

Boredom Alert -

Do you ever find yourself suddenly feeling apathy? Not caring about the future because the present stinks? Don't worry, you are just bored! Life hasn't presented you with the challenges that can keep you engaged. It's a boredom alert letting you know that you need to find the next mountain to climb.

Just don't make it too high a mountain. That can overwhelm you. A modicum of need for achievement is good for the soul. Too big a goal may look unattainable and throw you into despair.

It all amounts to a balance.

A boredom alert lets you know that your life is out-of-whack. How do you bring your life back to an even keel? How do you stay alert to the possibilities that emerge when you are unbalanced?

Prompts

Just wanted to remind myself about the word prompt. We used to have prompters sitting patiently at the side of the stage reading along and ready to prompt us if we could not remember our lines. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a little prompter sitting in our head reminding us about stuff?

I wonder if it is useful to think in terms of a little person in your head that can prompt you whenever you forget someone's name or forget why you went into the other room.

Hmmmmmm

Cleaning - Aroma

I enjoy washing dishes because of the smell of the dish washing liquid. I enjoy lawn mowing because of the smell of freshly mowed grass. I enjoy a meal more when it smells good. I enjoy the smell of a good wine. I trigger positive associations with good smells.

I recently read somewhere that if you want to pull yourself out of a funk it might help to go and smell something rotten...the example used was horse manure. I wonder if it is possible to pull yourself out of grief by smelling something bad so that you stop your mind from dwelling on the grief.