Discover Your Healing Wisdom

Foreign guided meditation is for so many people, the best way to truly gain benefit in your response to personal challenges. As you invest and bring your own experience to the guided meditations, you'll give yourself the best chance to change long standing patterns from suffering toward a state of well being, peace and healing. It's important to put yourself in a comfortable body position in a private space where you're not disturbed. Turn off your phone and be ready to really be alert. So just start off by noticing the rhythm of your breathing and whether it's a comfortable rhythm. And recognize that you have the capacity to have your breathing be a source of ease of peace. And that you, when you're aware of it, are very likely to to want to have that be supported throughout the rest of your life. Normally, we don't see breathing as being a source of potential peace. See if you notice it, and as you look at it now, just breathe exactly the way you want to breathe. Also notice your attitude even as you're looking at how you breathe. Are you thinking, am I doing it right? Am I doing it wrong? Or are you just enjoying it? Because breathing has the potential to be one of the greatest assistants to our life and enhancing peace. And then ask yourself a question. What is my most challenging emotion? And let that challenging emotion stay luminous in your brain where you can really identify what it is. Let it be as crisp and clear and simple as possible. Not a story, just one word, at the most, two. And start off by identifying this challenging emotion, even if it's the same one you've used in the prior meditations. Whether it's fear, anger, anxiety, rejection, abandonment, loneliness, whatever is your most impactful challenging emotion is the potential for suffering to turn into a fulfillment of what you need. Let your attention dwell on it and be reassured. The point is not to reinforce it. The point is to be able to see it, to accept it, maybe even respect it. And then to be able to move in a direction where you can guide yourself, feel your level of sincerity and devotion, and do your best not to judge it. How much do I sincerely want to be in a state of well being? How much am I ready to dedicate my awareness to support that? And when you're aware of that, recognize that you're pursuing this to gain a chunk of well being. That you're looking for a new wisdom for you as to how to best be and how to respond in your thoughts and actions. By looking at your challenges, you're looking for your inspiration, you're looking for your fulfillment. You're looking for Your needs. And while you're doing this, look for the part of you that knows it wants to care about you. And for some of us, we're asleep there, we're just living our life and we've forgotten, of course we want to care about ourself. But it's not, of course, Remind yourself, not only now, but plant a seed, a deep seed, fertile seed. I want to care about me. And this is not narcissism. This kind of caring gives itself away automatically. If you feel more sincere, you're going to give it to others. If you feel more generous, of course you're going to give it to others. If you feel more love, you're going to give it to others. This is the exact opposite of being self centered or narcissistic. Because the kind of qualities that you're looking for when with wisdom are qualities that everyone needs. They're universal needs. So as you look for the part of you that wants to care about you, can you feel it in your guts? Can you feel in your chest? Just notice where it's happening inside your body. There may be specific thoughts or qualities or actions that you're thinking about that I want to care for my sex life, I want to care for my economic life, I want to care for my love life, I want to care for the world. But all of that would be if it serves something deep inside you. This is what I want for my life. So just pause as you see what your wisdom is might be telling you now what matters the most to you? What does your wisdom tell you? Ah, this matters the most to me. Can you find it caring? Heart and wisdom embody me and help me relax my body and breathe rhythmically to find you. See if you can send that prayer to yourself. See if you can feel that desire to bring wisdom and heart into your life. Some of the ways to find heart and wisdom qualities that are clear are when you practice being harmless, being kind of taking a gentle breath, having the courage to speak your truth about your needs, recognizing that you're human and that the person next to you is human and that you want to take care of yourself and them at whatever level is realistic and possible. Maybe your wisdom is telling you to be kind when you feel challenged. And as much as you can speak with conviction, be sensitive and direct. So now let yourself ask a question. How can I best care for myself and be as specific as possible? So that might mean I'm going to breathe a little more gently. It might mean, you know, when I usually get in a fight with My partner. I'm going to remind myself I'd rather have another option. Or it might mean I'm going to eat a little bit more healthfully, or I'm going to exercise, or it might mean I'm going to give myself more pleasure because I'm working too hard. Everyone's different. But your wisdom knows in an unqualified way that it always wants to move toward well being. Hear that again. Your wisdom knows it always wants to move you toward well being, to care for yourself. And just looking again. Can you sense that then? Of course I want to care for myself. And it needs to be, for most of us, one small step at a time at the most. And that's a major evolution to make a small step at a time in caring. And as you tune into your caring, notice that the most significant caring relates to the present or to the very near future. Caring that's about thinking about when you're a Grandfather, when you're 26 years old isn't going to help very much, or caring for somebody on the other side of the earth. It's better than nothing. Fostering the intention to care, it enters your body in a different way. For many of us, it's going to take time to soften our tone, to make more gentle eye contact, to relax our muscles, to walk in a way that supports our body. And when you're not sure how you're going to care, notice how much you can tolerate this. Not knowing might be a complete blank slate. I have no idea how I'm going to care more. Notice if you can have a response that it's okay, that I don't know, it's all right and we don't put a period at the end of it. I don't know is one of the greatest inquiries. I don't know how to care for myself and I want to keep persevering and asking. You may be in a state of fear or betrayal, anxiety, loneliness, feeling inadequate, angry, guilty. Maybe you're driven or withdrawn or empty, and you're not sure how to care for yourself. That's when you need to use these questions from the heart. How can I care for myself? So you can find your wisdom. Your wisdom is waiting for your questions from the heart. We all have wisdom, but haven't necessarily trained ourselves how to ask the kind of questions that will foster the wisdom. And again, wisdom is never negative, it's never critical. It's going to encourage us to look at the truth more carefully. It's going to be accepting of all that we've missed or at least tolerating it and recognizing the best I can do is keep asking. And when I don't know, that is the sign of a depth individual. That means you're deep. When you don't know, that means it matters and you don't know. For most people, they think not knowing is a failure. Not knowing is a sign of maturity. It's a sign that you're a deep sea diver. You're going under the water and you're looking at a place where you can't see and you have the courage and the humility to ask, what would wisdom be telling me here when I have no idea how to move forward? For most of us, when we don't know, we're ready to move on to the next subject. So guide yourself right now to say when I don't know, that means I want to give it more attention, not less. My wisdom is waiting for me and I can't find it. And I want to devote myself to keep asking these questions from the heart so I can have the best chance of finding my wisdom. Wisdom is always waiting for the asking. As one very wise person on our planet has said, ask and you will receive. We need to be asking ourselves, how? How do I move from here to there when I don't know how to move? How do I stay with it when I'm confused? It's so easy to forget that we have this capacity. We need to start with a question from the heart. That's always in our best interest to have a chance to discover this wisdom. Every challenging feeling is inviting us to find our most astute response that will serve our lives and those around us. Let yourself keep joining whatever is your most challenging feeling and now recognizing why it's so important. And the same for challenging situations. Let your observer see that you're challenged. And there's dignity in being challenged. If we're not challenged, we're unaware. There's immense dignity. And see if you can remind yourself. Right now I want to remember to ask the question, what will serve my well being when I'm in my most challenging feeling, really for the rest of my life and as often as possible and to escalate it as much as my heart and life will allow. What would be the way I could care for myself and others? Please give me the guiding thoughts that will bring peace to myself and those around me. And then you just remain in silence and you wait. You don't have to figure it out. Silence, when you ask a question will start to respond. We just can't give up on the question. And remember, the answer to these questions from the heart will give you multiple options of wisdom at times and your wisdom will say, ah, multiple options, not sure which one to go with. Then it will say, okay, don't know, I'm going to take my time, say which one, seems like it's the wisest. And you can fall in love with asking the question what is wisdom telling me? And not expecting an instant answer. Recognizing it may take 20 minutes, might take a half an hour, you might revisit it for two weeks. But anything that leaves you confused that you're addressing with this question is so worthy of your time. And as you have explored this depth of wanting to find your wisdom, see if you can appreciate that this is a big part of of why you're alive. This is a big part of learning how to age gracefully. This is a big part of love and self love. Plant a seed. May I remember that I want to seek wisdom as much as possible for the rest of my life and perhaps either. Put your hands on your heart, put your palms together and let it be a prayer for your own well being and for it to spill over to those that are around you.