I started a journal today as a way to clarify my direction in life, where I want to go. I credit this article on Tiny Buddha by Henri Junttila as the inspiration for sitting down to start a journal and to disseminate the ideas herein.
I realized lately that life is temporary. Whereas before I took time – and life – for granted. I’m 33 years old now, a quarter (third) of my life has passed me by, and I’m realizing now that if I want to enjoy my life, I need to take responsibility for creating a life for myself.
One of the biggest obstacles has been finding a direction. In other words, defining or clarifying what I want to build, create for myself.
Previously, I was too caught up worrying, thinking about what was “wrong” with life, myself, the world, etc. Now, I’m seeing that I need to shift my focus onto what I want (instead of what I don’t want).
Finding what I want is a challenge. As far as I can remember, I had never given much attention to my body, my heart, my balls. Instead, I had been dominated by thoughts, often times fearful, stressful thoughts.
Since a decade or so ago, I began meditating as a way to step out of thinking and to be present. Through doing this, I am able to give myself a brief respite from thinking.
Also recently, I’ve discovered the power of physical embodiment as a powerful tool for reconnecting to what’s true. When I say “true”, I mean reconnecting to an aspect of ourselves that is not influenced by thought. In this way, we can “listen” to our bodies and hear our deepest wants and desires.
Oftentimes, when I do this, I will feel a subtle (or not so subtle) impulse to do something. Sometimes my mind will object to the impulse and create a negative thought/feeling as a way to negate the impulse. This is due to fear and is a natural reaction when I dare to explore outside of my “comfort zone”.
Although I sometimes struggle with my mind creating resistance, it doesn’t mean that I still can’t honor the impulses I feel in my body. Even by taking the smallest action in service of that impulse, we begin to build strength and confidence in our heart’s desires and begin moving in a direction to manifest those desires.
There may always be fear, doubt, and negative thinking but as long as we’re able to listen to our deepest desires and take a small step in the direction of those desires, then we are building our vision of the future.
And as we continue to remain rooted in the present moment – through meditation, embodiment, and present moment awareness – we can realign ourselves with our wants and desires.
Life is too short to be spending time focusing on things that don’t excite us, delight us, and encourage us to become the greatest manifestation of ourselves. So take some time every day to get still, listen to your body, and take even the tiniest step in the direction of your dreams – because life is too short!
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