HOW TO SEE YOURSELF MORE CLEARLY

       In pursuit of our dreams, there are ups and downs but most importantly we should understand that focus and perseverance will help us get there where we want to reach. As the road to finding our dreams is not straight and along the journey we will encounter different things that can discourage us and make us want to give up but on the brighter side help us understand more of ourselves. It is vitally important to enjoy our journey and keep ourselves motivated during hard times and at times we feel like giving up. Robert H. Shuller said, "Tough times never last but tough people do". With that in mind we can help ourselves get focused and go hard towards our dreams.

      Actually what I want to share with you today is a post by Dr. Diane Dreher, best-selling author, Positive Psychology coach and Professor of English at Santa Clara University. The post provides a clear guidance on how you can keep yourself motivated whenever you feel like you are lost and help you keep that passion for your dreams through meditation and writing.

How to See Yourself More Clearly

The healing power of meditation and writing

By Diane Dreher Ph.D. 

I spend most of my days rushing along on the surface of life in a succession of appointments, meetings, deadlines and challenges that feels like an agility course.

 

 Source; Google images labeled for reuse

   But my daily meditation brings me back in touch with myself and writing in my journal reveals a world of inner conflicts, insights, and possibilities lying deep beneath the surface. In fact, writing about our lives can be a form of therapy. Psychologist James Pennebaker has found that writing about our personal challenges and conflicts can relieve our suffering and bring us new perspectives on our lives (Pennebaker, 1990).

Holly Makimaa, interfaith minister, teacher, and workshop leader, sees a powerful synergy between writing and meditation. “Meditation expands our consciousness and makes us more awake,” she said in a recent interview, “and journaling helps us to process the concrete particulars of our awakening.” Combining the two in her classes, workshops and retreats, she sees writing as a spiritual practice that brings people greater insight. “Writing can help us to look at our shadow side and discover the hidden golden shadow of ourselves.”

      Our “golden shadow,” she explained, represents “the brilliant, strong parts of ourselves we’re unwilling to own.” Many of us have a harder time acknowledging our strengths than our weaknesses. “It’s really quite profound” she said, of students in her workshops. “Family upbringing, culture, and even some religious ideologies don’t allow people to acknowledge the divine in themselves.” She referred to the Dalai Lama’s stunned amazement when he came to this country years ago. He didn’t understand why so many Americans were struggling with feelings of unworthiness because in Tibetan Buddhism there’s this sense of oneness with our divine nature.To help her students get in touch with their strengths, Makimaa asks them to write about about a time when they felt their own power. Seeing their strengths on paper, she says, brings people greater awareness, greater clarity. It’s “like holding up a mirror for them.”

Writing can help us see ourselves more clearly. If you’d like to  try this for yourself, take a pencil and paper and set aside some time to:

• Close your eyes, and take a deep breath.
• Focusing on your breathing, gradually relax into a deeper awareness of your body.
• Then open your eyes and write about a time when you felt your power—the first thought that comes to mind. It can be last week, last year, even a scene from your childhood.
• What did it look like and feel like?
• When you’ve finished writing, read what you’ve written,
• Look for your strengths and circle them
• Take a deep breath and breathe in a deeper awareness of these strengths

Then find a way to express your strengths more fully this week.