At a recent workshop I was asked for tools for self-guidance and here are three I have used myself at different times.
WRITING IN A DIARY OR JOURNAL This tool works because you get your thoughts out so that you can review different aspects of your situation. It’s effective in a similar way to a conversation as you get to express thoughts and feelings. Try to write without ‘editing’ to please an imaginary judgmental reader. You are the only reader and editing may be in the way of the truth. Start by clarifying what you are seeking guidance about. Ask yourself the questions you want answer. Then write answers as if you are a magazine ‘agony aunt’. Or let your thoughts flow freely, ranging around until you find you are writing something helpful.
SLEEPING ON IT people say ‘sleep on it’ when someone voices their concerns but is not getting anywhere. It does work. Write down your issues and questions before you go to sleep, or sit with them in meditation or prayer. Let them go and go to sleep. Then notice what is there in your psyche as you wake up. It might be pictures, dream fragments or fully formed thoughts. There may be new insights or a fresh way of looking at things available to you with the new day.
FINDING ANSWERS IN NATURE Nature offers so much as a source of inspiration and wisdom and this is something to do wherever you are. Taking your current life question with you, go out into a park, a garden or on a country walk. Keep an eye out for something that attracts you that you can take home easily, perhaps a stone, a leaf or a fallen twig. Don’t look for anything in particular in this exercise, just for what catches your eye. Take it home and sit comfortably. Talk to yourself about the object, noticing everything about it. Then form sentences starting with ‘What this…(the natural object) Tells me about… (the life question) is… and see what answers come to you.
All the best with using these tools for self-guidance. I’d love to know what happens when you try them. Please do write and tell me.
August 20th, 2020