Soul Spaces

because there are many spaces in our souls.

[soulspaces]

Story with Awareness

[soulspaces]

Learn to be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others.

Marian Wright Edelman

[soulspaces]

Reflection exercise of the week

Reflect on what it means for you to go into exam season with awareness. Set a practice goal that will help you “be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself.” Here are some ideas of practice goals: -a daily walk -1 minute pauses in your day to notice the rise and fall of your chest as you breath -10 min. of doodling or journalling each day -to experiment with a different practice each day to see what fits for

[soulspaces]

I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you're going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.

C. JoyBell C.

[soulspaces]

Reflection exercise of the week

At the end of each day this week, take a few minutes to listen to a piece of music that is both calming and expansive. Stretch out in a comfortable position and let your imagination speak to you. Close your eyes and follow your train of thought wherever it leads you. “Listen to the music and to your thoughts gently unspooling and repeat gently this simple phrase, ‘I am enough…I am enough…’ Stop striving to be more and appreciate what it is you already are.” Imagine your wings unfolding.  – based on an exercise from Julia Cameron’s “Walking in this World

[soulspaces]

As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.

Pema Chödrön

[soulspaces]

Let go of certainty. The opposite isn't uncertainty. It's openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.

Tony Schwartz

[soulspaces]

Maturity, one discovers, has everything to do with the acceptance of ‘not knowing.

Mark Z. Danielewski

[soulspaces]

The mistake is thinking that there can be an antidote to the uncertainty.

David Levithan

[soulspaces]

The opposite of faith is not doubt but certainty.

Anne Lamott

[soulspaces]

Reflection exercise of the week

Reflectively and slowly read through the above quotes several times. Notice how you are responding – in your thoughts, in your feelings, in your body, in your deeper sense. Slowly scan through your body and notice each part. Notice your breath. Notice your feelings, sensations, images that are swirling within you. Notice any tightness and allow it to soften just a little. Allow an intention to rise for how you would like to approach or live with any uncertainty you experience in the next week. Perhaps tell a friend about your intention or about your experience of these quotes and reflection.

[soulspaces]

I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

[soulspaces]

Reflection exercise of the week

Sit quietly, perhaps lighting a candle. If music helps you listen to your inner life, play some music. Set out some crayons or pastels and a blank piece of paper. Reread the quote and notice if something “unresolved in your heart” bubbles to the surface of your mind. Notice if it takes the form of a question. Begin to draw the question, not worrying about where it’s going but simply sitting with the question, noticing what emerges on the page as you let you hand guide your drawing, expressing what you are feeling with shape, colour, and texture. When you notice thoughts taking you to want an answer, come back to being with the question and your expression of it on the page. When you’ve taken as much time as you have or wish for this, turn your drawing in each of 4 directions and see what you notice. Does anything attract, repell or surprise you? Place the drawing in a spot where you can see it regularly…and continue to notice it in glimpses over the next days.

[soulspaces]

I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity

Gilda Radner

[soulspaces]

Reflection exercise of the week

Journal about or Reflect on times/places in your life where you feel uncertain. What is the story you tell yourself about these experiences? How have these experiences of not knowing changed you or contributed to your growth? What are you learning from these experiences? What story would you like to tell yourself?

[soulspaces]

Story of living with uncertainty

November theme

[soulspaces]

Reflection exercise of the week

Take a 7 minute self-compassion break guided by Kristen Neff: http://self-compassion.org/wp-content/uploads/meditations/01-Kristin-Neff-The-Self-Compassion-Break.mp3 Other self-compassion guided exercises: http://self-compassion.org/category/exercises/