I want to talk about truth, focus, intention and groundedness.
These four words are the recipe to my day every day
It’s like approaching a diving board with the intention
Of diving deep into a pool of water
My truth is the diving board
My focus is the direct path to it.
My intention is to bounce and leap
I’m grounded in feeling the impact of cool water on my skin
Truth, focus, intention and groundedness.
I have wavered at times
Trying to please others
Ignoring my wants and needs
Feeling overwhelmed by life
Not realizing I can help myself
By pulling myself back in my body
And be in the present
Lack of intention and lack of interest
With the dull presence of depression
As I move in a foggy world
Of indecision and regret
Every day is a new opportunity
To let regret go of what wasn’t
And step up again with a
Follow through that’s true.
When I am present I am
Less likely to imagine the worst
Or be mesmerized by fear
Or immobilized by shame
With an intention I am
Directed with a vision
And clear path to
An outcome I desire.
Truth, focus, intention and groundedness
It’s my empowering chant
Instead of lions and tigers and bears
All based on fear and the unknown
Stand in truth
Choose to focus
Envision the intention
land in groundedness
The air is clearer
The feeling is lighter
The view is spectacular
My presence is welcomed
All the True Vows
by David Whyte
All the true vows are secret vows the ones we speak out loud are the ones we break.
There is only one life you can call your own and a thousand others you can call by any name you want.
Hold to the truth you make every day with your own body, don't turn your face away.
Hold to your own truth at the center of the image you were born with.
Those who do not understand their destiny will never understand the friends they have made nor the work they have chosen
nor the one life that waits beyond all the others.
By the lake in the wood in the shadows you can whisper that truth to the quiet reflection you see in the water.
Whatever you hear from the water, remember,
it wants you to carry the sound of its truth on your lips.
Remember, in this place no one can hear you
and out of the silence you can make a promise it will kill you to break,
that way you'll find what is real and what is not.
I know what I am saying. Time almost forsook me and I looked again.
Seeing my reflection I broke a promise and spoke for the first time after all these years
in my own voice,
before it was too late to turn my face again.
Participants' Reflections:
During my meditation this morning, I pictured myself as a baby and realized that, though I’ve always had issues of safety in my life, I don’t think I was neglected and left in the crib. I think I would have other things I would be dealing with. I started having gratitude for my mother. I held that image. I don’t know where it came from. I think it’s an important feeling to have and maybe I’m on the road to mending my relationship with my mother even though she’s in the spirit world.
Thank you for strong words and thoughts. I had a vivid dream of being on a high sandy cliff with a young girl who kept slipping back in the sand as I tried to get her up to the top. I see her as me who was always overshadowed and wanted to speak out more but couldn’t. I am sort of a background person and I struggle with judging myself and being happy with who I am. I think we all have that struggle. I want to say that I appreciate being in this community.
I love the intention. I was reminded of the phrase ‘the power of intention’ by Wayne Dyer. I was also thinking how we can have intentions we aren’t even aware of. If I’m not consciously making intentions, it could be the intention to not face what I want to face, the intention to not take care of myself. There’s that flipside of intentions about what we are doing. Like manifesting. They say you manifest what you focus on. Every now and then, every several years, I will feel something so strongly, I have to say it out loud. I have to do that old-fashioned kneel by the side of my bed and give it that weight of saying it out loud.
I’m very aware of gratitude for this group. I’ve been reminded several times how rich it is to be here, how rich the experience of going within is with all of you. I’m grateful for that. I’ve been looking at how I distract myself in my mind, how I pull myself away from what’s going on around me. At a certain point, I start checking in and the phrase came to me, ‘it is safe to let more in.’ I let that repeat for several times, it is safe to hear more, to see more. And without my intention, it morphed into ‘it is safe to let more out.’ To express myself more fully, to bring my ideas out into the world, to say what I have to say to people. To allow the power of my thoughts from a deeper place come out into the world. It’s wonderful having our energies together.
Our energies buoy each other. That’s what makes meditating in a group so powerful.
In talking about the power of this group, I was talking to a friend in the far away time zone and she is going through some difficult times. If only she could be in this time zone, she could be comforted and learn.
Thank you. I was happy to be reminded of the fact that when we are really present, we are less likely to imagine the worst. As a child, I was in a hypervigilant state because I was afraid of the wrath of my father. Children deserve a gift of presence whether we are as a teacher, friend, relative, as it helps them be aware of the power of being present.
Thank you for the readings. I went right to water and my relationship and communication with water. I lived near the Mississippi River and when I was 8 years old, I remember the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean. I remember thinking I was amazed I could love something in nature as deeply as I could love another human being. I made a vow to find a way to live near the ocean which I have. I went to the ocean yesterday. When the wind is this strong and the waves are so high, they have kites flying high. My two loves—the air and being near water.
I want to thank you for the reminder to stay present. It’s so easy to get caught up. I live my best self when I am present. In this transition time for me, it’s really scary to be changing careers right now. I get wrapped up in the fear of the unknown. What if I don’t like it? What if I’m making a mistake? That’s just all fear, thinking about the future. Time will tell, and I don’t have to keep beating myself up. Whatever it’s going to be, it’s going to be. If I don’t like it, I can move on. Thank you for the reminder.
I had a therapist tell me once that the importance of grounding myself in my body will get me out of my head which is where the fears of the unknown reside in the what-ifs and should’s and could’s. There’s free cell phone apps that have grounding meditations to help ground back into the body. They can be as short as a minute or longer. It’s another resource to help.