Soul Spaces

Marian Wright Edelman

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

C. JoyBell C.

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

Pema Chödrön

Tony Schwartz

Mark Z. Danielewski

David Levithan

Anne Lamott

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.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

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.

Gilda Radner

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?

November theme

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/