This is the fourth of ten mindfulness practices designed to help you increase emotional balance and presence in the current moment.
This practice is a visualization exercise.
Its purpose is to help you connect with your core values,
Which is essential in finding your purpose and living a meaningful life.
While awareness of the present moment is a key to mindful living,
It's really only half of the equation.
The choices we make each day directly impact our emotional well-being.
We are the most content and satisfied in life when our intentions and behaviors align with our values.
This alignment requires two different things.
One is knowing what our values are,
And the second is setting intentions and making choices consistent with those values.
This practice will help you identify and connect to your core values,
Which is foundational in finding your purpose and living a meaningful life.
The culture that you live in has many voices telling you what's important in life,
So sometimes it can be difficult to identify what our values really are.
There's a beautiful quote that says,
Most of us spend our lives climbing the ladder of success only to find at the end that it's been leaning against the wrong wall.
This practice will help you identify the wall which you can place your ladder against,
So that at the end of your life you'll have an increased chance to have made choices consistent with the things that are most important to you.
It's better to identify our values now,
Rather than experience regret at the end of life we didn't want to live.
This is an existential exercise and it can evoke strong emotion,
Because it helps us identify and connect with something that is important to us.
You can begin by finding a comfortable place to sit.
Notice the sensations of touch and pressure,
Where your feet make contact with the floor,
Where your legs make contact where you sit,
And where your hands rest.
Take a deep intentional breath and let it go.
Imagine taking a walk through a beautiful cemetery.
As you walk through the cemetery,
You come to a gravestone that is blank.
There's no epitaph and no name,
And you begin to wonder if this were your gravestone,
What would you like written as your epitaph?
How would you want people to remember you?
You find yourself continuing walking and coming to a small building in the cemetery where people are gathering for a funeral.
You begin to notice that many of the people are familiar to you.
They're your friends and family,
And you come to a realization that you're attending your own funeral,
And that they are going to share their thoughts about the type of person that you were.
First,
A beloved family member stands up.
Someone that you love deeply,
Who you respect,
And whose opinion matters to you.
They begin to talk about the type of person that you were.
Notice and observe what they say,
And notice what it's like to hear this.
Imagine what you would like them to say about the type of person you really wanted to be,
Even if it's different from the type of person that you feel you currently are.
The words which they say reflect the type of person that is your very best self.
This person concludes,
And they sit down,
And one of your closest friends stands up and begins to share what kind of friend you were to them and others.
They talk about the type of friend that you were when you were at your very best.
Listen to the words they say about you.
Connect with the type of friend that you wanted to be.
The traits and characteristics that you wanted to show and be remembered for.
The friend begins to conclude,
And they sit down,
And then someone from your life outside of your family and friends stands to talk.
Someone from your work,
Religious group,
Community.
Someone who knew what type of person you were in these capacities when you were your very best self.
What would you like to hear them say about the kind of person that you were,
Even if it feels different than the type of person that you currently see yourself as.
This person then begins to conclude,
And they sit down.
The funeral ends,
And people begin to file out.
As you begin to reflect on the things that you heard from your family and friends,
And the people who knew you through work or community.
The things which they said.
The things which were meaningful or poignant for you to hear.
These are the things that represent your deepest core values.
The directions and areas of your life that have the most importance to you.
You find yourself walking outside,
And you realize that there is still life to be lived.
That you have the opportunity to become the person they described.
As we conclude the exercise,
Take a deep intentional breath,
And let it go.
Widen your attention to the sensations of sitting where you sit.
That sense of grounding and connection in the body.
Bring an attitude of self-compassionate understanding and acceptance to whatever it was you experienced.
See if you can make a commitment to spend five to ten minutes writing down the words of your family and friends that resonated with you the most.
And see if you can make a commitment to better align these values with your daily intentions,
Choices,
And behaviors.
