Curiosity Exercise

What do you want your day to look like, one year from today? Grab a journal and a pen. You will have time to write as you bring your curiosity & imagination to this exercise. This "Curiosity Exercise" takes you on a guided meditation where you create an "Ideal Scene." One year from today: How do you want to feel? Who do you want to be with? How do you want to spend your time? Are you working or not? Are we in nature? When you can dream it, it can happen!
Song - Washed by East Forest

Transcript

Welcome, My friends, To a curiosity exercise. Today we will be learning how to bring curiosity to your life by actually looking into the future to create something called an ideal scene. We will be bringing mindfulness to the body by leading you into a meditation that drops you into the moment. And we will also be spending some time exploring and dreaming and visioning, Expanding our awareness to a visualization practice. We will be asking the question, What does your life look like one year from today? Look at the date. And we will be using a journal. So if you have a journal, Go ahead and grab it. And if you'd like to type some notes on your computer, That's perfectly fine. But it's important that we get our pen to paper so that we can write down how we want to see our lives one year from today. Not just visualize it in our mind's eye, Actually write it down. We'll start, Like I said, With a meditation and then I'll have you journal for about five minutes and I'll just be playing some soft music in the background. And then I'll come back in and we'll close the meditation together. I welcome you to find a comfortable seat. Perhaps you'd like to lay down or stand if seating is not available to you. Take some deep breaths. Slow and steady. Just releasing any tension that you may be feeling. Let the exhales melt away. And I encourage you to find where it's easy to breathe in your body. Where does breathing feel really accessible? Maybe that's in your belly. Perhaps it's in your shoulders, In the back of the throat. Seeing how aware of your body in this moment you can be. I invite you to be curious about your life as Mary Oliver says, This one and precious life that you are given. Ultimately we know that right here and now is the only moment that there is. And so with mindfulness, The idea of being right here, Right now, Staying with the breath, Staying with your body. A way that I really like to stay with my body is just observing my hands. How do my hands feel? Is my heart beating fast or slow? Steady. Which can keep me anchored here in the moment. And the other thing that we're going to play with today is doing some imagination building, Some curiosity building, Building this muscle of curiosity where we're actually going to be doing a curiosity exercise and allows for us to vision what it is we really want. What do you want? How do you want to feel? How do you want to connect with the people who you love in your life? How do you want to feel when you are in right relationship with yourself and with the world? And what to do when we feel resistance in our bodies. If Carl Jung, The depth psychologist reminds us that what we resist persists, Then what do we do? How do we do? As you're sitting here, Lying here in meditation, Tune into this question. Instead of resisting something, What are the alternatives? In working with several teachers, Specifically mindfulness teachers, What I've learned is we can bring childlike curiosity to our resistance and it melts. It changes. It goes away miraculously. It's like this magic wand where we actually get to start focusing on what is this pain trying to share with me? What is this fear that I'm feeling? What is this relationship bringing to me even though it feels painful? What is this offering me? And this can feel very analytical. And a lot of this curiosity that we're going to be exploring is how does it feel in our bodies? And turning more childlike, More playful, Not taking it so seriously. So I invite you to play in this curiosity exercise as you turn on your imagination, Which is crucial for dreaming a new dream, For creating the life you want. Simply ask yourself in one year from now, What is my perfect day? What is my ideal scene? So keeping your eyes closed, What is the weather like when you first wake up in the morning? What is your house, Your apartment like? Where are you waking up? Do you have anyone with you? What does your space feel like? What time is it? How do you feel energetically? And then I invite you to go through each hour of the day in your mind's eye, In your imagination. What do you do? Where do you go? What do you eat? How are your conversations? Do you have any conversations? Do you spend time in nature? Are you reading? Are you writing? Are you dancing? Are you sleeping? Are you playing? Are you moving? What are the sounds that you hear? Are you listening to music? Are you in silence, Stillness? And perhaps it's hard for you to go hour by hour because your mind is jumping from one thing to the next. Fine, Let yourself be creative, Be curious about all the different aspects of a day, A whole day, One year from today. Do you want to turn back to Your love? Yes. What if anything were possible? And as you let your mind go, I encourage you to think about how it is you're winding down on your day. What does your sleep feel like? What are you dreaming about all the way through the end of the night? And when you're ready, You can write what you just envisioned. What are you dreaming about? What are you dreaming about? What is your ideal scene one year from today? If you didn't write it and you thought, Oh, That's not important, I deeply from the bottom of my heart, Encourage you to write it down and then check back in one year from today. What has come true? What have you created for yourself? Just to see, Just to start working this curiosity muscle, This creativity muscle, This imagination muscle that sometimes we've lost because we're quote unquote adults now, Whatever the hell that means. Right? So this is a practice. So practice it. Practice being curious. We need to exercise this muscle. It is crucial for this next chapter of humanity so that we can live a dream that is supportive of the planet. At least that's what's important to me. And as you read through your ideal scene, I encourage you after this meditation to read it out loud to yourself, To your friends, Who you trust, Who would be open to it, Asking them if they'd be open to hearing it, To your loved ones who are supportive of your growth. And see if you can perhaps build some community around you to help hold you accountable for this, For creating this for yourself. You can join my hive with the Macaranda method, My private practice, And join our community of people who are tapping into curiosity every day, Every day being curious about how we can more live in health and wellness and peace and share our gifts with this greater Earth community that we are blessed to be a part of. Take some deep, Slow, Meditative breaths and feel in your body how it feels as if this ideal scene were to come true. How does it feel in your body? Just imagine it, Just let your curiosity be there. This is how it might feel if this ideal scene were actually my life. How does it feel in your head and in your face? You can bring a smile to your eyes. What if you smiled from your eyes alone? What would that feel like? What does it feel like in your throat? What do you notice in your shoulders? What do you notice in your chest, In your back? How does your belly feel? How does your root feel? How do your hips feel? Feel it right now in your body, In your mind's eye, In your imagination, Breathing in how you want to feel by feeling it right now. This is how we become embodied feeling in our bodies right now. Scan down your legs and your knees. Bring the sensation alive all the way down to your feet and your toes. Bring your whole body from the crown of your head to your fingertips to your toes and maybe even an inch off of your skin. What is the vibration you are putting off right now as you feel this ideal scene? Let's take three breaths together to close the scene as you continue to bring this forward into your day, Into your week, Into your life, Into all the relationships that you meet, All the people who feel this newfound energy, This new vibration that you are sharing with the world and knowing that that vibration will attract to you what it is you're calling in. Breathing in deeply through your nose, Breathing out with a high breath. Breathing in, Stretching, Reaching, Reaching, Reaching your arms up, Your legs out and exhale, Releasing your arms down, Relaxing your body. Last one. Breathing in, Perhaps smiling from your heart and breathing out, Releasing. Thank you, My dear friends. My name is Eleanor Medina with the Macaranda Method and it is truly a pleasure to be a guide for you as you increase your connection with curiosity. Good work. See you again. Take good care. Bye now.