A Meditation For Mindful Decision-Making

If you are struggling with a decision you need or would like to make, this meditation may be useful for you. You are guided through a visualization practice that aims to help you connect to your emotions and body sensations as you are contemplating your decision, the options associated with it, as well as their respective potential consequences. By allowing yourself to walk down the path of each decision option while mindfully attending to your emotions and body sensations, you may uncover new insights related to your specific decision situation that can help you move forward.

Transcript

Welcome to this practice.

In this meditation practice we are going to contemplate a decision.

You're going to think of a decision that you're needing to make in your life.

It can be a small one or it can be a big important decision.

And we're going to connect our decision-making contemplation or these thoughts about the decision with the emotions and body sensations that come up,

Tapping into the wisdom of the body and seeing whether we can gain some insights from observing our emotions and our sensations as we contemplate this decision.

So before we start this practice,

Perhaps you can spend a moment thinking about something that you need to decide in your life.

If something comes up right away,

Stay with this.

And if nothing particular comes up,

You can also start the practice and see if something emerges as you go.

Start by finding a comfortable position,

Sitting on the floor or in a chair,

Perhaps lying down if that's what you are most comfortable with.

And when you found a comfortable position,

Beginning by bringing your attention to your breath,

Arriving in the practice,

Arriving in the present moment,

Checking in with any thoughts perhaps still lingering from the activity you were doing before this practice or any thoughts about what you're going to do after.

And with your exhale,

Just resolving to let go of these thoughts,

Making an intention and a commitment to being fully present with this practice for the time being,

Knowing that you can come back to your memories and plans afterward.

As you breathe through the nose,

Noticing any sounds that you can perceive around you,

Sounds a bit further away from you,

Sounds closer to you,

And then drawing your attention inward,

Listening inside the body and turning your internal gaze inward toward the heart,

And bringing your full attention to the sensation of breathing,

Feeling the chest expand gently as you inhale,

The belly expand,

And feeling chest and belly soften and relax as you exhale,

Spending a few moments paying attention to your sensation of breathing,

And then also just letting go of any thoughts that you may have.

And then also checking in with your body,

Seeing how your body is feeling in this moment,

And perhaps noticing any areas of tightness or tension,

Seeing if you can breathe into these areas,

Creating space.

And softening as you exhale.

With each inhale,

Creating spaciousness inside the body,

And spaciousness inside the mind.

As you exhale,

Softening,

Feeling the body sink a little bit closer to the earth.

If you find your mind wandering and getting distracted,

Just simply notice where your mind has been,

And gently guide it back to the sensations of breathing to the sensations of breathing and the sensation of creating space in your body,

Expanding as you inhale,

Softening as you exhale,

And then bringing your attention to your emotional state in this current moment.

And just checking in with how you are feeling right now.

Are you feeling or experiencing rather positive emotions or negative ones?

Is your emotional state rather intense or more mild and soft?

Without needing to feel like you have to change anything,

Simply noticing your emotions,

Anything that's present right now with curiosity and openness and acceptance.

Taking a note of how you're feeling and simply observing it.

Seeing if the emotion that you're experiencing are changing or rather persistent.

And again,

Simply observing,

Observing whatever is present.

No need to change or do anything.

And now,

Bring to mind the sensation that you are experiencing right now.

Bring to mind a decision,

Something you need to decide about in your life.

This can be a small or a big decision,

Anything that comes to mind,

Just pick one.

Perhaps envision this decision in front of you.

Perhaps people involved in it,

Places involved in it.

Just trying to create a mental image of the decision situation in front of your mind.

And then,

Thinking of the different options that you have in making this decision.

Seeing perhaps if you can identify two main options that you have thought about.

And then,

Imagining yourself standing at a crossroad on a path that goes into two directions.

You're basically at a fork in the road.

One option is the left side and one option is the right side.

Now,

Pick the decision option that comes to mind first and begin walking down that path that's associated with making this particular decision in this way.

See what emotions arise inside your body.

How do you feel as you begin walking down the path of this option?

Does it feel like pressure or confusion?

Does it feel light and stress-free,

Peaceful?

What does the path look like?

Is it an uphill or downhill road?

Does it go straight or does it wind in different turns?

Can you see any obstacles or roadblocks,

Something you need to climb over,

Maybe some rocks that you need to move out of the way?

Just imagining yourself walking down the path of this option and seeing the consequences that that would entail.

Also seeing how far ahead you can see down that path.

Do you have clear vision?

Is it cloudy or maybe foggy?

And then coming back to your emotional state,

Thinking about what are the emotions you are feeling and experiencing as you are thinking about making this choice and the consequences associated with it.

Seeing if you can locate the emotion anywhere in your body.

Can you feel the emotion in your chest,

Your neck,

Maybe your forehead or your belly?

Just exploring how walking down the path of this option feels in your body.

Whenever your mind trails off to different thoughts,

Just remembering that that's okay and that's what minds do and gently guiding the mind back to contemplating your decision.

And then if you've spent some time just exploring this one option,

Return to the crossroad,

The fork in the road where you took option one.

And you're back there and you get to choose again.

Noticing how that feels.

Then beginning to walk down the other path,

The one you hadn't taken before,

The other option.

Again exploring what does it feel like to walk down this path.

What is this path like?

What does it look like?

Is it a gravel road?

Is it a paved road?

Is it a highway?

Is it a little path in the forest?

What does it feel like to walk down this decision option,

Living it?

What consequences does it have for you,

For other people?

What do you see walking down this decision?

Bringing your awareness to your body and checking in where in your body you're feeling emotions about this other option.

Again seeing what emotions are present Is there uncertainty or certainty?

Maybe happiness,

Worry,

Excitement?

Are you nervous or calm?

Just exploring the emotional landscape.

And spending a few moments imagining walking down the path of this decision paying attention to how your body feels and where you can sense emotions about this decision option.

Whenever your mind trails off to different thoughts just remembering that that's okay and that's what minds do and gently guiding the mind back to contemplating your decision.

Now once again imagining yourself returning to the path of this decision.

Imagining yourself returning back,

Walking back to the crossroad point.

You're back there now.

Bringing your sensations of breath back into your awareness.

As you inhale,

Feeling the spaciousness in your body in your chest,

In your belly,

In your mind.

Letting go of contemplating these two options.

Now imagining a plain space and seeing if there is another option.

Something you have never thought of before.

Asking yourself if there is another path one you haven't seen before.

If you turn to the left and the right.

Asking yourself whether this might be an AND rather than an EITHER OR decision.

Just taking a few moments to see if anything emerges that you had not thought of before.

A new possibility.

If nothing comes up,

That's okay.

If something comes up,

Exploring again what does that feel like?

What would the path look like?

How do you feel about this new option?

And then very,

Very gently letting go of the exploration of this new option if it came up.

Again,

If nothing came up,

That's okay too.

Simply taking a note internally of any insights you have gained.

Something that you want to remember.

And then slowly bringing the attention back to breathing.

Noticing the breath.

Entering the body through the nose.

Maybe sitting up tall again if you have lost your posture a bit.

And exhale,

Relaxing the shoulders.

Relaxing the face,

The eyes,

The jaw.

Maybe seeing if any shifts have occurred in your emotional state,

In the feeling in your body,

The nature of your thoughts.

Maybe also seeing if there is any intention to action that you can feel,

Any impulse to do something,

If there is anything that's present now after the practice.

And simply taking a note of this.

And then slowly bringing your attention to the sounds around you in the room or space around you.

Stretching the ears out again,

Seeing if you can hear sounds a little closer and then further away from you.

Noticing the temperature of the room around you or the space around you.

And taking another deep breath in through the nose.

Exhaling through the mouth.

And then beginning to slowly move the body,

Moving the fingers and the toes,

Perhaps rolling the shoulders back,

Perhaps bending the upper body from the left to the right,

Stretching the arms up overhead,

Rolling the head from left to right,

Coming back into the life.

And then very slowly in your own time,

You can open your eyes.

And I invite you after this practice to take some time to perhaps journal,

Write down some notes,

Anything that has occurred to you during this practice,

If there was anything.

Just staying in this state of openness and awareness,

Calm presence.

And knowing that you can always come back to this practice as well if nothing big has come up at this point,

Nothing that you could use,

You're always invited to return back.

And try the practice once more.

If something has come up for you,

Of course you can do the same.

Just cultivating a mindful attitude towards our decision-making and seeing whether we can incorporate the wisdom of the body and an awareness of our emotions as we think about decisions with our intellect.

And seeing if anything emerges from that practice that can be useful for us in our lives.

Well,

For now I thank you for having taken the time to practice today.

I hope you found this practice useful.

And I look forward to perhaps seeing you for another practice.

Until then,

Take care.