Okay,
Welcome back to the Spiritual Recalibration Series.
Thank you for embarking on this series and opening yourself to a new way of being.
My name is David,
And this is Session 30,
I Choose Me.
Find a comfortable seat in a space where you can allow yourself 20 minutes or so,
Undistracted,
To focus just on you.
A quick reminder,
To get the most out of this series,
Please be sure you've listened to the Welcome Session,
Session Zero.
Here we go.
Isn't that like,
Have a negative connotation to it,
As being selfish?
We recently,
I think we were talking about,
Yeah,
Talking about loving yourself.
And how that's kind of like,
Wasn't that arrogant to love yourself?
So isn't it,
To choose yourself,
Isn't that selfish?
And isn't that a bad thing?
I was speaking to a friend,
He has a young son,
And I think he's maybe six years old.
The son,
Not my friend.
And he was just kind of,
And I have older kids,
As some of you probably know,
Teenagers.
And he was just saying,
You know,
When do I get me time?
And is that okay?
If you have kids,
You can kind of relate.
Yeah.
And is it okay to like,
To like,
Want that,
To just want to watch ESPN and like,
Not want to play?
That's just an interesting way that brought up.
And I found myself thinking about,
I read,
I love the teacher,
His name is Osho.
Osho.
And I read,
In one particular book,
He was talking about being selfish.
It's kind of,
He describes it as paradoxical.
And what I was hearing Osho say,
And what I found myself talking to my friend about,
Was about being selfish,
And what it means to be selfish,
To take time for yourself,
To choose yourself.
Because so much,
I have another friend right now who I'm speaking with,
He's a real caretaker.
And everybody around him knows him as a caretaker.
And I think many of you can probably relate to this role,
Whether you're a parent or not,
You kind of take care of everyone around you,
Making sure everyone's taken care of.
And oftentimes we do this from a place of self-sacrifice.
And when that sense of like,
Doing something because you're supposed to,
From a place of obligation,
Or I think Osho used the word duty,
Duty and obligation,
So yeah,
That feels like kind of the role,
Right?
But I was speaking to him just about kind of,
When you do things for others from that place,
You got to watch out for it.
Because you can sense every now and then a little bit of like this,
Like a little bit,
I found myself using the word resentment,
Like you don't want to find yourself resenting your loved ones,
Or the one that you're like,
It can be completely unconscious,
You're not even necessarily aware of it,
It like creeps in,
Because you're not doing things for yourself.
You're doing things for others.
And I don't want to resent anybody.
That's not a way you want to feel about the people you love or about anyone.
Yeah,
So how do you not do that?
How do you,
And it seems that that's being selfish,
Allowing yourself to be selfish,
Allowing yourself to take care of yourself and nurture yourself.
And be there,
Be here for yourself,
Do the things that you need,
That you desire,
That you want to honor yourself,
Honor what you're up to,
Spend time with yourself and for yourself.
It's like radical,
Right?
For a caretaker or really anyone in this,
I don't know,
Kind of modern society that we live in,
To do all this stuff for yourself,
You could,
You could be sitting here right now,
In this session,
Listening,
Practicing some meditation and some breath work and thinking that you should be doing something else for someone else.
You can be in a yoga class and have those feelings.
You could be out for a walk and have feelings like you should be doing something.
I was speaking with my wife about this not that long ago,
Talking about this choice where it's kind of like to choose yourself,
To give to yourself.
It's not about getting everything else done first,
Taking care of everyone else first,
And then squeezing in what you truly want and what you know you need when everything else is done and there's some time for it.
Because that's not really a choice.
That's not really choosing yourself.
It's like the choice is so many other things I could be doing and so many other people I could be taking care of.
No,
Right now I'm going to do this for me and allow myself to do it and be here.
And then what happens?
I think what happens is you find yourself there for others in a completely different way,
In a new way,
In a pure way.
You take care of them because you want to,
Because there's absolutely nothing else that you want to be doing in that moment,
But caring for them because you are full.
So I think that's where I am on the idea of being selfish.
It's a choice.
It's not an easy one to make.
Yeah.
All right.
I think that's probably good.
I don't think there's anything else more there.
So let's move on to the next one,
Which is a little bit more complicated.
Let's finish up here with a brief,
A brief affirmation practice.
If your eyes are closed,
Keep them closed.
If they're open,
Gently closing the eyes,
Feet flat on the ground,
Nice,
Upright spine,
Drawing the shoulder blades together,
Gently neck,
Nice and long relaxed,
Eyes soft behind the eyelids,
Relax your jaw,
Breathing naturally,
Allowing yourself to tune in to the words of this affirmation.
I choose me.
I choose to nurture myself.
I choose to give myself the time and space that I need to get to know myself,
To center myself,
To learn to heal and love myself.
I know this is the greatest gift I can give to myself and to anyone else.
I choose me.
I choose to nurture myself.
I choose to give myself the time and space that I need to get to know myself,
To center myself,
To learn to heal and love myself,
So that I may be able to love myself.
I know this is the greatest gift I can give to myself or to anyone else.
I choose me.
I choose to nurture myself.
I choose to give myself the time and space that I need to get to know myself,
To center myself,
To learn to heal and love myself.
I know this is the greatest gift I can give to myself or to anyone else.
Tuning in now to the feeling behind the words of this choice,
This love.
I choose me.
I choose to nurture myself.
I choose to give myself the time and the space that I need to get to know myself,
To center myself,
To learn how to heal and love myself.
I know this is the greatest gift I can give to myself or to anyone else.
I choose me.
I choose to nurture myself.
I choose to give myself the time and space that I need to get to know myself,
To center myself.
To learn how to heal and love myself.
I know this is the greatest gift I can give to myself or to anyone else.
Allowing those words to stay with you for just a few moments.
Noticing any resistance to the words and just noticing.
Tuning into the feeling again behind these words.
Good.
And you can let this affirmation go.
Allowing yourself to just stay for a few moments here in the quiet.
Simply watching your breath.
Give yourself just two or three more minutes here.
Now,
See if you can locate that spot in your nostrils where you can feel the air passing.
As you notice your mind wander off,
Notice it,
And come back to your breath.
Noticing your breath.
Observing your breath.
Good.
Now,
Take an intentional inhale through your nose,
And a gentle exhale through your mouth.
And then,
Now,
Take an intentional inhale through your nose,
And a gentle exhale through your mouth.
Don't need to watch your breath anymore.
See in your mind those words.
Maybe just the first few.
I choose me.
I choose to nurture myself.
Allow yourself to focus.
Repeat those words,
Those first few lines of the affirmation,
Just in your mind.
I choose me.
I choose to nurture myself.
I choose to nurture myself.
Just a few more times.
You can let those go once again now.
Allow yourself to be here for just another moment or two.
Good.
Take an intentional inhale through your nose,
And an exhale through your mouth.
Prepare to come back to the space where you are,
And when you're ready,
You can flutter open your eyes,
Or you can stay here for as long as you like.
