Logotherapy Part 3: A Pilgrimage Of The Heart

This Socratic dialogue and guided meditation allows us to peer deeply into a current struggle/emotional state, and find our way forward using the analogy of pilgrimage. We will go on a 10-minute guided pilgrimage, encountering areas of suffering and opportunities for healing. We will also identify our own choice and freedom within any given problem/situation that is presented to us in life, and listen to the tune of our heart and conscience for answers.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to our third day in our logotherapy walk together.

Today we'll be encountering a journey of pilgrimage,

Envisioning our walk,

Our spiritual journey as a pilgrimage towards the destination of our higher purpose.

Much of logotherapy is about uncovering and discovering that which is most meaningful,

That which we value the most.

And being in touch with our values is really a lifelong journey in intuition,

Connecting our body,

Mind and spirit towards what we believe is most meaningful.

And finding a purpose that is in our future,

That we believe in,

That we work towards and that we walk towards.

That idea of conscious movement towards a place that we believe in,

Towards a higher purpose is much like the ancient perennial tradition of pilgrimage.

As such,

Today we'll be practicing a journey of pilgrimage,

A journey of the heart,

And find ways to become more and more in tune with our own heart and where it is leading us.

As such,

I would like to begin today by asking you to practice some deep introspection that will allow us to be better in touch with the tune of our hearts each day.

And you're welcome during this time to journal or to make a gentle note to yourself just to be in a place where you can maybe record a few of your thoughts to come back to later.

That could be on your device,

That could be on a piece of paper,

Or whatever form you find most useful.

So at a point in a few minutes we'll be doing a guided meditation,

But until then I have a few questions that I'd like to begin by asking.

Keeping in mind throughout these questions that we are not focused on the problem,

But on the purpose that is to be revealed within that problem or that difficulty.

And that the focus is really not on me so much as the meaning that is being drawn out from my depths,

From my values,

From what I find meaningful.

And as a person who is conscious of these things,

We can better walk towards our higher purpose and better discern day to day what that might mean or what the next right thing to do would be.

Because of course even if we have a nebulous idea of our future purpose or what is meaningful for us,

The challenge often lies in the day to day and moment to moment.

Which is why Dr.

Victor Frankl said the meaning of the moment is what is most important.

And we'll practice bringing elements together to find meaningful possibilities and how you can use your conscience to act as a mediator between what you value,

What you're being drawn towards,

And your current situation.

So my first question for you is what problem am I focusing on today that is occupying my thoughts or my time.

It could be a difficulty or a challenge.

It could also be an emotional state.

Some problem that is occupying your thoughts right at this moment.

You could think about that,

Make a mental note,

Or write it down.

The second question that we all in all will have five,

And the second of these is where is my freedom?

Where does my freedom lie within this problem or this difficulty?

If you could see deeply into that problem or that difficulty,

What freedom,

Even if it's just a little bit of freedom,

What flexibility,

What opportunity do you have to act within that problem?

Can you identify anything?

Is it perhaps in your own attitude towards that problem or your own response to that problem?

Is there some freedom there just waiting to be acted upon or discovered?

The third question,

Very connected to the question of freedom,

Is what is my choice within?

What is my choice within this freedom?

What choice do I have?

Right here,

Right now,

Or in the near future,

Do I have a choice to make?

If so,

Of the choices,

Of the options I have within that choice,

This is number four,

Which is the most meaningful for me?

This one can be a little more difficult because oftentimes the choices that we see have no clear answer,

So we really have to come in tune with our intuition.

This is the part of the journey that we'll be doing in our guided meditation today,

Is figuring out which option,

Which choice is most meaningful for me within the choice that I have.

That is the last question,

And the fifth question we will answer in our guided meditation,

And that is how do we actualize or how do we respond to that most meaningful choice?

Let's begin.

You can take a moment to pause if you need and find a comfortable seated position.

You're welcome to set down your journal or your device if you have it.

Let's dive a little deeper into our freedom and the option that is most meaningful for us.

Here is some gentle background music again.

Let's begin by taking three deep breaths and coming into our heart space.

With each breath,

See if you can go a little deeper,

Bringing your awareness from the head down into the heart.

Now I'd like you to put yourself into a place,

A place in nature,

A place of beauty that is safe for you,

That is a place of rejuvenation,

Of optimism.

And of hope,

Perhaps a place that you often go to when you're in need of solace,

Surrounded by some aspect of nature,

Some tree or some lake where you can sit down and just reflect upon life and know that you are perfectly safe in that space.

From here,

We'll close our eyes,

Feeling the comfort and the beauty of that place.

We know that we are safe,

That we are exactly where we're meant to be.

We're going to notice that thing that's calling to us in the near distance on the horizon as we look out over the landscape,

We see the sun is growing low on the horizon.

And it gives us a direction that we can begin walking towards.

That direction is our compass.

It is pulling us towards what we know to be the solution,

Which is in the end unconditional love and acceptance wherever we are,

Regardless of our problems and the situation at present.

We have behind us as we take our first steps,

We remember what that problem might feel like.

But the moment we begin to step forward,

The moment we begin to move towards our higher purpose,

That problem begins to change,

That difficulty begins to look different with every step.

On this short pilgrimage towards the horizon,

We know that we will continue to encounter this problem or this difficulty in different ways.

But we allow life and everything that we'll encounter on this journey to transform us and gently transform our perspective on that problem that we're facing.

In fact,

In the next few steps,

We begin to notice meaningful possibilities,

Things that we hadn't considered.

Perhaps those are brought about by a beautiful view,

By taking time to pause as we walk,

Or even by another pilgrim that we meet along our path.

You might first imagine pausing to look around,

To notice something small that is beautiful,

That has great value.

Maybe others pass it by,

Or maybe on a normal day you do too,

But this little element of nature reminds you that life is worth living and that it is beautiful.

Imagine what that thing might be and why it is so beautiful,

How it changes your whole perspective,

Your whole attitude towards the problem you're facing.

Notice how this one little moment can ripple forward,

Affecting the rest of your walk and all those that you'll encounter.

Again,

Taking a moment here to pause,

Taking a few deep breaths.

We know that we can always pause just like this in the midst of our problems,

In the midst of a challenging time or stressful time,

And notice the magic right beneath our feet and right within our breath.

We're ready to continue moving forward,

And we find as we take this next step that we are in fact starting to notice our fellow pilgrims a little bit more.

We cross paths with another pilgrim who suffers in a similar way but deals with it differently or has a different perspective.

We notice how we're now willing and open to learning from that fellow pilgrim and to sharing our own experiences,

Our own hope,

And the own strength that we have developed from dealing with our challenges.

In this brief encounter,

You notice how you somehow multiply the strength and beauty and hope of one another,

That somehow by sharing your difficulties and how you're dealing with them,

It serves to strengthen both of you and pays forward to all the people in your life and all the other pilgrims that you encounter.

Let us again pause here just to imagine one such pilgrim in your own life,

Someone that perhaps you are encountering today or recently encountering,

And the lessons that they are offering you and vice versa what you might have to offer them.

What does that feel like?

What is that listening to that person?

What is that bringing about in your life?

Taking three deep breaths,

We prepare to move on in our journey,

To move closer and closer to that higher purpose just on the horizon.

Let's take another step.

We might begin to notice how there is a healthy tension that is building with each step between where we are standing and where we are moving,

Where we desire to be,

How we desire to feel and to show up in the world,

Authentically ourselves,

Unconditionally loving and fully connected to our body,

Mind and spirit intuition that grows with each step we take,

With each pilgrim we listen to and each time we pause along our walk to notice beauty,

To notice love,

To notice potentiality in all life.

This healthy tension is something beautiful that gives and affirms the value of our life.

It is always present even if sometimes we are looking the other direction or we don't notice it.

Let's take a moment again to pause and just listen for that.

Taking three deep breaths into that potentiality,

That healthy tension pulling us forward.

What does it feel like?

What does it look like to you?

What meaning is it pulling you towards?

As we begin to walk again on these next few steps we are going to notice how what was stressful to us is slowly fading away.

Yes,

There may still be some fear,

Some tension present in our hearts,

But it fades into the background as we focus on the horizon,

As we focus on our journey moving towards our higher purpose.

When in doubt,

As we have done already,

We pause and we notice what our values are pointing us towards.

Which option feels right?

We may ask a fellow pilgrim that we meet along the way how it sounds to them,

What it looks like to them,

And then we make a decision based upon the rhythm of our own heart.

When faced with a difficult choice or an option,

Our freedom springs forth and the joy and the freedom to take the next step in the direction that we believe is most meaningful.

Knowing that no steps are perfect,

We sometimes stumble upon rocks in our path,

We sometimes fail to see something that's in front of us like a branch,

We sometimes wander off course,

But just like a plane on its journey flying,

It's off course most of the time but always corrects,

Because it focuses on that meaningful horizon,

On that purpose that is visible.

No doubt,

Our focus on that,

On that meaningful aspect of our being,

That journey towards what is meaningful will bring great benefit to the music of our heart and to those loved ones around us,

And to fellow pilgrims we have yet to meet along this journey.

I pray that your journey be one of continuing love,

Abundance,

And unconditional value for yourself.

Reviews

U r an awesome spiritual teacher
From a spiritual student from Quebec City

This is a meditation that is worth repeating often, especially when you feel stuck, but also when you feel content, and could benefit from remembering the journey.