Hi,
And welcome to The Daily Insight.
My name is Rick Hansen,
And I am a teacher here on Insight Timer.
In today's meditation,
We will be focusing on inclining your mind,
Which can be helpful in motivating yourself toward wholesome desires.
I hope you enjoy the practice.
Pick something that's important to you that you would like to motivate yourself toward.
It could be something that you're already doing,
And you're wanting to encourage or sustain or protect motivation for it.
Or it could be something that you'd like to start doing or do more of.
Perhaps exercise,
Perhaps changing your diet in some way,
Perhaps restraining yourself in certain relationships,
Perhaps encouraging yourself to be more expressive,
To be braver and more wholehearted and openhearted in important relationships.
Maybe be more consistent in your meditation practice or your art-making practice,
Or you've been postponing writing that book and it's time to start setting aside that hour or so early in the morning every day to do it.
Or maybe you're trying to motivate yourself to reduce or eliminate something that's problematic.
Drinking,
Alcohol,
Watching too much TV,
Doing other things that you really just kind of want to stop doing.
Whatever it might be,
Think of this thing.
So identify what it is for yourself.
Could be quite concrete or it could be more subtle and attitudinal.
And then once you know what it is,
Take some moments here to let yourself recognize and feel the goodness of this desire,
Its wholesomeness.
Be aware,
For example,
Of how pursuing this desire,
Fulfilling this desire would be good for you.
It would be beneficial.
Also recognize ways in which this desire would be beneficial for others.
It would help them or reduce harms to them or contribute to them in some way.
In other words,
Let the goodness of this desire kind of land in you.
Open to feeling the yes-ness,
The goodness,
The right-ness of this desire.
Okay,
And then imagine yourself pursuing this desire or just remember ways in which you've pursued this desire in ways that are themselves wholesome.
In other words,
You've been pursuing a good end with good means.
You've been appropriate with yourself and others in how you pursued this desire.
You haven't gone into the red zone,
As it were,
In pursuing this desire.
You haven't come from any kind of ill will toward others in the ways you've pursued this desire.
So recognize how you have pursued this desire in wholesome ways or imagine how you could pursue this desire in wholesome ways.
And let the sense of the wholesome methods or means to the end of this wholesome desire,
Let the wholesomeness of the means and the sense of the wholesomeness of your means sink into you.
Know what it feels like to give yourself over to or be carried along by wholesome,
Beneficial,
Appropriate,
Legitimate,
Integrity-based methods toward achieving this goal.
In other words,
Can you feel the goodness of the means that you're using toward a good end?
Great.
And then imagine the rewards,
Which we've been doing a bit already,
But now really focus on the rewards for you and others in pursuing this particular wholesome end through wholesome means.
Maybe start with yourself and just think of different ways you'll feel good or feel better in pursuing this wholesome end with wholesome means.
Perhaps you would be and feel healthier.
Maybe you would feel better about yourself.
Perhaps new doors would open for you,
New opportunities.
Perhaps your own unfolding,
Your own personal growth or healing,
Self-actualization,
Even spiritual practice would be furthered by pursuing this wholesome end with wholesome means.
Great.
You're kind of marinating in the sense of reward in walking this path,
Taking this higher road.
Also be aware of rewards for others in taking this path.
How would it help others feel better and be happier if you were to do what you're trying to motivate here or restrain what you're trying to restrain here?
In other words,
Whatever you're trying to motivate here,
How would it contribute to others?
Okay.
This is the final minute here in which you just take in,
Feel the rewards for you and others of whatever you're seeking to motivate here while also imagining you in fact enacting whatever it is you are seeking to motivate.
The two together linking that sense of reward with what you're imagining yourself doing,
What you are motivating.
Okay.
Finishing up here,
This practice of helping your mind be inclined toward something you are seeking to motivate in yourself.
Good.
Okay.
I have a final thought to share with you here.
It's a really funny quotation from Winston Churchill.
He says,
Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
In other words,
Even if we are motivating ourselves towards some good end pursued through good means,
It's not always going to work,
But we got to brush ourselves off and keep going,
Including drawing upon that light within.
That is the fundamental meaning of the word enthusiasm carried along by our positive,
Wholesome,
Good purposes,
Moving forward in life,
Even when from time to time inevitably there is a failure.
In a sense,
The greatest success,
As Winston Churchill says here,
Is the frame or context in which failures occur and sustaining a framework of successful motivation toward the good that can include the occasional failure along the way.
