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,
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,
Or maybe you're trying to motivate yourself to reduce or eliminate something that's problematic.
Whatever it might be,
Think of this thing,
So identify what it is for yourself.
It 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.
Be aware,
For example,
Of how pursuing this desire,
Fulfilling this desire,
Would be good for you.
Also recognize ways in which this desire would be beneficial for others.
In other words,
Let the goodness of this desire kind of land in you.
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.
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.
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.
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?
And then,
Let's take a 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.
This practice of helping your mind be inclined toward something you are seeking to motivate in yourself.
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 toward some good end pursued through good means,
It's not always going to work.
But we've 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.
