The Recipe Of Your Life – A Contemplative Practice

When you bake or cook, often there is a recipe to follow in order to create the dish you're making. There are necessary ingredients that are absolutely required for the dish to turn out well and then there are additional ingredients that you can add or subtract as desired. Our lives are a lot like recipes depending on the type of life we are trying to create for ourselves. What are the necessary ingredients for a good life? What are some ingredients that can be added for flavor and joy? We will explore these and other questions in this contemplative practice.

Thank you for music by Music of Wisdom and Blue Dot Sessions.

Transcript

So, What's the recipe of your life? Hi, I'm Shannon, And grateful that you're joining me for this talk and contemplative practice. Thank you so much for being with me today. The other day I was making my dad some oatmeal cookies. The reason I often make him these is to either celebrate his birthday, Or Father's Day, Or Christmas. I make him these particular cookies because his own mom, Growing up, Made him oatmeal cookies, And they were his favorite. So I feel like energetically, When I make oatmeal cookies for my dad, That it reminds him of that connection with his mom. If any of you have cooked or baked, You know that there's ingredients that go into making any recipe, And in particular, Say, Oatmeal cookies, For example, There are specific ingredients that are necessary or required for the cookies to turn out to be oatmeal cookies. At the end, When you're preparing the batter, You can add additional ingredients to make it the specific kind of oatmeal cookie that you want. Do you want raisins, Or chocolate chips, Or walnuts, Or all three of those? At that point, You get to decide what additional ingredients you want to add. So as I was making these cookies recently, I went to put the batter on the sheet in order to bake the cookies, And I kept looking at the batter and realizing something seemed to be missing, And I couldn't quite figure out what. Then, By the time I got finished placing the batter on the sheet, I realized I had forgotten to add the oats. Well, You can't have oatmeal cookies without the oats. And so, That got me to thinking about this particular practice of the recipe of our life. It became necessary for me to say, To make an oatmeal cookie, I definitely have to have oats. So I put the batter back in the bowl, Added the oats, And then proceeded to bake the cookies. And they turned out great. My dad had a good birthday. As we look at baking these cookies as a metaphor for our own lives and their recipes, We come to discern the important question, Which ingredients are definitely necessary for a good cookie, For a good life, And what additional ingredients do we want to add? This specific question becomes a reflection of sitting with our own selves and discerning what ingredients form our lives and what makes it important to us. Asking these questions of yourself, The recipe of your life, Is an individual process because all of us are so different. So what one person feels is a necessary ingredient to their life, Somebody else might not. And so, Discerning what's important for yourself, And then what you'd like to add in, Becomes the question of listening to your heart, Paying attention to your mind, Listening to the energy that flows through you as you move through life. So becoming conscious of your participation with your own life. In 1972, The world famous boxer, Muhammad Ali, Was interviewed. In the interview, He was asked this question, What would you like people to think about you when you're no longer here anymore? This is the answer that Muhammad Ali gave to the interviewer, And he phrased it in third person. He took a few cups of love. He took one tablespoon of patience. One tablespoon of generosity. One pint of kindness. He took one quart of laughter. One pinch of concern. Then he mixed willingness with happiness. He added lots of faith. He stirred it up well. Then he spread it over the span of a lifetime and served it to each and every person he met. Muhammad Ali speaks of the recipe of what made his life important, Which was about kindness, Laughter, Generosity, And the ability to mix that together and gift it to the people around him. So what I'd like to do now, As you think about your own life, In reflection to the oatmeal cookie analogy, As well as the quote I shared with you by Muhammad Ali, Is to now sit in a time of contemplative practice where I'll give you the opportunity to listen to your heart, Your mind, Your energy, Your spirit, With these specific questions so that you can begin to become conscious and aware of what your life is, What ingredients go into it, What makes it important, And how you want to move forward with your own life. I'm going to take time now to ask you four different questions during this practice. After each question, I'll leave space of silence in which you can take time to reflect, Discern, And listen to the answers that surface for you. If you find it helpful to also have paper, Pen, Or a way to write down or journal your answers, If that's helpful, I encourage you to do that now. And when you're ready, I'll have you move into a seated, Comfortable position in which to engage with this practice. Now coming to a seated position and closing your eyes, And first connecting with your breath. Take a deep breath in, And exhale. And just allowing yourself to come into breath with your heartbeat. Feeling as you breathe deeper and slower, Your heart rate slowing down. And through the slowness of your heartbeat, Being able to hear yourself better from within. So, The first question I'll have us reflect or engage with is this. What are the necessary ingredients in your life? What are the ingredients that your life cannot live without? So take this time now in this time to reflect on what are the necessary ingredients in your life. Take a deep breath in, And exhale. Now the second question is in deeper reflection of the first. From the answers that you heard inside yourself from question one, In what proportion do you want each of these? Just like Muhammad Ali was talking about a tablespoon of kindness and a pint of laughter. Take this next moment of silence to hear what your body, Mind, And heart shares with you. Take a deep breath in, And exhale. Now let's sit with the third question in our practice today. What are added ingredients for your life that would make it more flavorful? For example, In our oatmeal cookie recipe, We added chocolate chips, Or not. Or maybe we added walnuts, Or not. Or maybe we added raisins. Or maybe the cookie was plain. Or maybe it had all three ingredients that were added. Just like this, Our own lives we can add additional ingredients to make it more colorful, Flavorful, Things that bring our true self out. For example, In my own life, I might sprinkle in a little bit of roller skating just to bring out some joy in my life. It might not be something that's a necessary ingredient, But I might add it here and there just to bring some joy. So what are some added ingredients that you could see adding to your life to bring out the joy? Take this time now to reflect on this question and allow your mind to wander and imagine. Allow your heart to explore new things that might come forward. What does your body share with you now? I'll have you take this moment of silence to listen. Take a deep breath in and exhale. And now we come to the last question in our contemplative time together today. This fourth question asks us this. What ingredients that are currently in your life would you take out, Substitute, Or change? Just like in any recipe, If someone is allergic to something, For example nuts, I might not put walnuts in the cookies I'm making. If somebody is vegan, I might use a substitute like applesauce instead of butter so it takes out the dairy. So what things in your own life that are currently there would you take out or substitute or change that would actually make your life feel better for you? I'll have you take this time now in quiet contemplation to listen to what comes forward. Take a deep breath in and exhale. Just like with any recipe, We can always tweak what's in there and the same thing applies to our own lives. We're constantly changing internally, Spiritually, Physically, Mentally, Through our own growing processes. In that moment, We can discern how our life also needs to change, How the recipe needs to work with who we are in these moments of change. We can always sit and reflect on how we want to direct our energy and create the best and most delicious recipe that is our lives. I'm grateful that you joined me today for this talk, This practice, And I hope that you can see your own life as a beautiful recipe in the making. So remember this about your own life, It's yours to mix in or take out that which is important to you and you get to be in charge of that recipe. May your own life recipe always be a true reflection of who you are on the inside. I wish you a beautiful day. Namaste.

Reviews

Wow! Shannon. This was so deep . As today is my birthday ,
This was a perfect gift to sit and reflect with this thought provoking meditation! Sending love and blessings to you 💝😊🙏🏼🫶
I wrote the questions down and will be pondering them in the next few days. Thank you again. 🙏🏼

Love this practice. And good to be with you dear Shannon

The anology helped me find answers and understand the "recipe" of my life and what I need to mix in. I appreciate the time after each question to hear my responses. Thank you.

That was lovely, Shannon. I love the cookie analogy and the idea of extras and substitutions. Thank you! ❤️

Thank you Shannon. Your talk gave me some great ideas how to improve and make better choices in life. 💜