BEING

In many walks of life we are encouraged to have dreams and goals.

  • Maybe you’re working with a gym or trainer to get better at a sport - they’ll set you goals for your development…

  • Maybe your work has set achievement goals for what you do…

  • Maybe you’ve been reading a self-help book and it’s setting goals for a healthier life.

  • Maybe you’re still working on your New Years resolutions.

These goals can be helpful and can motivate us, but they can also become a burden and pressure. You end up striving and stretching and it’s hard to achieve them.

Goals are also talked about in a way that makes you feel you need to achieve them by sheer effort and force of will. What happens if your life circumstances mean that’s hard or feels impossible?

Sometimes goals and dreams can become a pressure rather than a joy.

So today we want to encourage you to simply sit with all your hopes for the future and practice ‘being.’

Here’s what to do …

  1. Find a pen and paper and write down your hopes and dreams for the future. If you don’t find this easy, take some time to think what would I like my life to look like in 1 year or 5 years time?

  2. Find a comfortable seat and place the paper in front of you so you can see it.

  3. Take five minutes to be still, breathing gently in and out and take in the words on the paper. Nothing needs to be achieved or actioned, you’re just going to ‘be’ and be aware of what you’ve written.

  4. After a while, after each inward breath, imagine yourself breathing in hopefulness about these goals or dreams.

  5. If it helps repeat the exercise another time.

WHAT DOES THIS ACHIEVE?

There are many goal setting reflections out there. Sometimes people are encouraged to visual achieving the goals you’ve set or at other times it’s about building self confidence to think these dreams are possible.

The practice of being however allows you simply to ‘be’ with your dreams and hopes. This practice allows you to become aware of all the feelings and emotions you feel about these dreams. It allows them to breathe alongside your breathing and for them to become normal, accepted or known. It is about you getting used to them and allowing them to be a part of your present.

Someone once wrote that our dreams coming true can be scary. Instead, this exercise allows us to become used to our dreams and accept the hope of their potential, without them becoming a pressure.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.