Diving Deep Concepts
To support you on your journey to wholeness and fulfillment.
CONCEPT NO. ONE
Authenticity
Feelings:
When you are honest about what you're really feeling in the moment even if it's sadness, anxiety, anger, or fear; and you take responsibility for your reactions rather than blaming others for them.
Needs:
When you are clear about what your needs are. You don't expect others to guess because you understand that it is your responsibility to set your own boundaries and ask for what you need.
Longings:
When you are willing to name and claim what your soul most deeply longs for, whatever that looks like for you and regardless of what anyone thinks!
When you are authentic in this way, It builds trust. It makes it safe for others to be their authentic selves. It leads to true connection, with yourself, others, and with the Divine.
CONCEPT NO. TWO
Compassionate Curiosity
Offering yourself loving, nonjudgmental attention; and inquiring into your experience with a desire to understand and alleviate your suffering.
So often we abandon ourselves by judging and pushing our feelings away and trying to get over them. Meeting yourself with compassionate curiosity is a way of telling yourself, "I will not abandon you." "I'm here for you." "I'm interested in your well-being.
This compassionate presence immediately creates a sense of connection-with your self. The attention softens the intensity of your feelings.
And, the curiosity will lead to insights that will help you heal and grow.
CONCEPT NO. THREE
Coming Home To Yourself
Remembering who you truly are and finding peace, refuge and belonging within, no matter your external circumstances. Spending time being genuinely present with yourself; i.e feel your breath, pay attention to your physical sensations, and welcome all of your emotions, in an unattached and non-judgmental way. Connecting with the Divine dimension of who you really are; i.e. do things that help you experience yourself as an energetic being, connected to the Divine source of all life; such as meditating and spending time in nature.
When we come home to ourselves in this way, we are able to rest in our beingness and feel held by our oneness. We discover an Inner Refuge that is always available to us and we are able to experience our intrinsic belonging. In addition to being deeply nourishing, Coming Home to Yourself will give you access to your Inner Wisdom so that you can receive information about what you need to live with greater authenticity and purpose.
"Go back home and take care of yourself. Your body needs you. Your feelings need you. Your suffering needs you to acknowledge it." -Thich Nhat Hanh
CONCEPT NO. FOUR
Welcoming all Emotions
Meet all of your feelings with a spirit of welcome rather than pushing any of them away. As captured in Rumi’s poem Guesthouse, and in this essay, Into the Demon’s Mouth, by Aura Glaser about the story of Milarepa.
“Although our deep-seated tendency is to reject the unwanted in an effort to prevent suffering, it turns out that all the ways we resist actually limit our lives, bringing us pain.” - Aura Glaser
CONCEPT NO. FIVE
Avoiding Add-Ons
Add ons are the stories that we add on to our already painful feelings that make the initial suffering even worse. The encouragement here is to stay with the simple human feeling without the add on.
CONCEPT NO. SIX
No Big Deal
A mindset of holding things more lightly, not so tragic. We humans have a tendency to make a really big deal of our dramas and it causes a lot of unnecessary pain. Grounding ourselves in a larger perspective by going out in nature, or listening to the True Self visualization can help.
Having a sense of humor can help too!
CONCEPT NO. SEVEN
Inner Gold
In Jungian terms, our Inner Gold is our submerged creativity, spontaneity and aliveness, which we learned to repress in order to fit in. It becomes part of what Jung called our “Golden Shadow.” In Buddhist terms, we can think of our gold as being our Awakened Heart--our innate goodness, compassion, and openness, also known as our “Authentic Nature.”
“Our confusion and misery come from not knowing that the gold is right here and from always looking for it somewhere else. When we talk about joy, enlightenment, waking up, or awakening bodhichitta, all that means is that we know the gold is right here, and we realize that it's been here all along.”
- Pema Chodron
CONCEPT NO. EIGHT
Intuition
Our inner wisdom, or inner voice. Some think of it as the voice of the Soul, or the voice of the unconscious mind. It comes through in gut feelings and a felt sense about what is right or true for us. Our intuition urges us towards our wholeness and growth.
Most of us have a tendency to discount our intuition and override it with thinking. But, our thoughts can not predict outcomes any more than our intuition. When we listen to our intuition, we have a greater likelihood of feeling fulfilled by our choices because they will be more aligned with our Authentic Self. We don’t have to “know” or try to predict outcomes because we are trusting our inner voice, but also trusting ourselves to handle it if things don’t work out as planned.
Trusting this voice, and trusting ourselves saves us from all the exhaustion of overthinking and the indecision it creates.
CONCEPT NO. NINE
Non-Attachment
Being in the flow of what is, rather than grasping at what you want and resisting what you don’t. See everything as information for the path. If you feel like a failure because of the results you’re getting, it shows that you are attached and that you are identifying with your results as a reflection of who you are.
But results are just information letting you know what’s working and what isn’t.
They are not personal. If we are seeing our results as a reflection of who we are, it can be painful and emotionally draining when we’re not getting the results we want. This is likely to lead to burn-out and giving up. As soon as we stop taking our results personally, we can put our time into figuring out what they are showing us and deciding how to proceed.
Be grateful for the information and opportunity to learn then move on.
Practicing non-attachment keeps us open, agile and in flow.
CONCEPT NO. TEN
Practice the Three Difficulties
ONE
See What you do: With radical honesty and compassion. See your patterns; see your neuroses as neuroses.
TWO
Do something different.
THREE
Do that again and again and again.
