“I’m bored.”
I’d say that sometimes as a kid, and, to my irritation, my Dad would say:
“Bored people are boring. What are you going to do about it?”
Do you ever find yourself bored? Boredom can be a call to pay attention. What are you tuning out? What are you not really seeing or feeling or experiencing? What if you put yourself deep into the now and notice what you feel?
What if you look at boredom as an invitation to your imagination?
Sometimes we forget about the freedom that we have in our imagination. Our imagination can take us to another place or time. It can take you back in time to your grandma’s house when you were a kid or into your own future that you vision. It can take you way out there, wherever “there” is for you or deep into the 70 trillion cells of your body or into the depths of your heart.
Bring your full self to your imagination. Follow the Four Agreements*:
Be impeccable with your word.
Don't take anything personally.
Don't make assumptions.
Always do your best.
The first agreement is with ourselves to show up for ourselves. You’ve made an agreement with yourself to show up for practice, so be fully in your practice. Know your truth, and speak your truth to yourself. Speak to yourself with integrity: Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
And what about the second agreement? Don’t take anything personally. Sometimes as a collective humanity we think it’s all about us. We get caught in the belief that what's happening is just about me, just about my life. Can you step out of that belief? Release it? Even for a bit?
Do you know the saying, “When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me”? If you assume you can’t be free, can’t imagine deeply, can’t focus on one thing through meditation, it affects your world. Whatever we think, we start to create.
This is the time of year many people look at what they’ve done throughout the year. They set goals and intentions for the new year. How can they be better? What if you're always doing the best you can in every moment? That doesn’t mean that we don’t wish we could have done better or done more good. But what if we are always doing our best? Right now you are doing your best. How does that feel?
We can go anywhere in our imagination when we're bored. Think of boredom as an invitation and an opportunity to imagine something different. You are invited to explore the places of love, to do your best, to believe anything is possible. It’s not really about you. It's about how the sacred place moves, how the pendulum shifts from light to dark around the center.
Take 20 minutes to explore the sacred space, four agreements and the freedom of your own imagination: Sacred Sunday Meditation: Imagination & the Four Agreements
Where did your imagination take you?
What has shifted for you?
*from the The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz copyright 1997.