We are now more than one month into the new year. That may not seem like much but I find it is vitally important to recalibrate your direction on a regular basis. If not, you find that you have been miserable for a long time and never even noticed, or that everything is wonderful and that you haven’t really been appreciating it. I have been at both places.
If you find you aren’t happy or heading in the direction you want to go, this is the time to start changing gears. Start spending more time and focus on what you really want instead of what you think you should be doing. Life passes quickly and while we don’t all have to make radical changes all the time, we do need to make sure we move incrementally closer to where we want to be every day.
Sometimes major changes need to be made, at least in the way we are looking at a situation and this may be the time for one of those shifts. Try this guided meditation to help gauge if a change needs to made, and where to go.
Read through the meditation and then close your eyes and remember what you can. Let your meditation head in whatever direction feels right to you.
Take a deep breath and close your eyes. Find yourself in a valley with lush green hills on either side of you. There is a clear straight path that lies ahead of you and leads through the flat terrain of the valley.
To your left is a winding trail that gradually leads up to the top of the hill on your left. To your right leads a steep trail up the right hand hill. It looks tough but fast and would entail some climbing over rocks.
Try not to make a conscious decision about which path to take. Does one path seem brighter or more enticing? If you just start walking do your feet head for a certain path? If you spin around with your eyes closed what path do you face?
Begin to walk down your chosen path for a few steps. Then stop and look around. Does your path still feel right? What do you expect to find on this path? What do you hope to gain from this path? If you feel the need to return and try another path, go ahead and then ask the same questions.
Continue to walk down your path a bit further and fully commit yourself to this road. There will be other paths to choose farther along but for now be confident in the path you are currently taking.
When you feel ready, start to hear the sounds around your physical body, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.
Before you have a chance to leave the feeling of this meditation, write down at least some brief notes about the following.
What do these paths make you think of in your current life? (The path may only apply to one area, romance, career, spirituality, etc.)
Why do you think you ended up on the path you did?
Does the type of path chosen equate with a certain action or thought for you?
Jessica Cross 
Reblogged this on ravenhawks' magazine and commented:
Thank you for sharing
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Over time, when confronted with a choice between something on the left and something on the right (like where to sit in a theater), I have decided to choose based on my political persuasion. Now, I always take the left choice.
Just before this, I was reading about a decisive battle that took place in a valley, although on the side of a mountain (the left mountain, as it happens) instead of the valley floor. One army, the Taira, at the end of the valley chose to reveal itself by hoisting flags, but only near sunset. The other army, the Heike, advanced along the side of a mountain to meet the Taira. But as they did so, the sun set and it became completely dark, and the Taira commander sent part of his army over the top of the mountain to attack the Heike from the rear. In the darkness, being attacked from front and rear, the Heike completely lost any semblance of order and were demolished.
The significance of the paths seems to me to be the need to climb, to go uphill, which will be a difficult thing. It is a time of difficulty – we live in a harsh environment where the prevailing mood I see in the world is one of vicious cruelty, not kindness. I walk uphill through it, because I have no place else to go, but I still dread what I’m going to see along the way. Since in the meditation, I am alone, then alone I must see it through.
I hope that you are well and finding good things to enjoy in your life.
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