Exercises to develop Self-awareness and simplify life for greater ease
Way forward to usher the coming Year with clarity & purpose
Happy Sunday!
And welcome to today's edition of 'Conscious living with Purnima'. Can you believe it's September, already? Just 4 more months until the New Year. I thought it would be a good time to start focusing on ways to simplify our lives, declutter, prioritize what matters most, consciously eliminate or minimize that which drains our energy, align to our purpose & live authentically. So that's going to be the theme for all of the subsequent posts this Year. I won't be giving you any Gyan on these topics :) Just simple exercises to do, to increase self-awareness and redirect your focus to 'taking action'. Keep a journal ready. You can always bookmark the post to come back to later, if you don’t wish to do the exercises right away.
I will also be sharing 2 Quotes that made me pause & reflect.
Today's post, we will focus on bringing to light habits that serve us & habits that don't.
"Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken."
- Warren Buffet
Pick up your journal and a pen or open a word doc to do the exercise. Divide the page in half. On one side list all the habits that are serving you. You can choose to keep it succinct or elaborate how they serve you. On the other side, list habits that are not serving you, but you seem to indulge-in anyway. Keep it short or elaborate as to how they derail your focus or impact you negatively. I like to detail out everything. See how you want to approach it.
Use your conscience to guide you through the exercise. It’s a powerful one provided you do it :)
Once you are done, spend the next few minutes contemplating on how you can eliminate/minimize habits that don't serve and how you can self-motivate yourself to do more of what serves. Create an action plan that’s easy to recall & execute.
Feel free to write to me if you had any light-bulb moment doing the exercise :)
2 Quotes
Both from Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, a spiritual teacher whose simplicity and depth of knowledge I greatly revere:
"All you need is already within you, only you must approach yourself with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors...all I plead with you is this: make love of yourself perfect."
"Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two, my life flows."