Going Within

The closer we get to the winter solstice it is best to dive deeper, and there are many ways to do that. Every tradition and culture has certain practices and rituals, many of them passed down from centuries and millennia ago. I will share a couple of very simple ones here.

Naikan

Naikan means “inside looking” in Japanese. It consists of answering the following 3 questions at the end of the day:

• What have I received from (person x)?

• What have I given to (person x)?

• What troubles and difficulties have I caused to (person x)?

In addition to the people, you can also contemplate energy exchange with a community, environment, etc. You can use Naikan to reflect on your relationship with a parent or life partner diving the length of your relationship in several years cycles at a time, e.g every 2 years.

“Value Accountingbility”

• “Accounting” - write down your values. I purposefully omit giving any examples here because it’s best you start with what comes to your mind first, after that you can check out Brene Brown’s list to give you more ideas. Pick 5 core values.

• “Accountability” - write down how much time or money you dedicate to each value per week or month.

  For example, let’s say health makes the top 5 on your list of values. You write down how much time & money you spend on healthy food, exercise, and wellness practices. You may realize that most of your money is spent on “easy” food that is quick and less expensive than higher quality or whole foods that need more time to be prepared. Then you might also notice that only 30 min was spent on exercise or walking in the park, while the latest Netflix series had 10 hours of your time last week. This is where you would recognize the discrepancy and hold yourself accountable. You could use stats on your phone to see how much time you spend on your screen. This is a reality check so you can judge yourself, and how your actions reflect where you are.

  The point of this exercise is not to feel bad about yourself. (There are people who study and work exclusively on how to make foods more addictive, or how to make social media impossible to disconnect from - The Social Dilemma sheds light on that). The point is to recognize and commit to bridging that gap between your values and your resources and actions. According to Classical Chinese Medicine where the mind goes, Qi (life force) flows; and the mind is housed in the heart. Self-reflection practices help you connect to your heart, quiet the noise, and choose to focus your mental energy to create an authentic life that reflects your values and surrounds you with people who share them.

The previous exercise is my take on one from the book Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty, which is a great book to read for self-reflection. Some other books I highly recommend are MetaHuman by Deepak Chopra, The Surrender by Michael Singer, and if you would like to go to the original source of this meditation work, Khamitic Spirituality taught by Ra Un Nefer Amen, especially Metu Neter vol. 3 & 4 or their online initiation courses.