I wrote a long post and decided not to publish it. Instead, I am offering the opening line from my original post. a belonging quote, a prompt and a short road map to creating your own (self) belonging community.
Yesterday started badly (and processing and choosing to step away, mindfully, helped me to present something more aligned with who I am as one who belongs with you today.
“When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don’t belong.”
Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh
What was a moment in time in the last three months where you felt like you absolutely belonged, without a doubt?
Take three minutes to write about this experience in detail.
If you can’t recall a moment in the last three months when you felt like you absolutely belonged, consider a small action you may choose to take so that three months from now you will be guaranteed to have an experience where you felt the deeply transformative feeling of belonging.
Ways to Create a (Self) Belonging Community
- Ask one to three people to help you with your own belonging project. Invite this person or people to be mutual believing mirrors – look at one another with authentically open eyes and reflect back what you see about each other that is remarkable, unique, significant – and back that up with tangible evidence and witness because concrete visions of “remember when” bear a great deal of meaning, more so than vague concepts. Tune into developing ways to see your inner nature through other people’s perspectives.
- Choose to add an action-step to daily times of quiet time. One of my quiet times of the day is driving without the radio, a podcast or playlist going. It gives me space for my mind to wander. This is when discovery deepens – and adding action to those insights questions like “With whom do I feel the most sense of belonging and satisfaction? Reach out to one of those people via email or actually make that phone call.” These quiet times followed by action will be another tangible way to make friends with your inner nature and your highest self.
- Notice the features and qualities of people in your everyday life that you would like to emulate. I have a co-worker who sets the treadmill to walk uphill for twenty minutes a day, for example. I may say to him, “Your walking uphill on the treadmill reminded me I could do that, too, in order to become a better hiker. I won’t start with 20 minutes, I will start with two minutes and work up to ten to start.” Not only does this help you, it helps the people in your life feel a sense of belonging, too.
Spread the (Self) belonging love!
Julie JordanScott is a Creative Life Coach, an award-winning storyteller, actor and poet whose photos and mixed media art graces the walls of collectors across the United States. Her writing has appeared on the New York Times Best Sellers List, the Amazon best sellers list and on American Greetings Holiday cards (and other greeting cards). She currently lives in a manse in Sussex, NJ, where she has recently finished her most recent book project, hugging trees daily and enjoys having random inspirational conversations with strangers.
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