All the great spiritual teachers over time have recommended this simple, yet powerful meditation:

Sit quietly for 10-20 minutes twice a day, with your eyes closed, and ask yourself “Who Am I?”. Don’t try to answer the question, simply allow the silence that follows it to be. Know that any answer that comes from the mind is a thought form, and cannot be who you truly are. This question cannot be answered on the level of form. If your mind starts to wander, as it inevitably does, ask the question again, and again sit in the stillness.

Try to keep this question in mind as you go about your week. Whenever you catch yourself defining yourself or playing a role, ask yourself if that is really who you are. Question even your most fundamental of assumptions – Are you your body? Are you your mind? Are you your personality? Are you a person? Find out who you are by finding out first who you are not. Once you have stripped yourself of everything that you are not, then only what you are will remain!

"Ask yourself, 'Who is reading this?' It's not who you think." - JDH
 
Wishing You a wonderful week of Self discovery!

Ready for some fun?! This week we’re going to try stepping out of our comfort zones. Spiritual traditions are always telling us that we are not who we think we are and that we need to let go of all our self-imposed definitions to find out who we are not, are thereby who we actually are.

So, your exercise for this week is to figure out what and who you define yourself as (including the implied definitions) and then to mess with these as much as possible.

For example...

 - If you define yourself as a Goth, you could spend the week dressed in bright colours and listening to hip-hop.
 - If you define yourself as a Christian, you could try going to a service at a mosque or synagogue.
 - If you define yourself as a punctual person, you could try to be late for everything this week.
 - If you define yourself as a couch potato, you could go for a daily run.
 - If you define yourself as the life of the party, you could try to sit inconspicuously and observe instead of partaking in the action.
 - If you define yourself as shy, make an effort to say one thing to every stranger that you pass.

Try to stir up some of your little habits and routines that you have put in place – eat dinner at a different time, try something new, wear your hair in a different style, sleep in or wake early.

Do something so out of character that everyone says “hey, do you know what so-and-so did today – I would have expected it from x but not from them!” The more uncomfortable and unlike you it is, the better.

May you find who you are not, and discover that it wasn’t what you thought it would be!

Have fun!