This is Going Inward, a 7-day journey into your inner life.

+ FRAMING TRANSCRIPT

This is Going Inward, a seven day journey into your inner life.
Today is Day 0, our preparation day.

So why are we here?
We’re here because there’s a longing in you.
It might be to be whole, to be seen, to be known and loved.
Perhaps to feel worthy of all that.
Some part of you probably does feel worthy of all that, but it might be buried or contradicted a lot.

It’s that part of you that reaches out, that dares to keep longing, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

We’re here to build a bridge between the place you’re in now and the place you long to go.

The fact is, you are the only person who experiences your own inner life.

That means you’re the only one who can control it or be subject to it.

And you’re the only one with the power to find what waits for you in there.

What do you think is in there? Is it possible that there’s more to you than you’ve known before? What if it turned out to be a sign of truth, as opposed to a problem, that you long for more?

Our work is to follow the thread of your longing, to make way for an opening mind and heart.

Your inner life is yours and it’s personal.

The inner pilgrimage that you will take is just for you.

And yet, like most things worth doing, it’s best not to do it alone. This is a chance to bring your inner exploration in touch with others, to make way together toward that longing that won’t let you go.

Let’s begin.

+ EXPERIENCE TRANSCRIPT

Trust the Longing

If you can, grab something to take notes with as we begin.

Come with me for 5 minutes, and let’s try something together in the inner world.

By the inner world I mean the whole range of experience within yourself.

We’re going to try to access this inner space, so it may help you to close your eyes, but you don’t have to - this is all about what works for you.

What I want you to do, first, is to try just noticing what’s in there. Turn inward and take a look: what’s roaming around in your awareness right now?

I’ll give you a few categories that might help: Do you notice thoughts? Sensations? Feelings? What about fears or judgments? Memories? Desires?

I’ll give you a moment of silence to explore. Now open your eyes and jot just a few of these things down, for yourself.

Great.

So, first of all, what you just did -- looking inward -- that is a really hard thing for a lot of us.

So I honor you for that and I invite you to honor yourself for that. A lot of us don’t feel very comfortable in our inner lives, and so the fact that you’ve even dared for this moment to go inward and really look, this is a big deal and may have been difficult, and that’s okay.

By jotting down some things you found in the inner life, you just took a snapshot of something very important, and that is your personal experience.

At any given moment, what’s going on in your inner world is your personal experience.

Makes sense, right?

But that’s not all.

You have also just demonstrated a second and extremely powerful feature of your inner world.

You have not only the power to experience, but to notice your experience.

You can pay attention to it and be conscious of it. We’ll start to see why this is so significant.

From here, if you’re willing, I want you to try one more thing with me.

Here we go:

Turn back inward -- close your eyes if it helps -- and take a breath. Now, if you can, allow yourself to feel the longing you feel. The one that brought you here.

What is the deepest longing in your inner world?

Put a hand on your heart and just sit with the reality of this longing.

For this moment, allow it to be there.

Now open your eyes and write it down.

What is it that you long for?

This is just for you, no one else will see.

And now look at what you wrote.

I’m here to tell you that this longing is trustworthy. It is worth pursuing.

There’s something very healthy about your longing for something beyond what you have found.

This is the thread that we will follow from now on.