What to Do for the Rest of Your Life

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about the pressure to plan out your life. For so many people that I work with and even friends and family, I see a lot of stress arise around needing to have some sort of life vision, to know what am I going to do for the rest of my life. This is true for, for young people. Of course, since a lot of that planning is happening.

In high school, college, or just in late teens, early twenties. But it's also true for folks in their thirties, forties, fifties, sixties, and even seventies and eighties are still wondering what do I want to do for the rest of my life? But that question can be quite daunting. It's like, wow, I'm holding my whole future self on the shoulders of my present self. Have you ever felt that pressure before? I want to offer you a reframe to that question. Instead of what do I want to do for the rest of my life? Maybe ask what do I feel inspired to explore more deeply at this point in my life? This second question removes the pressure to plan your whole life in one moment.

And it also trains you to honor the ever changing nature and truth of your being. And when we don't give ourselves the space to honor that we can get fixed into a single idea for who we think we should be. And we go in that direction and then 10 years later, we're still playing out that narrative of this is what I should be doing with my life without actually giving space to, to assess who am I right now? And what do I feel inspired to explore more deeply? So when you find yourself caught in that question, what do I want to do for the rest of my life? What do I want to do for the rest of my life? See if you can just switch that. What do I feel inspired to explore more deeply at this point in my life? And hopefully this removes some of the burden of holding your entire future self on the shoulders of your present self. Thank you for your practice.

Let's settle in for today's meditation.