You Need An Inner Life - religion not required.

The inner life is the core from which we move out into the world. Nonprofit leaders need interior reserves to face the many challenges of their role. The problem with cultivating a rich inner core is that this project has largely been associated with religion. As many leave or grow up without faith there is still a need for a strong inner life. ?

Cultivating your inner life is a process of anchoring yourself in something stable and protective. It is an interior space where the self can thrive and to which you can return for protection and peace.?

How to build this core?

Hurdles to Beginning?

The demands of the moment:?

Many leaders ignore this project for the?immediate needs of the moment. But the process of interior growth is not pitted against those important challenges. They work together.?

An assumption of selfishness:?

The other obstacle to growing a strong inner core is the view that attention to this work is?selfishness. This is a particularly modern problem and quite ironic given the propensity toward consumption and unhealthy forms of self-attention that our culture promotes. Cultivating the inner life has historically been seen as the starting point of the journey of life.?

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls. (Karl Jung,?1875-1961)?

How to Begin?

Confidence, calmness, centered emotions, attention to others all stem from a well-tended inner life. Don’t worry; it's not complex. Starting is simply about becoming curious about yourself.?

? Take 3 long, slow deep breaths.?

? Listen to what comes to mind - not a thing to do, but a thought or impression.?

? Jot it down, enjoy your coffee,?and go about your day?

? When you have a few moments (in line, in traffic, in the shower) return to that thought and mull it over. Let you imagination take that seed of a thought and explore it. For me, I’ve been pondering what makes me grateful – not just the things or people I’m grateful for, but the specific feeling and conditions that generate gratitude. This has helped me move from simply a list of items to begin to understand my own need for and worthiness to receive good things in my life. ?

? At the end of the day, collect those strands and enter it as a simple sentence in your daily planner. The reason for writing it down is to record for yourself the journey as you go. You can return to these then at regular intervals to see the evolution of your self-curiosity.?

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These are the bricks with which you build awareness of your life. Keep it simple; attend to this small habit to form the foundation. Take time doing this and you will grow. Your inner world will begin to be a place of core strength from which you move into the world with calm assurance and confidence.?

For me, I process when I paint. In my recent work I've been pondering a thought that came to me in the process I describe above. The idea was that perhaps the things causing me problem were actually places where beauty was breaking in. As I painted with this in mind, I began to see that the rips and wrinkles are the intriguing pieces of a work - of life - of me. This has given me boldness to approach past wounds and present challenges with curiosity, rather than with the judgement or shame that I’d previously employed.? For more on my art project visit https://www.instagram.com/more_than_cardboard/

Summary:?

A strong inner core is cultivated with curiosity and gentleness over time.?