"When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy."
- Rumi
Awakens
curiosity
Deepens
awareness
Heals
wounding
What is the “River of Life”?
One way to understand the present moment is to trace its trajectory from your birth to this time. You are the living embodiment of your past, a combination of human players, events and lessons learned. In level plains, rivers meander, while in steep terrains, they tend to take the shortest route. When we live life mindlessly, we, too, meander aimlessly, sometimes even looping back on our own progress; when we live life with wisdom, it is a much shorter journey to the realization of our dreams and alignment with our missions.
How do I practice my “River of Life”?
On a separate piece of paper, create a template with four columns: the first one for the blocks of years, for example, 0-7, 8-14, 15-21, and so on; the second column for the major players; the third one for the major events; and the fourth one for the major lessons.
Now ask yourself: Am I happy with how my river is flowing? What changes do I want to make in my relationships, work, home, and so on to redirect the course and the speed of the journey?
Tips and reminders.
• Meditate to deepen memory access. Make several passes in each time period, to delve deeper into the most salient and helpful parts.
• Sometimes later time periods will spark memories from earlier times, and vice versa. (It is a river of one life.)
• Growing awareness of themes and consequent actions and reactions will begin to inform one’s understanding of the later time periods.