I am participating in a Sadhana challenge. This is a daily spiritual practice to support clarity on my San Kalpa (personal intention) and align my actions with my deepest and truest dreams and desires. A friend of mine is giving me direction and guidance that I can harness any way that I like. I will share more about the practice and if anyone would like to follow I would be so interested to hear about your experience.

Today I didn’t even look at the direction until 6 pm. I spent the day helping a friend pack for a big move. It was my 3rd 7-hour day at his place over the Christmas break. When we sat down to eat dinner I saw that the title of today’s practice was “Pleasure, Presence, and Purpose.”

With respect to Purpose I was asked to notice what I feel when I move with a sense of purpose. What does it look like? Is it a feeling, is it how people respond to me? Is it engaging in a project that feels in line with a sense of who I am in the world? Just notice.

Volunteering and serving others is a huge part of my purpose. It is a part of who I am; it is what I do on a regular basis.

With respect to Pleasure the direction was to engage in something pleasurable today. After standing, bending and lifting for 7 hours it felt so good to sit down. I noticed how my muscles craved to be stretched. I mentioned to my friend that it had been 9 months since I soaked in a hot tub and I really missed it. Then I commented that I haven’t even had a bath in about 6 months. I decided that was what I was going to do for pleasure. But when I got home I felt too tired to even bother. I put away some Christmas decorations and thought about just going to bed when I found a pile of mail that I had set aside and forgot about. It was a month old. I opened one envelope. It was from my sister and was fat so I thought it was photos. I was shocked to open it up and find a package of bubble bath. She put a note on it with my name “Enjoy a day in the bath”. I immediately left the other mail, ran a bath with the packet from my sister, lit a candle and stayed there for a good hour. When I was finished I opened the box of my favourite chocolate that my daughter gave me for Christmas and ate 4 pieces enjoying it thoroughly.

With respect to Presence the direction was to simply take 10 minutes to notice–sensations, sounds, feelings, thoughts staying fully aware of what happens in that time. I did that in the bathtub. I was in awe of how my practice today was supported by surrendering to things unfolding. I thought of other very specific times in my life that the universe made it entirely clear to me what my next decision, action or step needed to be. I am very excited for what awaits me as I move forward into 2021.