Speak the World that You Want: Practical Ontology as Mindful Living
Speak the World that You Want: Practical Ontology as Mindful Living
We do what we’re committed to doing.
But are we satisfied that we’ve participated richly enough in shaping the goals that drive our actions? Do we feel like we can own our lives and take responsibility for creating its meaning and its pulse, its feel and its resonance?
What are we committed to when we feel, say, stuck or uninspired, or victimized and incapable?
The ontological approach asserts that our own practices and commitments drive our feelings, and as ontological coaches we aim to cultivate opportunities to bring awareness to and sincerely question these commitments.
We might be commited to the belief that we’re not capable of living powerfully— “not attractive enough,” “not smart enough,” “not assertive enough,” and “just not able to trust.”
We might believe that if we “just had the right partner,” or lover or friend (or a different history)… only then could we “really” open up and savor the value of deep intimacy.
These beliefs are not just benign thoughts— they’re practices that generate the kinds of worlds we live in and the kinds of lives we lead.
Our beliefs commit us to certain types of actions, certain types of expectations, and consequently, certain types of possibilities and opportunities.
Mindfulness of the world-generating practices that express who we are is ontology in action.
Ontological mindfulness gives us the opportunity to cultivate powerfully inspired lives by being present to the interpretations we live out, and by inventing new possibilities for being.
When we sincerely believe that we are worthy of respect and capable of creating inspired lives, we make a life-changing commitment that bears directly on what we’re prepared to do, and what we’re prepared to anticipate and expect from ourselves and from others.
When we want something different, we create something different by being something different.
This calls us to listen with razor precision to the emotional and linguistic frameworks that shape the quality and meaning of our lives.
Doing so, we come to see how our moods, feelings, and relationships with others emerge out of a world view and a way of being that we’re mostly unaware of, and these feed into the patterns of self-talk and communication that produce our opportunities and our limitations.
If we’re seeking a transformation of being then we have to begin by listening to how we speak the meaning of our lives into existence, because it is through the listening that transformation occurs and shifts the very paradigm from which our beliefs emerge.
Whether or not we’re trying to generate a better work/life balance, or just want to stoke our sense of inspiration, and design our life in a way that passionately matters to us—practical ontology operates at the ground level of how we actually live, and what we actually say.
When we courageously and mindfully align our actions with our words and our beliefs, then we live powerfully— we live with full commitment.
When we fully become the value driving what we want, then what we want can’t help but follow…
—May this disclose a space of rich creativity and inspiration, and may it illuminate what was always there to begin with: infinite abundance!
If this blog inspired you, please pass it on…
© 2016, Kevin Perry, Bettie J. Spruill, Ideal Coaching Global
