Take the One Seat.

Everyone talks about change, especially at the start of a new year.

Resolutions, themes, words of guidance, vision boards … all are valuable in helping us make the future we want for ourselves.

But what if change is less about action, envisioning, reaching ahead, and more about accepting where we are right now?

There is a concept I learned from reading A Path with Heart by Jack Kornfield, called “Take the One Seat.” This describes a meditative practice in which we imagine ourselves in an empty room, occupying the one seat that exists there.

“Open the doors and windows and see who comes to visit. You will witness all kinds of temptations and stories, everything imaginable. Your only job is to stay in your seat. You will see it all arise and pass, and out of this, wisdom and understanding will come.”

I think this means that in order to see where we are going, we need to see exactly where we are.

Think about it. Even GoogleMaps needs a starting point to give directions.

How can we truly expect ourselves to get where we want to go without knowing where we are right now? If we take the one seat, we have the opportunity to look around our room, see what appears, observe how it makes us feel … and accept its presence in our life.

I don’t think we can get where we want to go without this knowledge. And I don’t believe gaining this knowledge is the whole story; we also have to accept it as truth.

Consider what it would feel like to accept the sadness on your heart, or what might change if you accepted the reality about an unfulfilling job. I wonder … who would you become if you accepted your deepest desires?

Acceptance gives us a place to begin. An origin for change. A starting point.

Accepting your sadness might allow you to process it and release it. Accepting the reality about an unfulfilling job might allow you to see the profound changes you need to make. Accepting your deepest desires might be the first step towards giving yourself permission to meet those desires fully.

There is another benefit to taking your one seat and accepting your life as it is: you become reacquainted with your SELF. Accepting your existence as is means that there is no room for criticism, judgement, or negative self talk. You are JUST YOU.

Can you imagine what that might feel like? Can you envision the changes this freedom might allow you to make?!

I get all aflutter just thinking about it.

Look into this and see what comes up. I promise the one seat is rich with information and can lead to change — just by sitting in wonder, witness, and acceptance.