Welcome! This is a 9-minute guided inquiry to access your deepest wisdom. I invite you to find a quiet place and a few moments alone. You may want a pen and paper to write anything that comes up for you. You can do this meditation anytime, anywhere, and return to it again and again. 

About the Practice

A few years ago, I noticed that whenever my best friends or my students would come to me and ask for advice, I would listen with an open heart. And I would summon, from the depths of me, exactly what I thought they needed. I sounded tender and truthful. I would even tell them the hard things, but do it with compassion. 

I would turn into this very wise woman.

While I would become a wise woman for other people, when it came to my own self, I was so unkind.

“You’re not good enough. You’re not strong enough. You’re not smart enough to do that. Keep your head down. Get small. Ask for permission. Keep your voice steady. Don’t make waves. Be careful. You’re not enough. You’re not enough. You’re not enough.” 

The great Black womanist Audre Lorde said, “We can learn to mother ourselves.” 

I realized that I needed to practice talking to myself differently. I needed to lay down new pathways in my brain through conscious repetition. I created a practice of summoning and listening to the wise woman within me. 

Listening to my wise woman daily is how I finally learned how to love myself.

Imagine if a critical mass of us were leading our lives from a place of deep wisdom. Not fear or scarcity or anxiety. But love without limit. Might we begin to summon the collective wisdom and will to transition society as a whole? 

Ready for more? 

This meditation is an excerpt from my teaching series 10 Days to Activate Revolutionary Love. For a deep dive on accessing your deepest wisdom and the ten practices of revolutionary love, I invite you to take the full course.

From SEE NO STRANGER:

“I believe that deep wisdom resides within each of us. Some call this voice by different sacred names—Spirit, God, Jesus, Allah, Om, Buddha-nature, Waheguru. Others think of this voice as the intuition one hears when in a calm state of mind… Whatever name we choose, listening to our deepest wisdom requires disciplined practice. The loudest voices in the world right now are ones running on the energy of fear, criticism, and cruelty. The voices we spend the most time listening to, in the world and inside our own minds, shape the way we see, how we feel, and what we do. When I spend time listening to people who are speaking from their deepest wisdom, I can feel understanding, inspiration, and energy nourish the root of my own wisdom. But I must not lose myself at the feet of others. My most vigilant spiritual practice is finding the seconds of solitude to get quiet enough to hear the Wise Woman in me.” — Valarie Kaur, SEE NO STRANGER, page 281