An Exercise and Workshop for Decision Making and Consciousness Development
This is an exercise for exploring your mind, emotions, and Consciousness, that can help you see and understand yourself in new ways. While it is recommended to be done with an experienced facilitator who can help you navigate through the exercise, you can also do it by yourself and see what you get from it. We had hosted a live workshop where this exercise was facilitated, below we provide a recording of the workshop.
The Exercise
We had given a brief description below before the workshop, we have kept the text prompt below if you prefer to use that.
There is an egg, we will call it The Cosmic Egg, or just The Egg.
The Egg, it is said, holds the answers to ALL the mysteries of the multiverse.
It can answer the most profound questions that humanity has held since the dawn of time.
The Origin, God, Purpose, The Past, The Future, Infinity, and Beyond.
It even holds the answer to “The Chicken and The Egg problem”, the “Who Created The Creator problem”, and other mysteries that have tormented our feeble minds.
There is a crack in the egg that will allow anyone to peek within.
You are given a choice:
To Peek or Not to Peek?
That is the gist of the exercise.
Now, proceed in the following way:
First, watch your instant reactions to the choice.
Is it one of:
– “Obviously, without a doubt! Show me what you got!”
OR
– “NO WAY! Keep that away from me!”
OR
– Did you enter into “Analysis Paralysis” / unable to choose?
OR
– No choice (remember that too is a choice)
OR
– Wait for someone else to decide / See what others are doing
Whatever your reaction, it reveals a lot about the way you live, think, and feel.
Now, the next step is to ask yourself:
“Why did I have that reaction?”
“What does that say about me?”
If you wanted to look within The Egg, what is it I am seeking? Why do I want to look?
If I don’t want to look in, what is the reason for staying away? Fear? Or something greater?
If you entered into Analysis Paralysis, in other words you are unable to decide, perhaps this is how you feel everytime you are confronted with a choice. And that is a sign that you may be suffering from decision anxiety. The good thing is you can get help. There are many methods and techniques to overcome this (Watch our episode on Moving out of FOMO).
Is your reaction/decision rooted in fear? This article written by Matthias Ye, a member of the Study of Self group where this exercise was first presented, has many tips on Alternatives to Fear-based Decision-making.
If you were waiting for someone else to choose before or for you, then you can also have a look at our article Choice can be scary when you never had one: Learning Healthy Decision-making where we explore beliefs that keep us trapped in unhealthy patterns as well as ways to become a healthy decision-maker.
Before you go further, take some time to deeply contemplate/meditate on the exercise.
And when you are done, continue below for further prompts:
What are the consequences of peeking into the egg?
How will my life change if I peek within?
Am I avoiding peeking to escape reality / live in an illusion?
Am I peeking to escape the unknown?
The final part, the crux of the exercise, will be revealed in the live event after which a recording will be shared here, so not to spoil it further for those who will be participating live.
This exercise was inspired by a visionary experience I had with the sacred plants called Ayahuasca.
The same concept is also explored in the movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once” as “The Everything Bagel” which inspires many lines of thinking. Even with all the knowledge and all the possibilities, deep down the character was just deeply sad, disappointed, and resentful. It’s a wonderful movie to watch and it will even help to prepare for this workshop.
Did I look within?
Again, I will only reveal this after the live event because it holds a certain key I do not wish to reveal as it would spoil the exercise for those who will participate (Answer in the video above).
Credits
The Cosmic Egg artwork was generated by Sushil Ganesh using the Midjourney AI-artwork generator.