Your Roles

• Wife/partner
• Mother
• Lover
• Cook
• Housekeeper
• Bread winner
• Social Secretary
• Friend
• Event Planner
• Personal shopper
• Financial planner
• Comedienne

What roles do you play in your life? The most important question is whether you are being yourself regardless of the role you play. Do you ever lose yourself because you are too enmeshed in a role or getting a role right? What is the essence of who you are? Who am I really is a good inquiry to think or journal about.

1. Who are you at your core?
    
2. List all the roles you portray in a given day/week/month.
    
3. Spend some time looking at each role individually.
    
4. Ask yourself, "If I could express my true self while engaged in this role, how would I do it?"

   For example, if I expressed my true self in my role of housekeeper, I would be completely orderly and efficient and I would perform each task with ease. I would feel satisfaction for every task done. I would never have to dash around picking up things because someone has just called to say they are dropping in an hour from now.
    

5. In order to live the role as your essential self rather than unconsciously just getting the job done, what would you have to do? What is a step in the right direction?

   For my example above, I'd have to be mindful of my house and my appreciation of the home environment, what I do in it, what it reflects of my values, and how I want guests to feel while visiting my home. Each day I want to take care of my home, I'd add the task(s) I want to accomplish to my schedule. Then when it is time to do the task, I'd take a few deep breaths and set my intention to be a good steward of my home.

As you can imagine, mindfulness is the unique requirement for living your life instead of playing the roles!