My morning meditations of late have been focused on an exercise that I often do: the “clean slate.” Each morning, Spirit seems to be reminding me to clear away old thoughts and create a mental “clean slate.”

This illuminating exercise shows right away where we get caught in letting our day-to-day life create us instead of our doing the creating. We see how circumstances and relationships influence who we consider ourselves to be, the roles we play and how we play them, the labels by which we identify ourselves, the responsibilities we feel we must honor. The “clean slate” exercise helps us find out what we think and feel about our lives. When our schedules get tight, it’s easy to get lost in the activities, the labels, the roles, the circumstances, and the responsibilities. It’s easy to just let them create and define who we are. What’s worse, we start to believe that that’s who we are!

Spirit keeps reminding me to wipe the slate clean, to let go of who I think I need to be. I can get lost in my self-assigned “responsibility” to be brilliant in my next lecture or to find the right words for the clients I coach today. I can get wrapped up in concern over a friend’s challenges and distresses and lose sight of the bigger picture that shows what might really be going on. This is the big picture that only my soul can show me. I can get side-tracked from the important work because I’ve been on the road too much, which is making me crazy. And besides that, the lawn desperately needs to be mowed!

While we tend to use the words “new day” to signify a new chapter in our lives, we can, in fact, create a new beginning every single morning. We get to wipe the slate clean every morning and choose who we want to be that day. We can write on our clean slate the roles we will play today and who we choose to be within those roles. When we wipe the slate clean and begin a new day as a pure essence, we find our souls again, and reconnect with the divine being inside us that is walking in a human journey. Soul is where humanity meets divinity and divinity meets humanity. For each of us, our soul is the connection between our divine essence (our higher self or God-self) and the ego (our physical being and human personality). The soul is the only part of us that touches all of us-every part of our being, both human and divine. The slate called life gets filled up with our responsibilities, relationships, challenges, conflicts, and missions of the moment. Sometimes the slate called life is so crowded that our ability to touch our souls, radiate our brilliant God-self magnificence, and give our gifts of love to the world get lost.

Perhaps you feel that no matter what you do, your slate is already filled the minute you get out of bed in the morning. You may feel that the roles you must play and the responsibilities you must meet-roles like parent, spouse, job-filler, caretaker-are always waiting for you, regardless of what you want to choose. In fact, you may not be able to change your circumstances or responsibilities in the moment. You can choose, however. You can choose how you want to inhabit the roles and meet the responsibilities. You can choose who you want to be in the circumstances around you.

By wiping the slate clean and creating a new beginning each morning, you get to take off the role, step out of the responsibility (even if only for a few moments), and get back to the pure essence of yourself: your core, your truth, your God-self, the you that is pure love. And then as you leave your morning meditation, you can step into the day, into your roles and responsibilities and your opportunities and challenges. With a clean slate, you begin in a place of personal truth. Your soul has a chance to shine and give light to your path and to all those around you.

We play many roles in the course of a day, but at our essence, each of us is only one person. When we wipe the slate clean, we step back to our God-self and remember who we are at the core. We can then accept our responsibilities and live our lives with full awareness and in full consciousness of who we choose to be.

Wipe your slate clean, not just at the beginning of a new year or a new season, but every single morning. Don’t let the stuff of life dim the light of your soul. Wipe the slate clean and make each choice in truth and integrity. Honoring your soul.

©2003 Alan Seale