In an age of sound bites, contemplation is becoming a lost art. Attention spans grow shorter and the soul suffers. To contemplate, as defined by Webster, is "to look at with continued attention, to meditate on." It comes from the root contemplari, which means "to mark out a temple" (con, "with"; templum, "temple") or "to gaze attentively."

Choose any question from the previous exercises-for example: What people, places, and activities allow me to feel most fully myself?-and hold it in your mind for a sustained period, at least ten minutes at a time. A good way to do this is to take a large sheet of paper and write the question out in big, bold letters. Then:

A powerful complement to contemplation, stream of consciousness writing is a marvelous tool for plumbing
the depths of your questions. Choose any question, and working in your notebook, write your thoughts and associations as they occur, without editing.

Devote at least ten minutes to writing your responses. The secret of effective stream of consciousness writing is tokeep your pen moving, -- don't lift it away from the paper or stop to correct your spelling and grammar-just write continuously.

Stream of consciousness writing yields lots of nonsense and redundancy but can lead to profound insight and understanding. Don't worry if you seem to be writing pure gibberish-, this is actually a sign that you are overriding the habitual, superficial aspects of your thought process. As you persevere, keeping your pen on the paper and moving it continuously, you'll eventually open a window through which your intuitive intelligence will shine.