One of the things I was introduced to at the Creative Joy retreat was meditation by the charming Marianne Elliott who led us in morning meditation, some during our yoga sessions, and yoga nidra a few evenings. I’d been repeatedly reading how wonderful meditation is & picked up some great resources at the retreat, so I committed to meditation every day in July. It just so happend that my local yoga studio was offering a Sunday session the following weekend on meditation, so I took it as a sign I was supposed to get started! I know meditation can be defined in lots of different ways, but the one I like most so far is anything or activity in which you are fully present. For now, I’m working on the “sit still & don’t be distracted” kind of meditation, but I appreciate how anything that fully occupies your conscious or puts you in the zone can be considered a type of meditation.
I started out with the very brief e-book Fundamentals of Meditation (free download) from Sally Kempton to get a little more background and information. Read about the 3 types of meditation (concentrative, integrative, contemplative), and read all about the many benefits and positive side effects of meditation. I did really wel the first few weeks of the month, doing a silent meditation on my own most mornings- just sitting quite & still for a few minutes.
Around the middle of the month, Deepak Chopra offered his 21 Day free guided meditation Challenge so I started listening to that everyday. It’s about 15 minutes, some talking at the beginning with a period of silence where background music is playing. I only missed 2 days during the month of July & I’m really proud of myself. I’ve got another week to go on the Deepak meditation’s, but I think I’ll enjoy going back to silence or trying out some other meditations afterwards. I can’t say it’s been so incredibly life-changing at after only 31 days, but I do notice a difference. I’m mostly amazed at how difficult it is to really be present in the moment and not let my mind wander off to some thoughts or worries. I plan to keep at it- learning more about the ways to practice meditation and trying to extend those principles of being present to other areas of my daily life.
Just so I remember, one of the recommended resources were these free guided meditations from David Ji at the Chopra Meditation center.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY:
