If you’re here you’ve probably heard of, or are participating in, the current 21-Day Meditation Experience hosted by Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey via the Chopra Center Meditation organization. This event is something that the organization hosts every quarter and one that we’ve participated in since its inception in 2013. Nearing their twentieth experience, we are always amazed at the timeliness and spot on themes offered during each event. This last experience of 2017 just kicked off on October 30th and we’re really excited with the theme: Making Every Moment Matter.
This theme is one that we can all relate to, whether it’s trying to find more time for ourselves, our family and friends, our passion projects or just quiet time to be still and centered. We can all identify with being overwhelmed at times and feeling like there’s not enough hours in a day to get everything that we want to done. Here’s the beauty of this particular experience though: you can and you are doing everything that needs your time and attention! As with most things it’s our mindset that sometimes needs to be reevaluated and reworked so our thought process can aid our progress, rather than impede it.
Here are a few of my personal reflections from Day 1 – Where Does The Time Go. I chose to answer the journal prompt of writing down how I could achieve a more fulfilling use of time while decreasing wasted time and came up with the following:
- Really understand that time for myself is more important than time I dedicate to others. This is one that I am challenged with on a regular basis and one that I find myself coming back to again and again. The driving force here is that if I don’t make time for myself I am depleted, irritable and undesirable company to myself and others! I cannot give to anyone else the energy that is critical for my own balanced existence. Time after time after time I would give of myself until I was an empty shell and that lead to health challenges, mental and physical. I do not enjoy that state of being or thinking so, me first.
- Ask for help and/or don’t always volunteer to come to someone else’s rescue. I’m a fixer, a helper a “make someone else feel good” kind of person but, many times it would be to my own detriment or at my own energetic expense. I never asked for help and would always be the first to swoop in to be the “fixer”. Two things I realized in doing this: 1) I couldn’t or wouldn’t ask for help because of my ego because if I did, what would I have to be grumpy about if I wasn’t doing everything by myself? 2) I wasn’t allowing other people the opportunity to learn, grow and develop their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Always wanting to fix things wasn’t only robbing myself, it was robbing others in a way as well.
- Spend more time actually living vs. desiring to live. I can sit and daydream and pine after the things I want and want to do with the best of them. However, things have reached a critical point for me where the living has to outweigh the daydreaming. Make no mistake, I still have goals and bucket lists and things that aren’t within my current grasp, but there are many items on those lists that I can engage in right now and have vowed to do them. It may be as simple as catching a sunset from a favored vantage point or doing something silly and carefree with friends or my boyfriend – it doesn’t have to be a super expensive or involved event and simplicity sometimes is best! If I’m always waiting, planning or second guessing when does the living part ever begin? Now, it starts now.
These are just a few of the thoughts that wriggled free after Day 1’s meditation. If this is an inkling of what’s to come over the next three weeks then I cannot wait to see what else blossoms from my time invested in this experience…my experience. I would love to hear what came up for you after the first day’s meditation – share your thoughts and feedback with us!!
