I’ve already completed a few personal challenges since I started this blog:
There was No Junk Food Week (successful!), the GET OUTSIDE challenge (partial failure) and the daily Movement Meditation Challenge (life changing-epic-awesome turned into daily practice). I’ve also committed to do a sober year. No mind altering substances, including coffee for me till 2014. So far so good! The strongest thing I have imbibed in has been green tea, although I will admit I took some decongestants to keep snot from dipping down my face while I was serving tables with a cold two weeks ago, but that was really a practical matter. I tried going without and the result was…. unsanitary.
Anyway, these have all been my own personal challenges, but the one I’m starting today was thrown my way via facebook by several friends who are also participating.
Deepak Chopra and Oprah Winfrey have put together a 21 way meditation challenge called Perfect Health.
http://www.chopracentermeditation.com/bestsellers/ProgramPage.aspx?bookid=178&id=7733
These Guru’s of self help and wellness state: We will be your guides each day as together we discover how to recognize our body’s natural perfection and leverage its inherent wisdom. In our interactive online program, we invite you to meditate and journal with us to embrace the vision of your best self, expand your understanding of your miraculous body, and achieve greater balance and wellbeing.
It’s a free program and requires a 15-20 minute commitment every day.
It also happens to be perfectly in line with my own goals and belief system. I have nothing but respect for these two people, especially Dr. Chopra, who have been responsible for bringing the idea of wholistic wellness with a balance between mind, body and spirit into the mainstream.
I did my best Barney Stinson impression and accepted the 21 day challenge!
As an offside, the character of Barney on How I Met Your Mother has actually shared some profound spiritual wisdom which I write about on my old blog here: http://wp.me/p12dXx-J
Anyway, we started today with an intro by Oprah and Deepak, explaining that Perfect Health is our natural state.
Which means: I am absolute existence. I am a field of all possibilities.
I sat with my headphones in a chair just in front of my living room window. Feet grounded, hands palm up in my lap, eyes closed… Deepak brought us into the meditation gently, explaining the mantra and how repeat it in our minds, allowing all other thoughts to drift away. As the soft meditation music played and I repeated the mantra, I was privy to a glorious light show. As the sun shone behind my closed eyes, warm colors of red, orange and yellow softly rippled and waved through my field of vision, peppered with cooler tones of purple, green and blue…
The mantra instantly resonated with me, and I felt a oneness… A quantum awareness of infinity… My body was alive- tingling and buzzing with energy. I had tears of gratitude flowing down my face, and while I was elated and , I simultaneously felt some sorrow in my chest.
When the bell chimed to end the meditation, my brain cried out NO! I didn’t want to leave that state, so I sat for quite some time, eyes closed, just bringing my awareness back into my body. Now I feel energized. I can’t wait to do it again tommorow!
I am also incredibly grateful to have a fair bit of meditation experience under my belt. It certainly gets easier and infinitely more rewarding with practice.
I think I started practicing on and off about 15 years ago. I have never had a daily practice though, outside of my movement mediation. I’m stoked to dive in deeper!
Dancing Into Being 