I have this mediation app on my phone, Meditation Studio, that I love. I got it free for a year through my Starbucks app a few years back. Even now it amazes me how it can calm, center, and ground me –all from an app!
I haven’t been doing yoga classes like I once was. (Meaning three to four times a week. Now I’m lucky to go once a week.)
I sort of stopped going because my three favorite teachers all left right around the same time: Val, Stephanie and Julie. Although two, Julie and Val, have since returned after brief hiatuses.
They all always gave me something to think about during classes. Whether it be something to consider making an intention about, a quote to reflect on, or a thought as simple as, “What if for today you didn’t try to be better or improve in any way, but you just allowed yourself to be?”
That last one Val said in one of my first classes with her. I swear I could see the stress actually rise up and leave my body as I contemplated such a notion.
I’ve been on self-improvement auto pilot mode for so long, I didn’t even realize I was anymore. It’s always about improving, fixing, changing. Getting permission to just let that go for a day? OMG. So freeing!
Anyway, I still do some yoga at home –and almost every day too– but it’s not the same as going to the group practices like I was. I miss the guidance and wisdom.
But I still get a little wisdom and guidance (and peace) via the Meditation Studio app.
This afternoon I was feeling low energy after lunch. Which isn’t uncommon for me, but I was more depleted than normal.
It’s been a busy, stressful past few weeks. Today was the first day I didn’t have to be anywhere or have anyone coming over to make repairs or give estimates, etc. I think my body and mind were like, “OMG, we finally get to slow down for a second.”
However, because I have had so much going on, my writing and other projects have suffered. As much as I’d love to nap the afternoon away, I still have things to do.
But at the very least I could give myself a Meditation Time Out. Do you ever take those?
Yogi Stephanie often encouraged us at the end of class to set aside 10 minutes a day, every day, for meditation.
For a while I was diligent about it. It made an enormous difference. I felt more cool, calm and collected and in general better able to deal with stressors no matter the size, big or small or somewhere in between.
Then I got to traveling so much and fell out of it.
I’ve been trying to get back into it the last couple of weeks. Today I allowed myself 5 minutes.
The first mini-meditation I listened to was two minutes long: “You Are Always Enough” by Fran Hauser. It was so good I immediately hearted it as a fave. (You can save your faves in the app to make them easily re-accessible.)
Since it was only two minutes, I had three left. “Set a Powerful Goal” by Travis Barton caught my eye. It was only three minutes. Perfect.
In his meditation he talked about two main ways to think and dream (as in envisioning goals): by probability and by possibility.
Most people operate by probability. It’s harder –but more exciting and can lead to more fulfillment– to live by considering the possibilities.
Interesting.
But then near the end of his meditation he explained how living by possibilities helps you show up in the world powerfully, rather than passively.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather show up powerfully.
Not that I’m a control freak (except maybe when it comes to loading the dishwasher), but I would rather be in control and in charge than passively waiting for things to happen.
Once in a while I show up powerfully. However, if I’m honest, most of the time I’m passive. Or used to be. Cancer sort of set me on a different course, because it made me realize I had been having a near-life experience up to that point.
Old habits die hard. I recently became aware I’d slipped backwards a bit on that.
But this meditation has given me words and a mantra to snap myself back in a new direction. A powerful one.
What about you? Would you say you show up passively or powerfully for life?