Last week, I finished The Chopra Meditation Center’s 21 day meditation experience, on expanding your happiness.
These guided meditations were such a nice way to re-build my meditation practice, and begin to make it a habit, once again, each day.
Some of the meditations struck deeper chords with me than others, although they were all pretty poignant. I blogged about my thoughts on I Am Peace, here, but another topic that really got me to think was Living Kindness.
First off, Oprah started off the meditation with a quote from one of my ultimate inspirations, Dr. Maya Angelou, this instantly made me cry, because I have not even began to process the loss of Dr. Angelou. Her words have had such a profound effect and influence in my life and sparked a deep love of reading and writing. The quote is “I have found that among it’s other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. When you learn, teach, when you get, give.”
This meditation definitely made me reflect on my own expressions (or lack thereof) of kindness. The work that I do as a counselor and yoga teacher, was inspired and motivated by kindness. I pursued these avenues because I wanted to help others and spread positivity. However, sometimes that all gets lost in day to day stress and exhaustion.
When I really thought about it, I realized that my work has been more motivated by achieving, production and quantity (rather than quality) of service. I have been more motivated to do more things at a faster pace, which leaves me feeling drained and irritable. This is a not a good state of being to help others.
I realized I need to get back in touch with that kindness that motivated me to pursue my career, in the first place. I hope to do more out of kindness, love and compassion. Maybe I will not get as much done, or maybe I will find I get just as much done, but I feel more energized by it, as opposed to drained.
This meditation experience was definitely a positive thing as I started this current school year. I plan to continue my own personal meditation practice each morning, to start my days off in a more focused frame of mind.
I cannot recommend Deepak Chopra’s meditations highly enough. He does these 21 day challenges every so often, and if you “like” The Chopra Meditation Center on Facebook, you can get updates on when the next one will take place.
Did anyone else complete The Expanding Your Happiness experience?
Angie Eats Peace 