Day Seventeen

Once again the past couple of days have been challenging as far as making my spiritual practice a priority. I did a short 12-minute meditation after work yesterday...and still need to do one tonight before bed.

I have a theory that we can only open our hearts so far...and then we need to take a breather and let the growth and wisdom we experience settle a bit. I've heard the process of personal transformation and becoming your true self compared to childbirth and it makes sense. It is a series of contractions and expansions and the best thing we can do is to keep breathing!

The days when it is hard to honor my 21-day experiment commitment are contraction days...and that's definitely where I am today.

Finally, I read an interesting article in a Self Magazine rcently called "Meditation for Beginners" and wanted to share just a bit of it... "A wise Buddhist teacher I know once explained meditation as observing the process of consciousness as distinct from its content. Instead of getting stuck in your story--"Why didn't he call?" or "I hate my job"--you learn how to watch from the sidelines and be a witness to your internal drama.

As with building any muscle, it takes time and practice to train your mind to stay attuned to what's happening in the present. What it doesn't take to meditate is special equipment: no purple-and-gold flecked scarves, no insence, no candles. Just a chair or cushion and a willing ness to stay with tingling feet, angry thoughts or a thumding heart until all the mental noise stops and it's just you and the birds breathing together."

Pretty cool! Skip on! Meditate on!