Lesson two is pretty similar to lesson one. Again, we are strengthening our ability to recognize that we create the world we see. I practiced this one the recommended twice a day for one minute each.
Besides my ACIM exercises today, I finally got back on the meditation horse. As I stated in my last post, my goal is to meditate for 15 minutes every day. That’s right. Every. Day. When I haven’t done meditation in a while, it’s generally pretty hard for me to get back into the flow. My brain usually goes one mile a minute, and it’s hard to get it to quiet down.
Surprisingly, today’s session felt really good. I was super relaxed at the end of my 15-minute session.
How I Learned to Meditate
About ten years ago, when I was still living in the U.K., I was super lucky to be able to attend a weekend meditation retreat run by the Bright Path Ishayas. They taught us how to meditate, eventually having us meditate for a full hour! The specific type of meditation we were taught is called ascension, which is mantra-based. Essentially, we learned four different mantras that we repeat over and over during ascension. Each mantra is based on one of the four pillars: praise, gratitude, love, and compassion. That’s it! I have heard that it’s pretty similar to Transcendental Meditation (TM), which is another method I’d love to learn.
When I meditate regularly, my life just seems to flow better. Yet, it’s one of the first practices to disappear when my life gets hectic. Most of the recommendations say it’s best to meditate first thing in the morning. Now that my youngest is getting older, that seems like a more practical time now than it did before. When she was waking up during the night, it never seemed like a good idea to get up even earlier.
Like most moms (or women), it takes deliberate focus to ensure I take care of myself before I take care of others. I wasn’t raised by a mother who modeled these behaviors. Even though I know my self-care is critical for the well-being of my family, I still struggle with guilt when I focus on myself.
Maintaining my boundaries in my personal and professional life is one of my key goals this year. Professionally, this has been very scary for me. As a woman of color, I always felt like I had to go by the “work twice as hard to be seen as half as good” mindset. Couple that with my perfectionism, and you have the perfect recipe for burnout.
I will try and document here how this shift in mindset manifests in real-time. Stay tuned…