It's Day 12 & I Feel Empowered

Today is Day 12, and I'm proud to have made it this far. To where? For what? It's Day 12 of the Chopra Center 21-Day Meditation Challenge. This has been a series of guided meditations (audio & video) led by davidji to help promote a daily meditation practice.

While I've recognized the benefits of meditation, I hadn't yet committed to a daily practice. As you know, I've committed to my daily affirmations and review of my vision board. My approach was more of a "just-in-time" meditation practice -- using it when I specifically wanted (or needed) to relax and regroup. Two things from the meditation experience have struck me personally, so far:

1. davidji's concept of "RPM" -- "rise, p**, meditate" which means you basically meditate FIRST before any other brain-related activity. I'll admit that I didn't start the challenge that way; but have been pretty diligent about doing so for the past 5 days or so. This morning I felt like I had to remind myself to start the meditation first -- only then did I realize that I'm still formulating it as a habit [also possibly because I hadn't followed the RPM concept last Monday??].
2. Today's focus for the meditation was Ego & Limiting Beliefs: neither of these concepts are new to me. What did strike me was the suggestion to "be kind to your ego." Perhaps it's because one of my 3 Words for 2010 is also kind. I think it was a good reminder to allow and accept all aspects of the self -- to witness/observe without judgment -- so that true transformation can be possible.

The additional guidance and breathing mantras around limiting beliefs also were very powerful for me today. The suggestion to "breathe in possibilities, and breathe out limitations," for example, really resonated and made me feel empowered. [yes, even the coach needs reinforcement and reminders!] I did feel lighter at the end of the meditation as if loads had been lifted from my shoulders.

That's all for now ... I may revisit this later as the meditation experience continues. Feel free to share your meditation experiences with me here or you can always tweet me on Twitter. Namaste!