CAN MEDITATION MAKE YOU CRY?

Today is the beginning of Oprah and Deepak’s 21-Day meditation Series on “Manifesting Grace Through Gratitude”. I absolutely love these meditation series as they are thought provoking, easy to follow and complete.

For me meditation is a chance to just sit still with myself and be present. For such a long time I lived life in fast-forward. I felt like a DVD player whose button was stuck and I was too busy top go and get repaired. When my world fell apart I had two choices to face what was happening or bury my hand in the sand and wallow in my own self-pity.

It was at that point I actually realized how selfish I had been for years. Partying myself almost to death at times in an effort to block out reality. I didn’t even realize the pain my friends and family were in watching me but in hindsight I also had no idea how to help myself.

When I chose to face the music the weeks and months and indeed years that followed were some of the most difficult of my life so far. Throughout this time one of the many tools I used was meditation. I’m very often asked if meditation can bring up strong emotions and the simple answer is “yes it can!” But what I found powerful is that sometimes words aren’t enough and we if we really want to heal on a deeper level unfortunately we do need to dig deeper to get to the truth. I use the word unfortunately here because it can be hard work and very hard on yourself personally but let me tell you it’s worth it in the long run.

I combined meditation with journaling, counseling, exercise, nourishment from food and I also kept a gratitude diary so when I listened to todays initial meditation from Deepak and Oprah the tears flowed and instead of fighting them like I used to I let them flow. I wrote in my journal for a while afterwards because I obviously hit a nerve and what I realized yet again is just how powerful the art of gratitude is. When you are deeply and truly grateful for something you will feel emotions. Part of my tears today are relief that I pulled through and sometimes I get overwhelmed by emotion when I think of how kind some people have been.

So try not to be afraid of who you are and your emotions. Own your feelings, recognize them and if necessary ask for help in figuring them out but never ever be afraid to just be who you are because we are all different and unique and this world needs you to shine your light brightly as there is only one of you and no matter what you think you are important too!!

NAMASTE XXXX

Visit www.chopracentermeditation.com for more information on the 21 day meditation series