28 Days of Meditation - Week 4

My recent experiences with meditation seem to me to be too emotional and personal to write about, but I did want to share a few things. Last week I finally finished the last week of Yoga Journal’s Meditation Revolution. This series really came together for me with this meditation and I feel that I “get” it more and can see where to use this in daily life.

(Photo by Lily Rosen.)

The focus for week four is the Great Heart. The Day 22 email describes this as “the spaciousness you enter when you move your attention into the back body”. At first I was confused, and thought it was a good idea that I had spent the summer doing back openers in yoga. But, I soon realized that the Great Heart is a Higher Power and the meditation was an intense new connection. I felt this so strongly that I cried through the meditation for most of the days that I did it.  I was having a rough week and doing the meditation first thing in the day helped me feel strong and protected. Also, when thinking of myself as a conduit for my Higher Power I finally felt the energy the emails said I was supposed to feel.

My main goal for the meditation that week was to reduce obsessive thinking. Because of certain things going on, I really, really, really needed that. The meditation gave me tools to use in the outside world. Putting aside thoughts of people is like putting them aside in meditation – observing them and then moving on. Not waiting for the other shoe to drop but saying “I will deal with it if it arises and not bother about it until then.” I was able to do this a few times this week, and while it was a struggle it really helped. 

If you're wondering what happened in Week 3, I tacked it on to the end of the entry called Outdoor Meditation.