Audio Script:

“The true purpose of meditation is to teach your mind its own freedom.” ~ Sally Kempton (Disciple of Swami Muktananda and Meditation Teacher)

Welcome and thank you so much for taking on this 21 day meditation journey designed to introduce you to meditation and help you develop your own meditation practice so you can start to experience the benefits of meditation in your life. 

With everything going on in the world, add in our responsibilities and challenges, it’s no wonder many of us have become overwhelmed with life.  Over these last few years we have faced challenges that are not only physical and material in our lives but also psychological. There has been so much fear, frustration, anger and sadness all around us and we have been asked to change and adapt in ways we could have never imagined.  In many ways, it can feel as though we have very little control over our lives and this feeling really impacts our overall sense of fulfillment.  When we feel this kind of inner conflict - whether it is unease, stress, anxiety, anger, depression, or weariness - it is simply our response to being off-course.  There is a part of you that knows, deep within, that things could be different.  That there is a better way.  So this inner conflict is really a message to you that something needs to change and I want to congratulate you for the gift you are giving yourself today with the implementation of this meditation program.

Often when we are overwhelmed in our lives it can be difficult to add in anything new.  We resist this in an effort to self-preserve and “maintain”.  It is for this main reason why so many people are missing out on the benefits of self-care.   Meditation is very much a self-care practice.  But it goes beyond self-care in so many ways. It gifts you tremendous opportunity to see things differently, to know yourself differently. So, I really want to acknowledge you for exploring meditation and making time for it in your life.  I really believe you’ll experience like I did the transition from feeling like I had no time to mediate, to feeling like time was slowing down for me, or the pace of life I was experiencing slowed down for me, as a result of meditation and mindful living. 

In the practice of meditation, we are developing the ability to disengage from our thoughts and sit in inner stillness.  When we do this we experience what is commonly known as “the “gap - a space between reacting to our thoughts and not reacting.   We become aware of what it feels like to experience each moment with as much authenticity and integrity as possible and when we do this we invite in, even if ever-so-briefly, the chance to experience forms of realization, contemplation, and inspiration and the opportunity to optimize our response. 

When we are frazzled and stressed, we are reacting to an endless stream of thoughts and emotions arising within us.  It can be difficult to make decisions and take our best possible next steps in each moment, no matter how big or small these may be, when we are reacting to life so strongly.  

In these 21 days together, we’re going to learn how to get into this “gap” - a place where we are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not running our lives.  We’re going to learn how to create a little bit of space between the triggers in our lives and the reactions to these triggers and we’re going to do this using meditation by working with our attention.   

We have habitual and uninvited thoughts coming into our minds all the time - whether we want them to or not.  Meditation is not about blocking thoughts, or forcibly stopping thoughts, it's about removing our attention from those thoughts so that the reacting doesn’t occur.  That is the gift of meditation and this is what I hope you will encounter and experience in this program.