I am back for day 2 of the 30 day meditation challenge. Yesterday I talked about how great You Tube is, well apparently so is Twitter. This morning, while trying to correct a mistake I made on a Tweet, I found a particular one on my timeline and holy smokes, it was exactly what I had been looking for...I was whining to myself the other night about how I published a book, but when I went back to read it, I was so mortified, I immediately unpublished it. I felt like a failure, and being a writer is one of my dreams. The link I read today not only helped me see the situation differently, it helped me figure out how to get me back on path.
First and foremost though, the 30 day challenge. Remember yesterday when I said everything happens for a reason? Well today I can prove it. I woke up this morning and instead of hitting snooze, I reset my third alarm (lol) so I could meditate and then go back to sleep. I am not exactly sure if that is how it is supposed to work, but today, that's how I decided to roll. Anyway, I started to listen to the lesson for today and it was all about breathing. The correct breathing, that is, when meditating.
I thought to myself, what the heck can I write about when it comes to breathing. Okay, here's my blog, breathe in slowly and deeply to the count of five, exhale slowly to the count of eight and do this until your mind is clear. Yes, today's lesson was simply about breathing. There is nothing wrong with this, because this may be a challenge, but it is also a teaching ground for learning how to meditate correctly. This, however, didn't leave me with much to write about, since the lesson didn't explore anything except proper breathing techniques. I will tell you though, when I meditated at lunch using the exercise I am about to talk about, I did notice my breathing was spot on.
So now on to the second meditation I did today. I know, I know I'm all about the crazy and living on the edge with two meditations (ha!). As I mentioned earlier I was on Twitter and I saw that actor Tobias Menzies posted a Self-Compassion exercise. Since I am not new to meditating, but new to doing it the more effective way, I clicked on the link and felt like I was learning yet another lesson for the day. Not only had I wondered what else I would write about today, but then all of a sudden this link was dropped into my lap, that's awesome in all kinds of ways.
So I mentioned earlier about my book. What does my whining have anything to do with this exercise? Well learning Self-Compassion is about breaking the cycle of Self-Flagellation, or in layman's turns, beating yourself up over everything that didn't turn out right. What I got out of this was learning how to pick yourself up and dust yourself off when you trip and fall. Let's face it, we all fail at something at some time in our life, but does it have to be life ending? No, because each failure is a lesson on how to achieve the end result another way, maybe even a better one. You can look at the word "fail" as a four letter word, or a catalyst to better things. That's your choice.
I read through the article and then I wrote down the things I feel like I have failed at, including the book I published and immediately unpublished. I was in tears wondering how I could have set myself up to fail, when even I knew that book wasn't ready to go, but in that moment of meditating and facing my concerns about this issue, I realized that I didn't fail, I just need to reset, fix what is wrong with the book and put it back out there. I also made myself feel better by telling myself, "even if I self-published, I still did it", and that was enough to make me understand that other area's of my life where I thought I had failed, I hadn't. I was learning a lesson about perseverance and reminding myself to keep moving forward and not look back.
I know this isn't my most exciting blog, but it is an eye-opening one for me. I included the link to the article at the bottom. Take a look at it. Since I am not at a point where I can meditate effectively without guidance, I did the following, I wrote down a few items I thought I had failed at. Since the article said to meditate for about fifteen minutes or so, and I can't meditate without music, I chose Ralph Vaughn Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, which is a cool fifteen minutes and a song that I find centers me. Pick something soothing you like and if you have to, loop it, but keep your focus, clear your mind, tell yourself it will be okay and breathe correctly (wink!).
The article is amazing and helpful and I think each individual will find their own meaning out of it, this was just my interpretation.
Here is to another day of feeling empowered. Knowing I am enough. And reminding myself that I belong in this world. :D
Until Tomorrow....think beautiful thoughts and never give up!
Ps. Just to show failure comes and goes...I forgot to leave the link here when I first posted this. haha! Live and learn...and here you go...
Self-Compassion Exercise
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