Go Saturday!  We had our first meeting of the our 12 week meditation series to kick off the Daring Greatly:  60 Day Gratitude Challenge at Two Rivers Yoga.  Together we take up the challenge of personal transformation and to live in gratitude.   Today we began in stillness to explore our heart’s connection to the commitment we are making.

We are taking an amazing journey in which we can learn about ourselves, each other and our world. Stillness offers a wonder opportunity to really know the place from which we begin – in this case – to know ourselves well enough to seek what is most healing and empowering and what will enable us to live with thanks.

We initiated a meditation with an adaptation of Ana’s Prayer from her inspiring book Fierce Medicine:

Let us find the courage and help one another to dance with what is immovable in our lives.    Let us find the courage and help one another to weave our lives into a masterpiece.    Let us find the courage and help one another to use our healing breath to bring new life to cell tissue so our cells reorganize in a healthy way.    Let us find the courage and help one another to learn how to make the dream of our life come true, knowing that we must be flexible and quick enough on our feet to accommodate how our life changes as the dream comes into being.  Give thanks!

In our guided practice we began breathing life into our intention.  We sensed into the support of the solid ground supporting us and all the areas of our bodies that work to support our well being.  We began cultivating the feelings of inner strength, courage, commitment and loyalty by bringing to mind past experiences of these qualities in our selves or in witnessing others.  Exploring the experiences of asserting our ourselves and letting something go – both take courage.  This cultivation practice can help us to grow the energy and helpful mind states we’ll need to sustain our commitments.

We also brought our obstacles to mind recognizing them for what they are, sensing and feeling their nature without being driven by it.  We could bring them into the vast spaciousness of the breath – holding the feeling of difficulty while we continue to nourish and nurture our intentions.  Author and meditation instructor, Tara Brach, calls this moment the “sacred pause.”

We ended with a gratitude practice by calling to mind beings – two or four legged – that we are grateful to – beings we know or even teachers who have helped us from afar.  We saw them in our mind’s eye and held them in our hearts wishing them safety, wellness, a life with ease and happiness.

I believe that setting aside time to come into stillness in formal meditation gives us a precious opportunity to know the nature of our bodies, hearts and minds.  We can learn to extend the practice of mindfulness into our daily activities so the value of the teachings we study can be expressed through our actions.  I hope you will include this practice of coming into stillness in your Gratitude Challenge!

You can find additional resources and home practice suggestions at:

Daring Greatly Gratitude Challenge Home Practice Guidelines Class 1