I woke up this morning as I usually do, blindly grabbing my phone, squinting as I find and tap my Chopra meditation app and play whichever meditation I have up and in the queue. But THIS morning, through my tired eyes, I noticed Alicia Keys staring back at me and excitedly tapped through hoping my eyes were not deceiving me and low and behold, a brand new 21 Day Meditation journey was awaiting!
It’s called Activating the Divine Feminine: The Path to Wholeness (just what I need right now) which is free through June 30th, 2021 and drops a new meditation into the app daily. If you like it, you can purchase it at the end so you can listen to it whenever you want, which is why my app is full of all the past journeys, because I’ve bought almost all of them and still rely on them daily for my 20min morning (or sometimes afternoon) meditation practice.
“As we climb out of the pandemic, we can use self-care and self-love to balance out the loss and brokenness around us. I hope this experience will help us be our best, brightest selves, live healthier and more joyful lives, and find a piece of peace in a broken world.” -Alicia Keys
PS. I never sit like this when I meditate. Instead I choose to lay down or just sit on the couch as I normally would, in a comfortable position… but I always have my dogs with me. In fact I call them to meditate with me 🙂
If you’ve been a long-time reader you already know that I started meditating in the fall of 2014 when I stumbled upon Deepak and Oprah’s 21 Day Meditation for the first time and have purchased/downloaded almost all of their guided meditations and have used them daily ever since. I toggle between all the meditations, choosing which I think will be most beneficial for the moment of time I’m in… but after a while of hearing the same ones over and over (for nearly 7 years) I seriously long for something new. Not that I’m complaining, because they’ve been so helpful, but when you find something you love and that works, you stick with it. I have yet to find another guided meditation that I enjoy as much as Deepak’s so I am SUPER EXCITED for this new journey with Alicia Keys.
If you want to start meditating, and I HIGHLY recommend it (for peace of mind, joy, perspective, clarity, and for me, the total quelling of anxiety) then this is the best and easiest place to begin… because you just listen and then repeat the mantra he gives you at the end.
Through the years I’ve mentally saved some of my favorite mantras so in the moments when I don’t have my phone or only have a few minutes to meditate, I can just close my eyes (if I’m sitting and alone – or keep my eyes open) and repeat them in my head. I do this when I’m waiting in line at the post office, or while I’m at the dentist, or in any situation where I feel a little uncomfortable or anxious and it brings a focus to the present moment and calms me as well. I’m someone who has very little patience for “waiting” and so I use the mantras in those moments and almost look forward to them now instead of getting anxious about them… meditation/mantras just feel like an extra little tool I have all to myself to bring me back to the present moment and not get caught up in my emotions.
When I started meditating, I had zero expectations for how it might help me mentally… I just wanted to learn how to meditate and see if I could “get good at it”… but you quickly learn that you never get good at it, which is why it’s called a “practice”… and it took a few months of daily meditation for the effects to finally kick in, but when they finally did, I felt changed and renewed and almost felt like I had completely rewired my brain from old thinking to new. It was invigorating and life-changing and when I began, I had no idea the positive power it would have on me.
Anyway, I’m excited for this new free meditation journey (and I hope you are too) and will probably purchase it at the end and add it to my library of meditations… the Chopra app is free to download and there are some free options within it, but the 21 day meditations (that he offers for free at first) usually cost around $30-$60 – I think, but to me they are worth it.
Below are just some quote/images I loved and pulled from the Chopra Facebook page.
Just as the natural world transforms with each changing season, so does our mind-body physiology. A seasonal cleansing, in which we eliminate whatever physical and emotional toxicities we have accumulated, allows our mind-body to return to a natural state of balance and health. ~ Chopra
Happy Meditating Lovecats!
* Find all my posts about Meditation here
