Meditation: Chopra, Creating Abundance: Pure Consciousness Length: 15 minutes Where: Home Office/Guest Room, Los Angeles How It Felt:Overwhelming Who Joined Me: Steve
Day 4 Centering Thought: “From this moment forward I invite unlimited abundance into my life.”
What a day.
I really thought I cried it all out this morning. The first female (Black) (South Asian) Vice President our nation has ever seen was sworn in, and the tears started. Of course. I knew that moment would be powerful.
I knew the whole ceremony would be powerful. The whole day, honestly. I’ve been waiting for this day for five years. Many of us have.
I wept through J Lo’s incredible rendition of “This Land is Your Land.” Hits a lot differently coming from a powerful Latinx woman than it does coming from a White dude, doesn’t it? I cried and nodded and clapped during Biden’s powerful first speech as POTUS. I had to get a new box of tissues during Amanda Gorman’s poem.
THAT was something else. The young people in this country give me so much hope. I mean, I know I’m not old– I’m a millennial, but an elder millennial, so, you know. I have to work to keep up sometimes. But these kids coming up behind us are not messing around. They are ready for meaningful change, and we owe it to them to show up and make it happen.
Anyway, to get to the meditation portion of this post. I cried all day. I feel so much like five years of struggle and stress and embarrassment and having to fight every little thing is all draining out of me. We have good people at the top again. Not perfect people, not people above accountability, but people who aren’t, you know, firing up White Supremacist groups or inciting riots against their own government or totally disregarding the Constitution. It’s a relief!
When I sat down to do the meditation, I chose to sit facing Steve directly for some reason, instead of side by side. I guess I wanted to feel his energy…or just feel close to him, especially since he has to leave tomorrow. Always hard. I sort of pictured us both sending out loving and grateful energy and that energy intertwining between us and rising up into the universe, twice as powerful as it would be otherwise.
Does that happen? I think it does. I think love multiplies energy. I really do.
The centering thought (at the top of the post) invited us to declare that we will find abundance in our lives from this moment on. I thought about everything that changed officially today. I thought about how I can feel the clouds lifting, how everything is finally going the right direction. I thought about how lucky I am, how abundant my life already is in so many ways, how much love and opportunity and privilege I have, how long I’ve been waiting for this day to come.
About halfway through, I became so overwhelmed with those good feelings that I just started to smile, then weep. I laugh-cried my way through the rest of the session- but I held on to the mantra! At the end, Steve scooted up to me and put his hands on mine, touched my heart, we shared a moment. Then he told me right when I started crying was when he was visualizing this beautiful scene where I was safe and happy in this lovely little house, and he had been thinking of all the great things we could do with more abundance.
He was sending out love, love, love. And boy, did I feel it!
I thought about how I want to vibrate at such a high frequency that I only attract people like Steve. People who are full of love, who are generous and kind, who want to have adventures and help others. People who have empathy, who actually do and make things, instead of sitting around doing nothing but criticizing those who do. People who see the world outside of themselves and look for ways to actively improve it.
That, to me, is an important part of living abundantly. It’s not just attracting more money and more things- although that’s fun, of course. It isn’t about just more stuff though, it’s about love and friendship, family and giving, health and gratitude.
It’s about being your brother’s keeper, rising to an occasion, fighting for what’s right, leaving the world better than you found it. It’s about living your purpose and not hiding behind a smaller life than you were meant for.
In that spirit, I’ll leave you with the breathtaking words of Amanda Gorman, a young woman I’m sure we will all see a lot more of in the near and distant future. May we rise up to meet her message.
“The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman
When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn’t always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours
before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny Black girl
descended from slaves and raised by a single mother
can dream of becoming president
only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms
so we can reach out our arms
to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation
rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth
in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future
history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
of such a terrifying hour
but within it we found the power
to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked,
how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was
but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might,
and might with right,
then love becomes our legacy
and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country
better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest,
we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west,
we will rise from the windswept northeast
where our forefathers first realized revolution
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states,
we will rise from the sunbaked south
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
and every known nook of our nation and
every corner called our country,
our people diverse and beautiful will emerge,
battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it
My Year of Meditation 