Meditation: Chopra, Creating Abundance: Abundance & The Law of Karma Length: 15 minutes Where: Home Office/Guest Room, Los Angeles How It Felt: Motivating
Day 10 Centering Thought: “Today I make great choices because they are made with full awareness.”
This meditation gave me a lot to think about. I actually feel like it ties together a lot of different threads from my life lately in a neat little package. Isn’t it great when something comes along and does that?
The discussion involved the “Law of Karma,” which is described here as the process of “conscious choice-making.”
From the meditation on the Chopra app:
“When you make any choice- any choice at all- you can ask yourself whether the choice you’re making will bring happiness, or more abundance, to you and everyone around you. After posing this question, place your attention in your heart, and the answer will become clear to you.”
I think this is a beautiful idea, and worth implementing. Deepak also discussed stewardship, in this sense meaning our responsibility to care for the things we invite into our lives, whether in the form of people, like our children, belongings, money, property, etc, and I took it to mean what we spend time on, as well. Doing things properly. Not cluttering up our lives and only giving a little attention where we should give more.
I’ve been thinking about this idea of stewardship lately in two ways- time and things. I am trying to teach myself to find balance in my life. I tend to say yes to anything that excites me, even when I have already filled my schedule to the brim. I sometimes forget that the Law of Attraction is always working, and that if a lot of opportunities are pouring in, more are bound to come in right behind those! When it rains, it pours. I have never had a time in my life where I’ve started getting busy with work and creative endeavors and things just balanced themselves out. It’s up to me to be more choosy when I say yes, to slow down and really consider whether this is something to which I can give my full attention and do properly.
I’ve also been in the mood for organizing my space, as I often am at the beginning of a new year. I recently read a book by The Home Edit (if you don’t know them and love organized spaces, look up their Instagram or Netflix show immediately– you won’t be disappointed!) I’m a real organizing nerd- most of my drawers are divided neatly, my t-shirts are all file folded, and you should see what I can do with baskets, shelves, and a messy closet!- but I have to constantly stay inspired to keep purging. I think it has to do with growing up without money. It’s just a lot harder to let things go!
But this meditation series, watching The Secret the other night, and reading this book have all reminded me that this is a scarcity mindset and I can let it go. Space to breathe is important. Actually cherishing the items you love and caring for them properly is more important than saving things “just in case.” I want to be more mindful about everything that fills my life and make deliberate choices, whether that applies to which acting jobs I take, which sweaters I keep, or how I spend my money. I want to come from an abundance mindset, and stay intentional and generous.
My husband and I have been talking a lot about slowing down and considering decisions before you make them, as well. He is an incredibly busy person. As I’ve mentioned, he has a demanding job, three kids, a slightly high-maintenance wife (haha…. but probably for real), a house to run on his own most of the time, a thousand obligations, and, in non-pandemic times, usually a very busy social and travel schedule. It’s very easy for him to go into “survival mode” and let things slide or do them in a way that’s “good enough for now.”
It’s a lot for him to manage, and who among us doesn’t feel this way a lot of the time?
So we’ve been working together on slowing down and being more intentional with his time. I’ve been helping him set up systems to track what needs done, and it took a while to convince him that adding more things to “do” (setting up a planner, keeping a specific type of to-do list) will give him more time in his day, but he’s finally seeing results. A lot of times we can’t see that taking five minutes to do something properly right this minute could save us an hour or ten hours straightening it out later. It can also clear out space to have better quality time with the people we love, especially if we can stop multitasking during those times.
Basically, the theme of the year that is hitting me over the head at this point is “slow down, think about it, make your decisions mindfully, and do it properly.”
It’s a lot to chew on, but this meditation helped me see how doing all this won’t just lead to less stress, less waste, and a better quality of life, but it can lead to a happier, more abundant existence for me and everyone I love.
It also extends, in my mind, to making deliberate choices that do no harm. Am I spending my money wisely? Am I making long term decisions about the products I buy in order to reduce waste? Am I paying attention to the companies who get my support to be sure they aren’t harming humans, animals, or the planet? Will this decision benefit me, but hurt someone else? Am I saying yes because I want to when I know someone else can give this more attention? Can I be proud of the choices I’m making?
I suppose these are really the building blocks of being a good human, whatever way you slice it. The lesson is that we can only ensure we are doing that if we pay attention enough, get still enough, to know why we make the choices we do. If we live on autopilot, it’s impossible to discern if we are living in alignment with our values or not. Not to mention, life will simply fly by before we know it.
I know for a fact I want to look back on my life and feel confident the world was improved by my presence, not made worse. If I don’t pay attention, how can I know? Even the best of intentions fly to the wayside when we just have to survive.
Yet another reason to meditate, right? It forces me to slow down and consider these things, even if for only ten or fifteen minutes a day. We have to have those checkpoints. If we are lucky, we have people in our orbit reminding us, too. Otherwise, it’s just too easy to run full speed to the grave, leaving wreckage in our wake.
My Year of Meditation 