On Friday, August 8th, I participated in the Chopra Center's "A Global Meditation for Peace" (globalmeditation.chopra.com). Not surprisingly, there were many nuggets of spiritual and meditation wisdom and for that alone I was grateful to have participated. To know that every country in the world had at least one person participating made it feel not only special but huge and small at the same time. And if the world vibrated peace a little more strongly and solidly for that one hour and maybe a few after, it was a major meditation coup and so, so worth it.
One of my favorite quotes of the event was when Deepak Chopra said something to the effect of "I normally tell people to meditate at least once a day, unless they are really busy and then I tell them to meditate twice a day because they are the ones who really need it." This struck such a powerful chord with me because it was my learning insight from the week before.
I had been focused on pulling together a workshop that a colleague and I were presenting later in the week for one of our most important clients. I had delivered pieces of it in other workshops but I was pulling the content together in a different way and having to shorten it significantly. For me, shorter presentations are always harder to create than longer ones. To add to the stress and pressure, due to our travel schedules and a major undertaking I had in my personal life (I was the celebrant at the wedding of two of my favorite people in the world--in both English and Spanish), my colleague and I hadn't really had time to discuss the content or our approach until the Monday of that week.
Even though I'm steeped in stress management and wellness techniques, I often and easily default to old patterns and behaviors of just shutting everything out and off and focusing exclusively on whatever the big project is. This time, however, I resisted the pull to my old ways of being and kept true to what I knew would help me best get through and be successful.
I made sure to go to yoga or to meditate each day--sometimes twice a day. I took long walks and breaks. My drinks of choice were green--green juice and green tea (and ok, maybe a glass of wine to ease the nerves a bit). I hydrated. I made time to spend with friends and family without feeling guilty. And sleep was my priority.
Maybe it was the wisdom that comes with age. Maybe it was giving myself permission to heed to an instinctual pull. Maybe it was the collective force of the guardian angels who, bless their hearts, clock some major overtime keeping me out of danger and on a productive path. Maybe I rationalized it as research or experimentation. Or, maybe it was a sense of accountability to live as authentically close to the words I speak and the beliefs I cling to but occasionally fall short of (she says with self-compassion yet a continued call to action at the same time).
Whatever it was, it worked--and it worked big time! I was proud of the workshop we delivered and best of all, I felt exhilarated not drained both before and after.
I am not only grateful, I am re-energized and re-affirmed that really, meditating twice a day when you are at your busiest and all the peaceful living that goes with it is the most prudent course to stick with for peak performance.
Be well.
Namaste.
