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Center for Spiritual Living
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Making Space for Meditation

Imagine living daily from that place of feeling truly “enough.” I believe it can come from meditation, the practice of acknowledging that we are greater than our culture, our judgments, and our story. I recently stumbled upon Kyle Cease. He is a former comedian who found his calling as a thought leader and wrote a book “The Illusion of Money: Why Chasing Money is Stopping You From Receiving It.”

In a recent video, he explained meditation in a way that spoke to me and suggested that sitting in meditation for an hour provides an opportunity to see beyond our small story (aka our past). When most of us, me included, think about sitting still for an hour all kinds of thoughts come up; like that’s too long to sit or I don’t have that much time. Kyle says, “if a voice comes up that says ‘I can’t do this’ and I say ‘you’re right I can’t,’ I immediately declare that I am run by the small story. If the voice says ‘I can’t do this’ and you get up, you just said that’s your god. That limited story. That small story.”

WOW! Is the monkey mind in my head really running the show? The one that says, “you can’t because it didn’t work out last time” or “you shouldn’t he didn’t like it” or “do this because it’s the right thing to do” or “don’t say THAT!”

This realization woke me up. I began to really embody the difference between the story/ego voice and the conscious mind.

The conscious mind is the part of you that acknowledges perfect health and then makes life-affirming choices to eat well, drink water and feel blessed by it. The small story is the part that unconsciously grabs the candy out of the bowl because I just want something sweet and then judges that choice as wrong.

The conscious mind is the part of you that looks around your garden and feels blessed by all the beauty and perfection. The small story is the part that only sees the work that needs to be done and talks about all the chores you should do.

Conscious mind acknowledges the blessings of small acts of kindness. The small story gets frustrated by other drivers who cut you off.

It comes down to being awake enough to choose happiness; to choose life-affirming thoughts and ways of being despite the chattering mind.

So, in this season of blessings, I give thanks for my continued awakening. I am thankful for all who meditate and live from an awakened place. I am grateful for all of you who read this each month and maybe find a sliver of inspiration. Let’s live from a heart of light and love, letting everything and everyone be just as it is and give thanks for that. Namaste.

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Author: Juli Isola

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Center for Spiritual Living Capistrano Valley

Center for Spiritual Living Capistrano Valley

Season for Nonviolence Day 53: March23rdThe thought for today is ACTION. “Each of us can work to change a small portion of events and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation”- Robert Kennedy Imagine what actions Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy would be taking if they were among us today.Truly nonviolent action is centred in love and compassion. Actions speak louder than words, it is said, yet it is not so much loudness as clarity and truth that matters; a gentle action can be far more powerful than a forceful one. So, too, the smallest actions - those closest to home - can be more meaningful than those expressed from a distance.Today: I will explore actions from the heart I can take today to express my commitment to peace and nonviolence - in both my personal life and in the public domain. I will find a way to make one small change that will contribute to the well being of my home, school, workplace or community.

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