Creating Your Oasis
My life can be insanely busy. Sometimes, I am going in so many different directions at once that I need a few air traffic controllers just to handle the logistics. But I am able to not only survive but actually thrive in the midst of what might seem like chaos to everyone else. Want to know my secret? I have an oasis of calm at my very core that I draw from all the time. I can help you find that space too.
Otherwise, the pace of modern life and the onslaught you face each day from more than six billion people on the planet and the ever-present sound and fury of the media are enough to leave you constantly gritting your teeth (if you’re not already grinding them at night—mouth guard, anyone?). And that’s just the static that comes from the outside world. You also have emotional issues and physical stresses that have collected over the course of a lifetime that add to the energetic din in your head (thanks to those old fear-based tapes that keep playing in your mind). It’s no wonder so many are popping anti-anxiety and anti-depression drugs like candy these days.
You may at first think this doesn’t apply to you. But think again. Is your phone or your iPod always in your ear? Is your TV blaring in the background 24/7? How many e-mails or tweets did you send just yesterday? So many never have a moment of peace and quiet to check in with themselves internally. So the first step to creating an inner oasis of calm is to actively create habits like meditating and journaling, both of which help clear the backlog in your mind so you can see not just the forest, but also the trees. Both of these tools will go a long way in helping you keep your sanity.
If you’re afraid that you’ll be wasting your time, know that these things are practices, and the more you give to any practice, the more you will get out of it. In fact, I can just about guarantee you that before long, you’ll be absolutely amazed at what comes up for you.
Meditation helps because it works at a deep level of consciousness to give you access to whatever information you need to restore your life to harmony. Tons of studies have shown the benefits of meditation, including the way it improves a host of physical conditions and fosters peace of mind. There are four levels of awareness: waking, sleeping, dreaming, and the meditative state, which is a much more expansive type of awareness. In the spaciousness of meditation, you slip into the gap that exists between thoughts—the entrance to the infinite universe, called by many names: Spirit, Source, God, Universal Energy Field, or simply the Unified Field.
In this vastness, we are One, connected to each other and All That Is, with access to pure unlimited energy. Here, anything and everything can be accomplished. The noise of daily life abates and our minds and hearts and bodies can come into balance. Think of meditation as a giant broom for sweeping away any stagnant or blocked energy that you may have buried deep in your body. You are cleansed at a deep level, and now can allow an effervescent stream of creative energy to bring beauty and innovation to your life and to the world. And you don’t have to do it for hours a day. Even just 20 minutes of meditation will refresh you as much as several hours of sleep.
While meditating connects you to the universe, journaling connects you to your very core. So often, when life gets too difficult or a situation threatens us, we get scared and stuff our emotions. We may not think we have a right to be angry, for example, so we don’t express it. But that doesn’t mean that our anger goes away. We can’t wish away reality any more than we can wish away gravity. Journaling helps you uncover emotions you’ve been pushing down so you can deal with them in a healthy way by processing them. Beneath almost any problem is truth waiting to be acknowledged and set free. You may have heard me say this a time or two, but I’ll say it again anyway: truth heals. But it can’t heal you unless you uncover it and confront it. And journaling is one of the simplest and safest tools I know for doing that.
So give both meditation and journaling a try. Then share your experience with me on Facebook. I can’t wait to hear your stories!