Well, my personal 28-day meditation challenge has come to a close, and yet it feels that something is just opening up. Has meditating turned me into a completely different person? No. Has all the stress in my life magically vanished? No. Have I reduced my risk for a heart attack? Yet to be determined!
But here’s what meditation has done for me: It has persuaded me to account for and appreciate small moments—moments that have indeed nourished me in ways I never expected. It has encouraged me to treat myself more kindly—to stop beating myself up over things I cannot control. Above all, it has reminded me to SLOW DOWN, to really take in the world and the people who inhabit it.
There’s a quote of Sharon’s from Week 2 that summed up not just the program’s concept of “mindfulness” for me, but of the program itself: “Mindfulness can allow us to experience fully the moment in front of us—what Thoreau calls ‘the bloom of the present’—and to wake up from the neutral so that we so we don’t miss the small, rich moments that add up to a dimensional life.” To me, living a dimensional life seems like the very definition of finding “real happiness.”
For anyone who’s considered trying a meditation program but didn’t know how to go about it, Real Happiness is the perfect place to start. It’s down-to-earth and accessible, beautifully written, and easy to follow. (It’s also just become a New York Times bestseller, so it looks like many out there agree!)
Here’s to waking up from the neutral and living a dimensional life, always.
Be sure to check out other participants’ experiences with the program here.
My previous Real Happiness posts:
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