Stillness

On November 11, 2013 I began my meditation journey.   At the time I had high blood pressure, smoked, drank every day and was seventy pounds overweight.  Living in mom’s house while working on mine, I was dealing with a lack of privacy and solitude and baths!  The bath thing was especially difficult since I have, all of my adult life, loved to take a hot bath before I go to bed at night.  I was living in mom’s basement which only had a shower….and I hate showers!  Having just moved to Kentucky and started a new business and not having a place of my own, I was really stressed out.

I started with Deepak Chopra and Oprah’s 21 Day Meditation Series just thinking I would do the 21 days and see if it made me feel any better.  Four years later I own almost every one of their 21 day challenges and I meditate every day.  This has become such an integral part of my life that I cannot imagine going without it.  Has it made a difference in my life?  Absolutely!

The most immediate difference I saw was a feeling of being able to find a place of stillness every day.  One of the ways that I have evolved over the past ten years is that I love solitude and I really struggle when I have none.  Meditation gave me that small amount of solitude I could reside in each morning.  Where I could be alone and still and quiet.  What a blessing in a chaotic existence!

By March I was ready to quit smoking (again) and I set a date of March 24th which is dad’s birthday.  I was absolutely committed and there was no question of failure.  I meditated in the morning as well as when I came home from work in the evening. Evenings were when I most enjoyed smoking.  It worked, I quit cold turkey and I was irritable and miserable enough during that first month to promise myself that I would never pick up another cigarette.  To date, 3 1/2 years later I am nicotine free and will be for the rest of my life.

There have been so many benefits over this period of time.  I eat healthy, get plenty of sleep and I am working on quitting drinking and losing weight.  I feel more in touch with myself, I am happier, I am less likely to take any crap from anyone because I believe in myself and what I am worth.  I know I deserve the best that life has to give and I take the time to be present in the here and now which is the only way to truly live.  I am me….I am enough….I am worth it!  Namaste