Health – Don’t Take It for Granted

It is so easy when you are healthy to think you will always be so. I have been lucky enough to live a life where I took my health for granted, most of the time. After two family members where hospitalized 8 month apart, to the day, I am given a wake up call as to the importance of appreciating and taking care of your health.

The morning of the 5th day, in the year I had dubbed “The Year of Health”, my husband woke up with chest pain. I had no idea the events that were about to begin unfolding. My husband is a healthy, active man. We hike, he shovels snow for 8 houses in the winter, takes the stairs over the elevator and is focused about getting his 10,000 steps a day. I never imagined that under the surface this insidious disease was slowly but continually preparing to change our lives.

What I thought would be a trip to the ER to “be safe rather than sorry” turned our world upside. My 50 year old husband had had a heart attack. We kept our chins up; positive thoughts bring about positive results. We were sure that, during the procedure to assess what was going on with the vessels that supply blood to the heart, the doctors would be able to put stents in to repair the blockages. Once again we were shocked. The amount of disease that was found requires a quadruple bypass to repair. Family history was one of the factors, which was shared, as a reason why there would be this level of disease in a man this age.

As we await his surgery, I think how can this be true of my strong and active husband. I just always took it for granted that we would both remain healthy and be able to continue our active lifestyle, traveling, hiking, camping, and kayaking. I know that this surgery is a second chance. I know that it gives us a chance to start again. He will have new healthy vessels on his heart. Though we can not change the family history, we can work together through diet and exercise to make modification that will help to keep this disease at bay. Making these adjustments in our lifestyle will be our way of saying, “Thank you” everyday for our health. Appreciating, whatever level of health we currently have and continually striving to reach the next level of health available to us. Whatever that may be.

I am grateful for the health we have today. I am grateful for the even better level of health we will have in the future. I will never again take my health or that of my family for granted.

May you appreciate your health, at whatever level it is at. I wish you every happiness. I love you!

Finding Spiritual Connection

We went to a Kirtan Saturday night and it was definitely the highlight of our weekend. It is a blessing to have a spouse and friends who support and share interest in my spirituality, for spirituality can be a magical thing. I feel there is a connection we experience through it. It is something bigger than ourselves, but more than that, it is something we can experience with a community of people on a similar journey.

Spirituality is not the same as religion. Some people do find a beautiful spiritual connection through religion, but that is a path and not the destination. Others may feel that connection and awe in nature. This is where they experience amazement. Others find that connection within themselves. They may gain this experience through meditation, prayer, or other rituals. Ultimately it really doesn’t matter how you find that connection, it’s still a magical thing.

We emerged from the Kirtan enhanced, deepened, and more ourselves. The world seemed a brighter place. I felt there was a different type of energy flowing through me. It was a more authentic energy. A part of me but also a connection to something more. It was not the usual sugar or caffeine induced boost. It was a Divine intensity that vibrated throughout me.

I am not sure that I can find the words that can adequately express how this experience, not only enhanced my life but also allowed me to come home to myself and be more fully me. After all, isn’t that what we are all after deep down inside, being deeply ourselves?

Having a spouse and friends with the same interests and also able to walk along with me, as we walk our paths, is such a blessing. I know that I am loved for exactly who I am. I love them for who they are. They do not have to change, be better, or be different. They can be who they are in this time and space and I love them, unconditionally. They return this same unconditional love back to me.

I facilitate a group that meets monthly to explore metaphysical and spiritual topics. This community of seekers have come together in all different ways and from all different places. We have formed connections, community, and a sense of belonging with one another. This also is a blessing to have a safe and accepting spiritual family to come home too.

If you have not found your spiritual family and you feel this is a part of you still missing, I recommend you explore. Try joining ‘MeetUp’ groups that appeal to you, attend local events, take classes on spiritual subjects that interest you. Not everyone needs a spiritual community though. Some have such a strong sense of inner connection that they are happy as solitary soul on their spiritual path. For me, I need my spiritual family!

Thank you for reading my blog today. I love you! May you find the spiritual support you need for your journey, as if by magic.

*Photo was taken in Sanford, FL

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What Comes After the 90 Meditation Adventure?

It has been 90 days, plus some, since I started my daily meditation blogging adventure and it has been an adventure full of learning. Meditation did not always happen daily for me, even though I would like to start a daily practice of meditation. I know that when I did meditated, my days were enhanced, my mood was calmer, my writings were more inspired. I feel some of the best blogs I have written, were written after a session of meditation. For example; A Story of Remembering, was written after a meditation on creativity. I feel it was Divinely inspired.

So now what? I want to continue to meditate daily. Do I continue to write a weekly blog about it? Do I admit to the number of days that mediation does not happen? Maybe It should be a year long adventure but It is so easy to put everything else before my meditation. Time with family and friends, work, even blogging and preparing the Meme’s for the Adventure Sisters’ FB page.

I also wonder if the meditation check-in blogs are helpful to anyone. Does it help you to know that I too struggle with incorporating this into a daily practice? I wouldn’t go about my day without brushing my teeth; shouldn’t meditation be just as important? It is like food for the soul; a dipping of my toe in to the ethereal bounty of the collective consciousness.

I especially like meditation outdoors! I feel a part of the world around me and fully present. I hear the birds’ songs, crackle of the fire, rustle of the leaves, something moving further out in the forest, and the sound of other campers packing up this morning; as I sit in quiet meditation at my campsite in a Wisconsin State Park. There is a peacefulness that falls over me like a blanket as a result of this quiet time. I feeling that all is right with the world. It seems my psyche steps away from the everyday anxieties that can be a part of life in the world today.

While I am in meditation, if feels safe to gently touch the emotions that I am uncomfortable experience in normal life. I can slowly accept them rather than the constant pushing down or pushing off, that are my typical ways of dealing with them.

My thoughts seem clearer, words flow more easily, and the bigger picture becomes obvious. Everyday annoyances take their place as little things that do not contribute to or enhance the vibration I wish to bring to the world. All of this after only a couple of minutes of quiet meditation. Imagine if I was meditating 20 minutes or an hour a day. What would be possible then? I will continue with working toward a committed meditation practice. Why? Because committing to me is important. It will help me show up as the type of person I truly want to be. It will help me shine my little light so that others can see it and find within themselves their own light to shine.

I will continue to blog about my experiences. I can’t say if it will be a weekly blog. I am guessing sometimes it will and sometimes it will not. That is okay. There is Divinity in the breaking of patterns. What is needed today will not be the same as what is needed tomorrow. I will flow easily where Spirit guides me and wish the same for you.

Thank you for reading my blog today. May your life flow easily in the direction of your dreams, as if by magic.

Previous meditation blogs by the Adventure Sisters: Join Us on This Adventure, Meditate the weight away?, 9 ways to improve meditation, Meditation contemplations, There’s an App for That: A review of meditation Apps, 7 Common Meditation Myths, 11 Types of Meditation

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Daily Meditation Adventure – Week 11

If you have not already joined our Daily Meditation Adventure, I hope you will still do so. Here’s how the last week went for me.

Experiences during the week: I notice that I am (more able) to get into a meditative state. I also notice that I am able to settle into longer and longer meditations. I went from 10 minutes one day to 20 minutes the next day and the 20 minute meditation actually felt shorter than the 10.

My weight: Intermittent fasting has sprang my weight loss forward. I have lost about 7 lbs since starting it. I find it very helpful. The meditations certainly help me stick to the hours of fasting but are not the soul cause of my weight loss.

How I feel: I feel more connected. I find that I am manifesting situations and experiences more quickly since starting my meditation practice. Even if my practice has not been perfect and I have missed days (even weeks) at one point, the constant return and true desire to have a daily practice seems to be enhancing my life.

How it is affecting my life: One day I chose a guided meditation for creativity. I felt very inspired after the meditation and wrote short story. I feel that at this point the meditation is more of a beneficial presence in my life rather than the stressor that it was when I first started doing it.

What I have learned: I have learned to never give up. To try try again and I will be successful. What a Lessons that is! There are so many times in life when our first attempt at something does not yield the results we would like. But we can be successful We WILL be successful if only we believed continue to try!

Oprah and Deepak are offering a free 21 day meditation series. There is an app you download and you can listen to a new lesson and meditation everyday that builds on the previous day or can stand alone. This series is the Energy of Attraction. In the past I joined a series that was related to Time. They are definitely worth checking them out.

I would love to hear your experiences with this. Have you fallen off the meditation wagon? Have you maintained daily meditation? Have you enjoyed this adventure? Is meditation helping enhance your life?

Thank you for reading my blog today. I wish you a lifetime of achieving goals and the drive to keep going to get to limited-less success, as if by magic.

Previous meditation blogs by the Adventure Sisters: Join Us on This Adventure, Meditate the weight away?, 9 ways to improve meditation, Meditation contemplations, There’s an App for That: A review of meditation Apps, 7 Common Meditation Myths, 11 Types of Meditation

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