We just completed the Twelve days of Meditation this December, but I thought it might be a nice thing to share again with anyone who missed joining us for these 12 days.The idea was to surround ourselves in positively joyous expressions of life and meditation for twelve days as we enter the festive holiday season. Each day we contemplate, meditate and then enjoy! Each day has something different to contemplae, then you will do some self directed meditation, followed by enjoying the experience of your practice – enjoyment is important : ) We hope you enjoy your twelve days of contemplation and meditation with us. Contemplate. Meditate. Enjoy.
Day 1. LifeLife is an amazing wonder and you have it. You have the gift of life. You are alive. You are here on this planet to experience all the incredible things it has to offer, so use your life wisely, follow your heart and be true to yourself.Today as you meditate, be aware of your life. Be aware you are alive and feel how alive you are. Rejoice in the life you have and it’s preciousness. Rejoice in being alive.
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Day 2. Beauty
There is beauty all around us, so take a moment to see the beauty in everything. There is obvious beauty in nature, but there is beauty in the mundane too and it is good to see this and appreciate this.However what is most beautiful is always within us. Such beauty lies in our hearts and although we do not see it, we can feel it and its strength is far greater than any beautiful rainbow or sunset.Today when you meditate, connect with your beauty within and feel it. You are beautiful.
Day 3. Wonder
‘Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.’ SocratesI’m not sure to which meaning Socrates was referring in this quote about wonder. Perhaps it was about being curious or maybe being in awe. Both seem to have great possibilities about creating a spark of wisdom from these states. Perhaps both. Being curious is a positive trait that keeps our interest alive and keeps us alive and discovering the world within ourselves especially. You need a natural curiosity for that. The natural openness that comes from experiencing awe and amazement, is certainly also a place which can lead to wisdom and great learning. So always keep your natural curiosity and allow yourself to marvel at the small wonders around you every day, for it will keep you present and open and filled with wonder!
Day 4. Compassion
Let us today bring to mind compassion. When we think of compassion, we often think of having compassion for others and this is important. We should certainly have compassion for those around us. However today we are going to focus on the person we often forget about – ourselves. It is important we have compassion for ourselves as we are usually the most critical and destructive voice around – in our own mind we are continually giving ourselves a hard time. Let us today start to gently bring compassion into our hearts for ourselves – without judgement or opinions, let us be kind and compassionate to ourselves and open our hearts fully to us. A little bit of self-love goes a long way!
Day 5. Healing
Every minute of every day your body is healing itself. You are made up of at least 50 billion cells and they are busy regenerating and adapting and doing all sorts of jobs we don’t think about but should appreciate and be so grateful for keeping us alive. We are an incredible system of muscles, bones, blood and electricity and have an intelligence that is so vast we don’t understand the half of it. Your body is continually working and healing to do what it can to ensure everything functions to the best of its ability, in the environment it has, under the conditions we place it. And boy do we put it under pressure. So today, just for one day, we are going to do everything we can to support the healing of our body and appreciate all the work it is doing. We are going to give it some rest, appreciate it, love it and create peace in our environment, in ourselves, we will slow down and breath fully and be present….we will allow maximum healing to take place. And meditation is the ultimate way to allow for all this to occur, so let us meditate now and let the healing begin!
Day 6. Wisdom
When we think of wisdom we may think of something wise someone once said or something we read. There are plenty of wonderful wisdom’s out there and many wise words. But today we will contemplate on the wisdom within us. You have a wisdom for which there are no words. A wisdom within you, in your heart and soul and this wisdom guides you in life, if you are connected enough with yourself and will listen closely to the calling of your heart.Today we will connect with the wisdom in our hearts, our true compass in life, letting us know if we are on the right path, and making the right choices for ourselves. Whenever you are troubled, go to your heart and you will find the answer. In that way, you will never make the wrong choice.
Day 7. The Breath
To breathe is life and the breath is always there keeping us alive. It also serves as a constant reminder and a fantastic tool to keep us present and in the moment. What better way to remind us that there is no moment but now. Often we are looking outside of ourselves for a way to stay present, setting alarms and using other tools to tell us to be mindful – but the breath is always there letting us know when we are not. When we feel stressed, our breath changes, our chest tightens and it is more difficult to breathe. This is your breathe giving you a tap on the shoulder and saying hey, let go, relax, breathe. If we always listen to our breath, feel our breath, we will be able to keep a close watch on how we are throughout each day and we will become more mindful of ourselves and the world around us. So today let us be totally with our breath for as much as we can…and let your body and mind reap the benefits.
Day 8. Gratitude
Gratitude is a powerful thing. It can change our perspective and turn the bio-electricity of the body from contracting in our hearts to opening our hearts. Love and gratitude go together very well and we should incorporate them with great regularity in our lives. We can easily get into a cycle of living outside of ourselves, wanting and desiring things that we wish for, however this keeps us in our mind-stuff, always unsatisfied and stops us from being in the present moment. If we take some time in gratitude, we become aware of all we have to be grateful for – to start with all the non-material things we have contemplated so far in our journey here. To be grateful for our life, the beauty around and within us, for wonder, compassion and the healing happening in our bodies right now, as well as the wisdom your hold within you and for every breath you breathe. Now that’s a start…and perhaps you have many more things to be grateful for….you should contemplate those now…
Day 9. Calm
When we are calm magic happens. It’s incredible how a change of state can change our world. One minute we are freaked out, stressed, emotional and unable to solve the immediate problems in our lives, not to mention deal with the crazy person in our head or think clearly and manage ourselves. However when we can calm ourselves down, feel the breath, become mindful and still and be in the moment, suddenly the magic starts to happen. The invisible prison of suffering we have created for ourselves starts to lift and suddenly everything is possible again, we can breathe, we can think, the sane person returns and peace is restored. It really is amazing how calming our mind, calms the electricity, calms the body and calms our world. We all know this, but somehow lots of little things can sneak in and disrupt our flow, so today we are going to give our attention to calmness in our mind, body and life in general and rejoice in the beautiful feeling it brings.
Day 10. Love
Love. What more to say than just love. We know it well. We love love. So then why do we not always allow love to find a home in our hearts? Why do we banish it with anger and frustration, sadness and fear? We are a strange tribe indeed. Such intelligence and yet such strange behavior. We learn at such a young age that if we touch the oven, we get burned. We get hurt. So we don’t do it twice. But even though closing our heart with fear and anger hurts, we continue to do it on a daily basis – up and down, round and round goes the merry go round of emotions. Why oh why do we do it to ourselves? Our natural state is to be open, to allow the love in our hearts to flow. We don’t have to ‘open’ our heart – we just need to stop closing it. We need to find a way to live more and more in the moment, and to have a greater awareness of how we are in each moment. In this way we can see what we are doing to ourselves and become more and more conscious. As we do this, we can let go of the recurring patterns and emotions we fall victim to and consciously live more in our hearts.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” Jalaluddin Rumi
Day 11. Joy
You carry all the ingredients to turn your life into a nightmare – Don’t mix them!You carry all the ingredients to turn your existence into joy, Mix them, mix them!Hafiz I love this Hafiz quote as it is so true. We have so many incredible skills and tools within us – let us use our powers wisely so that we may live joyful lives with meaningful relationships and make rewarding contributions to those around us. Everything you need to create the life you want is within you now. But remember you will not find it if you look for it outside of yourself – you will only find it by going inside.Practice going inside every day and before you know it you will be living the dream – a joyful existence.
Day 12. PeaceAnd on our twelfth day we talk about peace. Peace is what most of us want, on both a small and large scale. Peace in lives, peace in our relationships, peace in our families, peace in our country, peace in the world.Unfortunately this is not always the case. But there is comfort in knowing that no matter what is going on around us, we can find peace in ourselves. That starts and ends with you and only you and it is possible right now. Simply bring yourself into this present moment, begin to let go of whatever is happening around you and move your attention from thinking, to feeling. The moment you start to move your attention to feeling, you take away all the energy for the mind and suddenly it is quiet. You can’t make your mind quiet with your mind, you just need to redirect your attention. Then the tension of the mind can start to relax, and with it the tension in the body and the heart. The feeling sense allows you to move into just being and you experience an increased awareness of yourself and everything…and with it comes peace. “Glimpses of love and joy or brief moments of deep peace are possible whenever a gap occurs in the stream of thought. For most people, such gaps happen rarely and only accidentally, in moments when the mind is rendered “speechless,” sometimes triggered by great beauty, extreme physical exertion, or even great danger. Suddenly, there is inner stillness. And within that stillness there is a subtle but intense joy, there is love, there is peace.” – Eckhart Tolle,
Rochelle is a mum of two little ones and has always been interested in finding ways to live a happy and healthy life while helping others. She has been meditating for 20 years, since she was introduced to the practice in school and found a passion for healing and energy medicine not long after that. Rochelle enjoys the challenges of life, motherhood, family, work, friends and somehow fitting them all in together. Work-wise Rochelle is an AcuEnergetics® Practitioner, Teacher and is also the General Manager of AcuEnergetics®. She has been practicing AcuEnergetics® since 2005 and is fully qualified to teach AcuEnergetics® Level 1 and AcuEnergetics® Level 2. She is currently a co-teacher for AcuEnergetics® Level 3 and the AcuEnergetics® Practitioner Training.