Inspired by davidji’s book:-

Sacred Powers: The Five Secrets to Awakening Transformation

A lifetime ago I worked for an international finance software company. I was young. I was driven. I was so stressed, and living a life so out of sync with my soul that I was going to bypass burnout altogether, I was heading straight for break down if something didn't change. I was only about 27 years old. My mother had given me a book ‘the 3 minute meditator’ for Christmas, and I loved it. Being a total A type personality, and never one to half do anything, I went straight to the ‘best’. I trained with Transcendental Meditation™  and jumping in the deep end, I began meditating for 20 minutes twice a day. It was phenomenal. I believe it saved my life. 

Over the years since, I have continued meditating. While 20 or 30 minutes silence or mantra meditation is my absolute favourite, I have tried and trained in different approaches. I have also softened and become a lot less intense. Now when I’m teaching an introduction to meditation, I often recommend 3 to 5 minutes a day for 30 days to establish the habit. I even teach yoga nidra, sleeping yoga, a meditation you can do lying down in your bed. It’s a far cry from the days when I would have said ‘if your back is not perfectly straight’ it's not meditation :)

Recently I have been working a lot with Sonya Harnett, from Yoga Essence.  We have been having great fun planning the Meditation module of the teacher training which she will be teaching. Sonya is another long time meditation teacher and she has just completed her certification with davidj. A book recommendation has been one of the many gifts of these hours working together. Sonya recommended: ‘Sacred Powers: The Five Secrets to Awakening Transformation’, by davidji. I was reading it this morning and absolutely loved a practice he recommended, and so wanted to pass the gift on.

Check it out on Amazon ->

Let me know what you think.

The Power of Attention

If you have been in my class over the last few years, or done any of my iRest training, you will have heard me talk about intention and the power of intention, followed by action. Davidji adds a beautiful step in advance, the power of Attention. I typically invite you to notice what is present now, davidji asked us to notice 3 things that generally are catching our attention currently. Maybe something you are worried about, or one of those ‘repeat loops’ your mind loves to get caught in, or, in fact, any thought process that is not serving you right now.

Notice 3 thoughts/loops/worries that currently catch your attention (Attention Hooks)

The next step involves getting a pen and paper, and actually following the instructions. Yes I do actually mean do it. Have you ever watched a video of someone doing an ab workout. Does it have any effect on your body? If you watch it again will it increase your abs? This is the same, you can read on and you will hopefully feel better, but the transformational power of the exercise is in doing it.

So now write down the 3 ‘attention hooks’, the 3 things that hook your attention, and then  write down the potential outcome, the outcome that you fear.

The outcome that may scare you 

Now write down the best possible outcome for each of them. Allow yourself to dream.

The best possible outcome

Finally write down another possible outcome, maybe something that you have never thought of before. Allow yourself to dream. Take your time.

Another possible outcome - now you have 3!

Now you have at least 3 different possible outcomes for each of the 3 concerns, ‘attention hooks’. With these options it may be possible to break your thought cycle. We cannot control the outcome, we cannot control anything outside ourselves, we simply control our action and our reaction. However this ability is powerful beyond belief. With this super power we can affect our health or wellness, our relationships and our external reality.

How?

Do you remember the story about the young boy talking to the Native American Chief? The boy was explaining that there was a battle going on within his head, between two wolves. One was all about not being good enough, about not doing enough, not being smart enough, and on and on. The second wolf was the opposite, he said he was loved, and cherished, and smart, and on and on. The old chief leaned down to the young boy and whispered, ‘the exact same battle is going on inside my head too’. With big eyes the little boy looked up and asked ‘Which wolf will win?’ the chief replied ‘The one you feed.’

Outcomes follow actions, actions follow intentions, intentions follow your attention. Sometimes we get trapped feeding the negative wolf. At times like that ,use davidji’s exercise to break your mind open and let the light of possibility shine in. With these 3 different options, you can now choose where to put your attention. You can choose which wolf to feed.

This is just one exercise from a book filled with resources and ideas. For more check out the book, davidji’s website for guided meditations, Sonya’s Introduction to Meditation on or book a one to one session with me to get a personalized plan. It’s power is in its simplicity.

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