Today’s meditation is about letting go of your past and what may have once stricken you with fear to over come fears in the present and fill yourself with hope.
“Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope!” – Barack Obama
Message of the Day
“In today’s meditation, we see that our hope is undermined by fear and anxiety. Past disappointments lead us to anticipate present and future disappointments. We learn that if we awaken to the presence of awareness, then our past will no longer be our present reality. When we recognize that our fear and anxiety is based on an illusion, we become free, hopeful, and fearless.”
CENTERING THOUGHT
In hope, I am fearless.
SANSKRIT MANTRA
Om Durgaya Namah ( I am fearless)
Journal Reflection Questions
- You can stop fear once you realize that its power comes from the past. Write down two or three things you find yourself feeling anxious about; it could be in the family, in your relationships, or at work. Typical fears would be of failure, embarrassment, a trigger for guilt and shame, being abandoned, not trusting, losing love, etc. When you are clear about what kind of fear is facing you, write down two experiences in your past that created the same kind of fear. Read these to yourself saying, “I am past this. It holds no power over me.”
- Anxiety is a reaction to uncertainty rooted in a feeling of powerless or lack of control. Consider an area that triggers your anxiety. Is it a chronic health problem? Job insecurity? Perhaps it’s just a chronic feeling; one without a resolvable root cause. Write down an anxiety-inducing situation and how it makes you feel. Knowing that the only control you have over anything is your response to it, imagine and journal about a new reaction to your specific situation that allows you to be calm and open. For instance, “Even though I’m anxious when I think about the next step of my career, I know that my anxiety is an unhelpful reaction to an unknowable future. If I keep working hard and doing a good job, I will be in a good position to handle whatever future comes my way.”
- Life challenges almost always can be perceived as win-win, because either they are positive or they give you room to learn and grow. Write down two or three recent situations that didn’t go your way. For each one, write down the lesson you want to learn from it. Examples: this can make me stronger, this can make me stand up for myself more, this can make me trust my real feelings. Now reflect on how you can benefit from this lesson, then thank the bad experience and tell it to move on.
- Reflect further on your experience today.