champagneinteacups

So you know when you try something new and within one day you have decided to become the master?  Like you run a mile and then say “I’m running the Boston Marathon this year” or you eat one salad and you are all “I’m going totally vegan?”.   Asking for a friend.

Well, last weekend I went to a “Spirit Day” held by my friend and spiritual gangster, Katie Boyd, owner of Katie Boyd’s Miss Fit Club.   It was yoga, meditation and just overall self development delivered with a side of sass that I totally respect.  I really didn’t know what to expect.  I have done yoga maybe three times in my life (and it was at a winery with copious glasses given as reward for a job averagely done) and meditation is like a really hard foreign language to me, so I didn’t put too high a bar on the day.

Boy was I wrong.

The yoga part was freaking hard.  I don’t know what I’m doing so it makes it hard to get the positions right, but I powered through.  An interesting thing happened during one of the positions, I got a shot to my solar plexus like I had gotten punched.  Katie saw me wince and said “girl, that’s your ego.”  MY EGO PUNCHED ME.  So, in an uneducated nutshell, the place I felt punched is my third chakra where ego lives.  When I did the position it triggered something I was holding down/repressing/whatever and it let me know it.  With some nasty pain.  I work in radio.  You can’t get around ego when you do what I do.  It’s  a problem, and apparently a bigger problem than I thought it was.  Something to chew on.

Meditation was next.  I was already itching to leave.  I have a hard time sitting still at all and the thought of a ninety minute death meditation ranked right up there with a dental visit.  But I did it.  And it was fantastic. You are encouraged to journal during this meditation so it was a little more active than I had anticipated.  You basically live the last day of your life and reflect on things you’d say to loved ones, things you would have done differently, things you wish people would have known.

I walked out of her studio with a renewed feeling of purpose – or as Katie puts it – “Woke AF”.

Since that Saturday, I have gotten to work a bit early and done ten minutes of meditation before I start my day.  Guys, it’s a game changer.  Maybe it’s one of those things that you have to be ready for – like quitting smoking or something – but now that I’m doing it,  I can see a change in me.  Will I continue for the 21 days it takes to make this a habit?  I hope so.

What alternative modalities are you doing that you love?  Share with me in the comments – I want to try everything!

I use the Insight Timer app on my iPhone.  It has every kind of guided meditation you could every want.