{"id":1157,"date":"2014-02-02T15:13:11","date_gmt":"2014-02-02T20:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/?p=1157"},"modified":"2014-02-22T21:23:58","modified_gmt":"2014-02-23T02:23:58","slug":"meditation-challenge-day-1-the-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/meditation-challenge-day-1-the-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Meditation Challenge Day 1: The Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mindful<\/a>The Journey
\nby Mary Oliver<\/p>\n

One day you finally knew
\nwhat you had to do, and began,
\nthough the voices around you
\nkept shouting
\ntheir bad advice\u2014
\nthough the whole house
\nbegan to tremble
\nand you felt the old tug
\nat your ankles.
\n“Mend my life!”
\neach voice cried.
\nBut you didn’t stop.
\nYou knew what you had to do,
\nthough the wind pried
\nwith its stiff fingers
\nat the very foundations,
\nthough their melancholy
\nwas terrible.
\nIt was already late
\nenough, and a wild night,
\nand the road full of fallen
\nbranches and stones.
\nBut little by little,
\nas you left their voices behind,
\nthe stars began to burn
\nthrough the sheets of clouds,
\nand there was a new voice
\nwhich you slowly
\nrecognized as your own,
\nthat kept you company
\nas you strode deeper and deeper
\ninto the world
\ndetermined to do
\nthe only thing you could do\u2014
\ndetermined to save
\nthe only life you could save.<\/p>\n

The first time you have to do anything, it is new to you. I find that it really doesn\u2019t matter if you have done something like it, or spent time thinking about it. There is just a process you go through when something is new. We may be tempted to label the experience as good or bad, and us as happy or sad. But those labels are often what keeps us stuck. What if we suspended judgment? I invite you to do so as you sit, for the first time, during our 28-day challenge. No matter if you have meditated before\u2014whether you\u2019ve done so for years or days, on retreats, or in your room, through centered prayer, yoga, or martial arts. I invite you to meditate today like you are meditating for the first time.<\/p>\n

I invite you to hold a curiosity for the meditation, like you might have when entering a foreign land. You might try envisioning the sitting as a great open field which you are entering, or perhaps like a fresh blanket of snow in which you may create your snow angel. Each breath a footprint, each thought a falling snowflake. And in this way, you may leave the time-worn past behind, and begin anew.
\n-Urszula Klich
\nFor further inspiration during this 28 day Meditation Challenge we\u00a0 invite you to visit Dr. Klich’s and her colleagues at\u00a0http:\/\/www.sharonsalzberg.com\/realhappiness\/bloggers<\/p>\n

You\u00a0can\u00a0read words of wisdom from Sharon Salzberg at her Real Happiness blog http:\/\/www.sharonsalzberg.com\/realhappiness\/blog\/sharon-salzberg\/developing-greater-concentration<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Journey by Mary Oliver One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice\u2014 though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. “Mend my life!” each voice cried. But you didn’t stop. You knew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-meditation","category-mindfulness-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YyuX-iF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1157"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1162,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1157\/revisions\/1162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/mymindfulwayoflife.com\/blog4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}