Day 14 – Finding Your Creative Path [Oprah and Deepak Chopra Teachings]
Getting Unstuck – Creating a Limitless Life – Oprah and Deepak Chopra 21 Day Meditation Experience
These are amazing notes – not transcripts – from Deepak and Oprah’s meditation challenge, Getting Unstuck, Creating a Limitless Life, written by DoinTheGratefulDance . I have enjoyed several of the meditation series Oprah and Deepak Chopra have shared. I am not affiliated with them – just a grateful listener too and wanted to share these wonderful notes. I couldn’t have done a better job! Thanks for sharing these notes!
Day 14 – “Finding Your Creative Path”
“All great acts are ruled by intention. What you mean is what you get.” – Brenna Yovanoff
Message of the Day:
The power of intention already directs our life journey from behind the scenes, it isn’t something we need to figure out intellectually. Intention is the spontaneous expression of our innermost desires and awareness is just waiting to be activated to effortlessly accomplish our deepest desires and intentions. Today’s meditation tells us how to do that – desires, intentions and awareness.
”Every day unfolds the next step in my journey”
Sanskrit Mantra:
“Sharavana Bhava (sounds like Shah-rah-vah-nah Bah-vah)
My awareness is aligned with the creative power of the universe”
Oprah says….
So far, we’ve already begun to expand our awareness so that we can participate fully in our lives. We’ve learned ways to shed limiting beliefs and tap into our full awareness and live in love, joy and creativity. Awareness is the key but Oprah’s favorite law of nature – the power of intention – is the even greater force that helps accelerate our awareness into full energetic force for becoming unstuck.
Oprah says this so well…”Intention gives awareness direction. Think about that. Intention gives us the blueprint and the spark to move effortlessly toward expanded, unstuck living. Notice your intentions with honesty and clarity and you have a much better compass with which to navigate your life. The deeper your awareness, the closer the energy flows between intention and fulfillment.” She says that when our awareness, choices and actions are truly aligned with our intentions, and our intentions are aligned with our true self, our purest selves, we have the power of Source behind us to create our life from the inside out. Powerful! When we are in line with our heart’s desires and in sync with who we’re meant to be, our perceptions shift and we start noticing regular AHA moments and miracles – she likes to call them “marvelisms”. Things happen in line with how were think and what we choose.
Deepak says….
Meditation expands our awareness resulting in the field of possibilities becoming more wide open but intention (to wish or desire) gives awareness direction – waiting in peace and stillness to be activated. We tend to get stuck in the gap between our intentions and reaching our goals because of a variety of obstacles and it leads to discouragement and frustration.
Awareness follows our intentions and setting our intentions is very different than how most of us do it – the exact opposite of doing it skillfully. Skillful use of intentions is to let awareness bring the fulfillment of them…
- Set intention – envision what we desire and/or want to achieve. It should have a personal meaning to us.
- Let go, have an open mind and pay attention to clues that come our way. Don’t pre-judge, trust that no matter what is happening, something unseen is opening a path to our goal.
We already use intention in everyday ways to name and get what we want but most of this is on the surface and actually imposes limits. We can’t manipulate life to bring about our deep intentions – only awareness joined with our intention can fulfill our deep desires.
The Worlds Wisdom Traditions teach that the deeper our awareness, the smaller the gap between intention and fulfillment so, to master the power of our intentions, we need to learn to live life differently – trust the mechanics of intention and then hone our skills at using these mechanics. With meditation, mastery comes naturally because it deepens our level of awareness and from there, the mechanics of desire operate automatically.
Quoting Deepak, “The creative path is, by definition, a path of desire and intention. There is hidden power in having a desire, letting go and paying attention to whatever nature brings you. In this way, bigger and bigger dreams begin to come true if you allow them to without struggle. The greatest gifts that life brings us are a joyous surprise.”
Repeat to myself,
“Every day unfolds the next step in my journey
Every day unfolds the next step in my journey”
Listen to some relaxing music, breathe slowly and deeply, become more and more relaxed, and meditate for about 10 minutes using the Sanskrit mantra –
“Sharavana Bhava (sounds like Shah-rah-vah-nah Bah-vah)
My awareness is aligned with the creative power of the universe”
Deepak says the mantra “attunes your intentions with the intentions of the cosmos. It activates the purposeful force of intention to transform present circumstances into favorable opportunities”.
“Sharavana Bhava
Sharavana Bhava
Sharavana Bhava”
Continue meditating for about 10 minutes and then release the mantra. Concentrate on the centering thought: being fulfilled and being who you want to be and repeating:
“Every day unfolds the next step in my journey
Every day unfolds the next step in my journey”
Reflections on Day 14, write about it…
- Practice using the power of intention by listing 2-3 desires I’d like to see come true today and visual them happening. It might help to start modestly (maybe wanting someone else to be nicer? See my children offer to help without being asked?) Do nothing to make these things happen – just sit back, pay attention and see what happens.
- To help learn the skill of focusing my intention, choose 1 big thing I want to see happen. On one line list all the reason why it would be fulfilling if it happened. On another line list my doubts, lack of confidence and conflicts about my intention. (i.e. a vacation would be a nice change from day-to-day chores but on the other hand I’d fall behind in my work?) Reflect about both lists – what are they telling me?
- Using the same big desire and the two lists, write ideas about how I can shift my attitude more toward a positive direction (talk to my boss about going at a time of lower workload?). This will help keep a clear intention to avoid confusing or mixed results.
- Know what I want and why I want it
- Minimize what I fear and doubt – face negativity honestly
- Reassess and journal any changes that happen in reaching my desire
Oprah lessons written by by DoinTheGratefulDance