26 Feb Discovering Your Superpowers with Meditation & Journaling
“There is power in the space between stimulus and response, in learning to be the present observer of your thoughts, emotions, and programming. It is the place where we create separation between who we really are and who we think we are.”
In order to discover our superpowers, we get to first discover where we are giving away our power. You see, it’s all relative. As the saying goes “The one-eyed man is king in the world of the blind”. When the majority of people are giving away their power, by simply becoming aware of where you are doing this, and reclaiming your power, you can be perceived as a superhero among your fellow human travelers.
By amplifying the space between stimulus and response, we amplify our decision-making space to make powerful choices. While others are reacting as slaves to their thoughts, emotions and programming, you stand in a place of power, where you choose to act on these things, or let them go, because they do not serve.
The present moment is the only place of power. It is the only place where we can spend our time and energy. Many times, we choose to give away our power by focusing on the past or worrying about the future. Spending time in the past or future only steals our power in the present.
The two anchor habits that I have found to help me in my superhero quest are meditation and journaling. By implementing these two habits alone, you can reclaim power that you never thought possible.
Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation is a way to practice being a present observer of your thoughts, emotion and body. There are a million different ways to meditate, and as far as I’m concerned, there is no wrong way, as long as you have the goal of learning to be present.
I normally meditate for about an hour and a half every day. This may seem excessive (and it might be), but it’s what is working for me right now. I don’t do it all in one sitting either. Here are a few of the ways that I meditate:
- Cooling down meditation after workout– The first thing I do in the morning is a 30–45 minute workout. As soon as I get done, I lay down on my yoga mat and cool down while I meditate. I use an app called Insight Timer, and do a 17 minute meditation with a Deep Om sound in the background.
- Snuggling meditation– My angel Lauren meditates as well. At times, in the morning, we’ll spend 15–20 minutes snuggled up together and just quietly enjoy each others’ company. It’s a great habit for strengthening a relationship.
- Coherence meditation- The Hearthmath Institute has spent years studying how to help people have a deeper connection with their heart. They have created technology to monitor the connection between the heart and the mind. For one of my meditations, I connect the sensor to my ear and measure the coherence between my heart and mind. I usually do this meditation for about 15 minutes.
- Observing meditation– I spend time practicing being the observer of my thoughts, emotions and my body. I practice creating separation between who I really am and these things. I spend time noticing any resistance or tenseness in my body so I can release it.
- Gratitude meditation- In this meditation, I simply focus on all of the things I am grateful for. It may be as simple as the air I breathe, a coversation I had, or a difficulty I overcame. Being grateful provides amazing perspective, and can help alleviate depression.
- Mantra meditation– At times, when I am having difficulty quieting the monkey mind, I simply use one of my mantras/affirmations, and say it in my mind over and over. One that I’m using now is “I do what’s required”.
- Alpha/Delta/Theta wave meditation– This is something I’ve been experimenting with for the past six months or so. I’ve downloaded some soundtracks of alpha/delta/theta waves and listen to them with headphones during my longer meditations (greater than 20 minutes). At times, during these meditations, I actually feel a shift. It’s hard to describe, but it’s a really cool feeling. Try it and let me know if it does the same for you.
- 3 breath / 30 second meditation– I do this quick meditation throughout the day, especially right before an important conversation or meeting. It allows me the time to create a space of presence so that I can be more effective during these interactions with others
Whatever time you choose to meditate, and in whatever form, it is time well spent.
Mindfulness is a form of light meditation. It is being present and non-judgmental. It is being the observer of the theater of your life. As thoughts, emotions, programming/triggers and life experiences occur, if you are able to play the part of the observer, you stand in a place of power. You get to choose to be the master or the servant of these things. You get to choose your response.
Mindfulness is a powerful tool in our daily lives. It is currently being used to treat things such as PTSD, anxiety and trauma.
Journaling
“You don’t know what you think until you hear what you said or read what you wrote”
In Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way, she describes a practice called morning pages. The concept of morning pages is to write three pages every day. Write about anything you want, but write. Free flow writing is what may benefit you most.
We have all been programmed in our writing. As we learned to write in school, we self-edited in the process. We wrote, thinking about what would get us the best grade from the teacher. I wrote in a personal journal for many years, but I always edited as well, thinking, “do I want my posterity to know about this?” With morning pages, they should be completely unedited. This is a great place to get out all your emotions, to work through things that are on your mind, and to expand your creativity. If you are angry at your spouse, and want to call them a million swear words, do it in your morning pages. If you want to throw your kids at the wall for how they are behaving, do it in your morning pages. Create a habit and a safe space where you can actually experience all of your thoughts and emotions. This is also a place where you can decide what to do with them in the real world, and what will serve you best.
I do my morning pages on my computer, in a password protected document. Some prefer to do them with pen and paper. At first, morning pages seem tedious and not beneficial, because you are learning a new habit and breaking old ones. As you stick to them, they become incredibly valuable. This is a safe place to work through emotions that wouldn’t serve in a conversation with others. This is where your creativity can play. There are many times when I am inspired during my writing and come up with a great idea or a great blog post. I simply copy those things that I want to share and put them in another place.
I have also found that doing my morning pages right after meditation allows for greater intuition and inspiration. During meditation, I am able to increase alpha brain waves, which contribute to creativity.
Journaling is the place to create your life and to evaluate your journey. It’s a place to plan your week. It’s a place to celebrate your victories and explore your challenges. It’s the place to create and document your life’s story.
Summary
While there are many other activities that we can choose to do to invest in ourselves, meditation and journaling by far have provided me with the greatest benefits. They have become my non-negotiable anchor habits. I have been able to see where I have been giving away my superpowers, so that I can reclaim them.
I challenge you to try them out. Commit to them for 30 days and let me know your experience.
Call to Action
If you’re interested in finding out where you may be giving away your personal power, you can download my free personal power rating at http://personalpowerrating.com.