May 14th, 2007
Meditation Challenge - Part 2
Reena had seven month old twins. Reena was exhausted. Reena was totally and completely burned out. Her husband Michael traveled for work quite a bit. Although his mother lived nearby and helped out when she could, Reena was about at the end of her rope. She had practiced meditation for years until the twins were born, but that practice had simply deteriorated. These days anytime she had that was quiet, she was sleeping and sleep was a rare treat.
Michael had been gone for six days when Reena finally called and asked her mother-in-law for a break. Happily she came over and Reena and I met at the health club, where she was too exhausted to work out. So, we sat in the sauna. It wasn’t long before she was sobbing. She cried as she poured out that she didn’t feel like a good mother. She felt like she wasn’t enjoying motherhood the way other women did and something must be wrong with her. She also felt a nagging sense that Michael’s ever increasing days away might have more to do with another woman then another business trip. The notion of Michael being unfaithful seemed just as ridiculous to me as the idea that Reena was a bad mother. I’d seen her with the twins and she obviously adored and cared for them with a tenderness that was apparent.
She lamented for the days she felt centered and whole. She talked about a time when she knew who she was and that now she didn’t recognize the creature in the mirror. Reena was more then a few degrees off course. After we left the club I took her to get a badly needed hair cut and lunch and over lunch we talked about ways she could find her center again. By the end of lunch she’d agreed to, you guessed it, her own little thirty day challenge with one of my favorite forms of meditation.
Reena agreed that during the twins morning nap, she would take half an hour to just reflect on how much love she felt for the babies. Reena would get a cup of tea, sit outside, and just let the love for the twins wash over her and allow herself to feel gratitude for how much love she felt. Gratitude for love is a very powerful thing to meditate on. It’s quite possibly the highest vibration we can tap into and incredible change can happen there. Although Reena didn’t think she’d get the same benefit she’d gotten from her more traditional disciplined practice, she acknowledged that her life just didn’t provide for that right now and she was willing to try.
I talked to Reena about a month ago. We met for coffee and I got to spend some time with the babies. She’d just gotten back from taking a business trip with Michael to Miami and was tanned and looked wonderful. The twins had spent a few days with grandma who enjoyed it immensely also. We actually laughed a little about her pathetic state just a few weeks earlier, although really it was no joking matter. Reena explained that for the first week she did the meditation just as we’d talked about, a half and hour reflecting on how grateful she was for all the love the twins had brought into her life. She said that when she was finished she immediately noticed how much more peaceful she felt and within a few days the twins seemed more peaceful too. They started taking longer naps and sleeping longer at night, giving Reena more time to take care of herself. Coincidence? Maybe. But Reena didn’t think so.
She actually found such peace in her meditation that she started contemplating being thankful for love as often as she could during the day. She found she had more time to take the twins for walks and would stroll the park contemplating her meditation. Even doing the dishes she would wash herself in being grateful for the love of the twins, her husband, and everyone else.
Reena found a secret key to a golden door. She learned to meditate in a way that fit into her schedule and the results were so profound she once again didn’t recognize herself when she looked in the mirror. The only difference was, this time it was a very, very good thing.
Lisa
