I sit down and meditate for 15 minutes.
This time, instead of just following my breath, I repeat a sentence in my mind that Gay Hendricks calls the Ultimate Success Mantra in his book The Big Leap.
"I expand in abundance, success, and love every day, as I inspire those around me to do the same."
When I breathe in, I think: "I expand in abundance, success, and love every day." I focus on my chest area and visualize it being filled with a sphere of bright light. I see beautiful moments in front of me when I think about what each of the words abundance, success, and love means to me.
I breathe out to "As I inspire those around me to do the same." The light in my chest radiates outward and fills my whole body and beyond.
Gay Hendricks writes that after each mantra repetition, we should pause for two breaths and just follow our breathing. It is an interesting combination of mantra and mindfulness meditation. I feel the warm, light energy flow around in my body.
Thoughts are sneaking in. I catch myself going into stories that come up often when I work on expanding my upper limit. What if my expansion has a negative effect on others? Am I being selfish?
Gay Hendricks calls this back-talk: Voices that feel threatened by the uncertain nature of growth and thus want to keep us in old, familiar patterns. What I enjoy a lot is that he frames this in a positive way: It's a good sign these limiting stories are triggered. It means the mantra is working! It feels good to not take this mind chatter overly seriously.
In addition, it helps me to connect more deeply with the second part of the mantra, the "I inspire those around me to do the same." It's the exact opposite of the fears that are often holding me back, especially the fear of outshining others. It feels good to believe more and more that a different reality exists: That my expansion can have a positive effect on people.
After the 15 minutes are over, I sit there for another 2 minutes or so and just follow my breath and let everything sink in.
Building on the hopeful energy I feel, I decide to tackle a phone call that had been on the back of my mind for a few weeks. It's related to my housing situation and I was a bit nervous about it. The call turns out way better than anything I'd expected. Like, really unexpected good news. It's a big relief.
I feel playful and open. Connected to life and to my surroundings. On my way to a doctor's appointment, I enjoy the sun on my face, sing, smile at the humans who I cross paths with. I even see a squirrel climbing a tree.
What a beautiful day ♡