6/10/22
It was still dark, even the birds were still asleep when I woke up at 3:20 am today. “No one needs to get up at 3:20 am,” I muttered to myself. I grabbed my headphones and tuned into my audio book, Sound Medicine, by the brilliant Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary. I heard her say that if she missed too many days of meditation, her brain started to feel like it had muck on it. I knew exactly what she meant. My soul started nagging at me. “Get up,” it urged, “You know why you’re awake, get up.” So I did. I have been waking up EARLY for the last several weeks, 3:20 am today was a record, but I usually start my day somewhere in the 4:00 hour.
I have been meditating for years and I’ve tried different modalities, but until recently it was something that I had to make myself do. I knew the benefits and I enjoyed meditation, but it was something that I squeezed into my day as an afterthought. My workout was always prioritized, I’m a busy mom and [pre-pandemic, was] a busy yoga teacher and it simply didn’t always happen. That all changed after attending a week long Advanced Workshop with Dr. Joe Dispenza.
I first learned about Dr. Joe sometime around 2006 shortly after the brilliant movie, What the Bleep, was released. Dr. Joe played a big role in the movie describing the impacts of quantum physics and spirituality on healing. I went gung-ho on reading every book he put out after seeing him in another brilliant documentary, Thrive: Free Energy in 2012 (one of the most transformative films I’ve ever watched for understanding the matrix). I purchased a few of Joe’s meditations in iTunes, but I couldn’t connect with them; so while I devoured his research, wisdom and knowledge, he wasn’t my meditation teacher and I explored Transcendental Meditation, Heartful Meditation techniques from Savitri at the Alive & Shine Center and meridian meditations from my primary teacher, Anita (all brilliant and effective techniques that remain a part of my life and journey).
Everything changed at my workshop with Dr. Joe, it was one of the most important weeks of my life and as important as my first dance with Ayahuasca in terms of making quantum leaps in my own conscious evolution. While I was at the workshop, I experienced the deepest meditations of my entire life. I would FEEL energy, my entire head would literally buzz like there was an earthquake happening in my third eye (pineal gland), my hands would buzz, I could feel energy flowing through my meridians. In my totally sober state, I experienced transcendental states that I had only ever experienced while on plant medicine. I would fall into such an altered state of timelessness that 90 – 120 minute meditations would feel like 10 minutes.
One morning Dr. Joe had us start at 4:00 am (melatonin levels are highest very early in the morning, and this is beneficial for reaching these incredibly deep and altered meditation states). He guided us through our meditation journey until 9:00 am. When I finally looked at my watch I had to stare at it to believe it, 5 hours had felt like mere moments. I sincerely became “no-one, nobody, in no time.” (Those are some of Dr. Joe’s favorite words). All of the meditations on the retreat were flooded with lucid dreaming, trance, heart-opening, visions and mind-blowing energy. I knew the mystics and the masters could achieve these states in meditation, but I never thought a room full of (very) regular people with jobs and families could achieve such high states of consciousness without mind-altering substances, but I watched 1500 of us do it in San Diego for an entire week.
On my way back to Seattle, I sat in the San Diego airport and downloaded several of Dr. Joe’s meditations; like ayahuasca, I knew that I had landed on something that my soul had been calling for. I vowed to set my alarm for 5:20 am every day and mediate for 90 minutes. I vowed to prioritize meditation over my workout or any other distractions that the day may present. I returned from San Diego on May 1. I have missed only one day of meditation since I got home. I missed that day because I had had too much wine at an event the night before and I felt too gross to try to connect to spirt. I have been to several events since that interrupter; but when “that point” in the evening comes, I always choose my next morning over that extra glass of wine (that I don’t need).
I purchased about 10 of Dr. Joe’s meditations, and while I love them all, I have been working with Synchronizing Your Energy: To a New Life for several weeks now. For whatever reason, the music, the breath work etc… I find that one takes me the deepest. Today I sat with angels and my entire body vibrated with absolute knowing that I was home in myself. I know that 90 minutes sounds like a long time, it sounded like a long time to me, but when my 90 minutes was up today, I was so deep into beautiful energy, bliss and angelic awareness (and it was still so early) that I kept going. I continued with another favorite, Tuning into New Potentials. I could have kept going, but my practice isn’t relegated to meditation only, I also move every day.
Energy becomes stagnant and we have got to move for physical and mental health. Movement isn’t just for our bodies, it boosts our brain chemistry. So as soon as I finish my meditation, I move. I do a lot of yoga, Peloton rides and boot camp workouts. Irregardless of the workout du jour, I finish every workout with yoga as that is my practice. With Dr. Joe’s meditation and my movement, I have curated a daily practice that feels like my own and now I can’t imagine living without it (I have to add that a lot of people like to move then meditate, my rhythm works really well for me, I have zero resistance to getting out of bed to meditate while I used to have some resistance to getting up early to work out. It felt like an aggressive “first thing,’ I also have my priorities in order so that if something gets missed, it’s not my meditation).
I’m not a mystic, I’m not enlightened, I’m not in mastery (yet); I’m a normal mom and wife who has curated a daily practice that is evolving her consciousness. Sri K Pattabhi Jois (the father of Ashtanga Yoga) is famous for having said, “Practice and all is coming.” I finally know what he meant: I feel my consciousness expanding with every practice and in spite of 15 years of living as full-time yogini, I have finally found what really works for me. I’m not tired. I’m not going to bed earlier (I’ve always gone to bed pretty early) and I no longer need an alarm. Once you really connect into the sustaining energy of the field, you don’t need as much sleep. It took me 15 years as a yogini to find it, but I have finally cultivated a daily practice that is as essential as brushing my teeth and I’ve only just begun 🙏.
Do you want some guidance on how to curate and commit to your own daily practice? Schedule a private session with Jaime to cultivate what will work for you.
