Words of Wisdom by Deepak Chopra (with a few additional thoughts by Rebecca Hill)

January 16, 2011

Two weeks into the New Year and I’m wondering how your New Year’s resolutions are going? As for mine …at this point, I can’t even remember if I made any. Did I? Oh yes, (just re-read my own blog): #1 was that I was going to learn to find acceptance even if I didn’t understand a difficult situation in my life. #2 was that I was going to learn to love the squat machine at Curves!



Well, girlfriends, unfortunately neither resolution is going swimmingly well which is what led me to re-read an article my friend, Suzanne shared with me several weeks ago. In this article, Deepak Chopra expresses his thoughts on New Year’s Resolutions. You can read the entire article at:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-conversation-20101226,0,3358554.story

Or you can just peruse this excerpt: (I know you Fit Moms are busy!)




Do you (Deepak Chopra) participate in the annual ritual of taking stock at the New Year?



I take stock every three or four months. Every four months or so, I take a week off to be in total silence, to look back and see what I should be looking at in the future. For me, it would be a quarterly ritual.



Do you think there's a way for people to make their resolutions stick?



Yes. I think if they go beyond motivation and find true inspiration, then the resolutions will stick. So for me it's to go to a deeper level, and that's why I place so much importance on this idea of silence. I'm not saying everybody should do it, but even if you took five, 10 minutes of quiet time every day or every other day or once a week and asked yourself simple questions like, who am I? What do I want? What is my life's purpose? Is there a contribution I can make to my community or to society? What kind of relationships do I want to have? What is my idea of well being, and how can I achieve it?





I don't ask that you even know the answers, but if you start to do this kind of reflection, it has a very interesting way of not only moving you to the answers but of changing your behavior. So instead of saying, I'm going to have all this willpower, and I'm going to try so hard, which is all mental fatigue, reflective self-inquiry spontaneously leads to change.





I’m intrigued by what Deepak Chopra says because it ties back into my suspicion that meditation really is an incredibly powerful way to shape and guide our destinies. So, while I will continue to work toward my New Year’s Resolutions (and I hope you will continue to work toward yours too!) I do want to circle back around to a topic we were discussing a month or so ago on this blog. The need for “Quiet Time.” Most of us cannot take a week off every 3-4 months to fully vet the larger questions of life, but I do hope we can all try to find at least 5 minutes once per day to ask ourselves the questions Deepak Chopra poses in this article: Who am I? What do I want? What is my life's purpose? Is there a contribution I can make to my community or to society? What kind of relationships do I want to have? What is my idea of well being, and how can I achieve it?



I know you’re all incredibly busy women but my intuition tells me you will be a better mother, a better spouse, a better employee, a better boss, a more fulfilled person (and that you will achieve all of your goals, including your health and fitness goals more easily) if you can find 5 minutes each day of “you time” to think through these questions. I’m going to try it (again) too. I keep failing to make mediation and prayer a part of my daily life, but if I can make it part of my life, I think good things are going to happen for me and for those I love. I hope so anyway.



I leave you with good wishes for the week ahead and with several peaceful images from my dad’s beautiful African art collection. I also leave you with a few suggestions for music to use in your meditation practice. Brian Eno, Harold Budd and Tim Story all have many great instrumental pieces that are perfect for meditation. And, I also enjoy meditating with two songs my husband, Tom wrote: “Quiet Time” and “Thinking To Much.”  Each of Tom’s songs are about 5 minutes long so I’m posting them on this blog in case you need something mellow to help you time your meditation.

Thinking Too Much

Quiet Time



Try to meditate at least one day this week, okay? And please let Kiana and me know how it goes!



*”Quiet Time” and “Thinking Too Much” are performed by the harmony duo, CAUFIELD, which consists of American singer-songwriter, Tom Caufield and German-born vocalist, Yasmin Tanriverdi.   http://www.caufieldmusic.com/cmt/78.html