Day 1: Invitation

Live in the Orange Zone - Day 1

30 Days of Self Study, Meditation and Reflection

Welcome to day one of Live in the Orange Zone. 

This 30-day meditation and reflection practice is going to evolve. I'm just going to get you started today with the nuts and bolts of what we're going to do together. I want to say that the mission, the vision behind us doing this, is that we have this time that's been very precious to us, to put a pause, to be doing things differently. Take this time and to mindfully move forward into stepping back into our normal lives, even though our job sites might look the same or the people that we've been missing look the same, we've changed during this time. 

Orange Zone is all about shifting out of normal patterns of being in the body and the breath and in our thinking-feeling self, into new possibilities, better ways of being, more kind ways of being, more loving ways of being, more happy.

Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you to have a sacred time every day. It doesn't have to be long, could be five minutes. Some days you might wind up staying for 10 or even half an hour. It’s the time that is important, that you choose a time and call this your sacred time that you are giving to yourself. 

The second thing is to create a sacred space. I have a lot of space that I would consider sacred in this house, but this one I created specifically for this 30 days. It's in a different place than my other meditation places. And I have things that I've chosen for this time. My orange flowers, of course, the Phoenix I made for my father years ago, our picture, and all the things here I have placed because they're important to me in what I want to be living today and what I want to step into in my future.
​
Mindfully choose what you want for this specific 30-day invitation. I want to say most of us that are joining probably have a meditation practice, have a yoga practice, maybe a time of journaling and reflection, but like a new year, this is such an important and special time that I want to create something that's specific to your life right now, in this moment, today, and how it will affect your tomorrow.

The third thing is a journal. I know you probably have some laying around the house. This is one a dear friend gave me a couple of years ago that's very precious to me, but there's lots of empty pages in it. I know that I can start today with day one, put the date and begin my practice here. This is really part of the fourth thing, which is just to give ourselves svadhyaya, sva meaning self, dhyaya meaning getting close to yourself, self-study. 

For me to have this time every day where I'm silent, where I'm not doing anything, fixing anything, figuring out anything, helping anyone else, but just sitting in silence with myself is so important.

When we sit with ourselves in meditation, in silence and devotion, sometimes what comes up is surprising to us or something that's incredibly relevant to how we want to step forward. So to put pictures, to put quotes, to put lyrics, to anything creative you want to put on here that's part of what starts to come up for you during this time. And as well, I want to encourage everyone to watch the video below because that's going to have the quote for the day which can also be part of your reflections. That quote might speak to you.

Even though you've heard...we did this four years ago, this is a 30-day meditation that T and I put together quite a few years ago. We've heard the quotes before. The first quote is by Albert Einstein. We just talked about it a couple weeks ago, but it speaks to us differently as we go through different parts of our life.

Enjoy the quote that you'll have every week. The time is precious. We're making this commitment together. I know for myself, oftentimes I start things and then I don't stick with it. It's kind of one of those things that's part of our human nature. So the fact that we're doing it together makes it more powerful. I promise to be giving you all kinds of fun, creative, different things to look at, think about, and do. I'm going to pull in some of my dear friends and some of the things that they're doing and just get really creative, get in our Orange Zone here, move some furniture around and plan to move into this new chapter of our life with some possibility, optimism and new beginnings. 

I look forward to our time together.

Day 1 Inspiration
Today's inspiration comes from Albert Einstein 

Today, see your life filled with miracles.

There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Click the links below to find out more:
The Orange Zone - A 30 Day Practice - YouTube Playlist

​Daily Inspirational Quotes for 30 Day Meditation

Blog Post: What is the Orange Zone?