Meditation and the “I Can” Voice

I was recently asked to speak about meditation to a group of students at one of the SSU dorms. Immediately my inner judge started telling me, “I can’t do that. I don’t like talking to large groups. Meditation isn’t my specialty. Nobody else from Songbird is available either.” As soon as I realized what I was doing, I started focusing on creating love stories instead. I asked myself, “How I can I make this happen?”

Opening up to the voice of “I can” allows the Universe to start manifesting what you want. I realized that I was focusing on the traditional vipassana-style meditation where you sit cross-legged on a mat and focus on your breath for self-observation. As I let go of the expectation that this is what we needed to share, I realized that I had plenty to offer. Meditation is a key part of my life.

Since long talks are not my specialty, and I love working with others, I invited Melody Myrick to join me. Melody offers Meditation in Motion at Songbird. I thought initially that she would do almost all of it herself, and I would just be there because I am the Songbird director. Instead, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to be a part of the talk and share some of my own meditation practices. My favorite meditations are movement meditations and visual guided meditations. You can turn anything into a meditation. Thich Nhat Hanh’s book Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life is about how we can be present as we go about our daily activities.

Together, Melody and I put on a wonderful presentation on meditation for the students. Melody shared the basics of meditation. I expanded a bit and led the group in a guided chakra manifestation meditation. Melody closed with a movement meditation. I discovered that I don’t mind speaking to a group of about 20 people after all if they are interested in what I have to say, and I don’t have the stress of both organizing the event and teaching. Listening to Melody speak, I realized I could have done it myself, but I am glad we did it together. The two of us together created a more powerful experience for the students.

It’s amazing what we can do when we let go of the voices that say we can’t and focus on what we can do. Just like the children’s story, The Little Engine That Could, all it takes is saying, ”I think I can. I think I can…” to figure out how we can.