Some of the most common questions I get after leadership workshops are around meditation – What is it? How do you meditate? How should I meditate? This is the meditation I do each day.
About 5 years ago, I started doing a daily meditation based on Vishen Lakhiani’s 6-part Envisioning guided meditation. I found the 6 phases useful, more engaging, and a great compliment to what I was learning about positive psychology and the science of what works.
Recently, I’ve been asked by some friends to do this 6 phase meditation with them. I’ve realized that over the years I have unintentionally shifted and adjusted this on my own. My current 6 part meditation is similar but quite different from the original it was based on.
Here is a brief version of how I have adapted this. I use Insight Timer free app to move me from one phase to the next. I initially gave each phase 2 minutes but then I upped that to 3 minutes for each phase and have really enjoyed and benefited from the increased dosage.
- Phase 1: Breathe and relaxing body scan
- Phase 2: Loving kindness meditation – beginning with self and radiating out to eventually the whole world
- Phase 3: Gratitude – appreciating this moment and then going back with gratitude for each moment over the past 24 hours
- Phase 4: Moving forward – starting with this moment and envisioning how I want to move through the world with intention in the next 24 hours.
- Phase 5: Spirituality – This can vary depending on your spirituality. I envision our vast interconnectedness.
- Phase 6: Clear – Sitting with clear-headedness and letting any thought that enter my head simply pass by.
For the past several years, I have offered this as a thank you to subscribers to my monthly newsletter, Sharing Fire. Now that I am offering 123 Lessons on Thriving, Leadership, and Social Justice to subscribers, I am offering this guided meditation to anyone.