“Hi, join me for Oprah & Deepak’s 21-Day Meditation Challenge.” That was the subject line of an email that recently caught my eye. My friend had invited me to join a three-week meditation journey led by Oprah Winfrey and Deepak Chopra.
The email described the 21-Day Meditation Challenge to Perfect Health: “Meditate and journal with Oprah and Deepak each day to embrace the vision of your best self, expand your understanding of your miraculous body, and achieve greater balance and wellbeing.” What struck me was the very last line of the email: “Join me and let’s meditate together!” I’ve never heard of or participated in an online meditation session before. Since I’m always up for trying something new, I signed up. I also figured that a little meditation might help my outlook while in the midst of a busy semester at USC.
On the first day of my meditation challenge, I received an email with a link to the day’s meditation. The link launched a page with audio playback of the meditation that contained an introduction by Oprah and meditation led by Deepak. The meditation lasted 16 minutes and afterwards, I had the option to answer reflection questions in my online journal.
I must admit that I was a little hesitant and cynical about this meditation challenge. I teased my friend that he was trying to get me to go “new age” with him. I told him that with work, family and school, who has time to meditate. However, after listening to the 16-minute meditation session for Day 1, I can honestly say I felt calmer and more balanced. So, thanks to my friend for suggesting I try out the meditation challenge – and I take back all the sarcastic remarks I initially made about it.
If I wanted to let others know about the meditation challenge, I could use Facebook to share this with my circle of family and friends. The 21-Day Meditation Challenge gives you the choice to register using your email address or Facebook account. Logging into Facebook allows you to let your friends and family know that you are participating in this challenge – and perhaps get them interested in this program. On the meditation website, Facebook users posted over 19,000 comments about the challenge. Comments reflect how people reacted to the day’s meditation and how it is helping them to renew, reflect and re-energize – it’s quite enlightening, actually.
What I like about this 21-Day Meditation Challenge is that it’s easy and accessible. I receive daily emails and the meditations take less than 20 minutes of my time. I am on Day 5 of the meditation challenge and am curious to see if I do in fact expand my understanding of my body and achieve greater balance and wellbeing. Namaste.
Sheila de Vera – CMGT 541 – B
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