Self Esteem – Oprah & Deepak Meditation Challenge Day 5
Finding your true self, accepting yourself as you are and treating yourself with love and respect lead us to the next step in truly improving our relationship with our soul – building a positive self-esteem. Day 5 of the 21 day meditation challenge with Oprah and Deepak Chopra focused on connecting us to our real self-esteem.
Cleansing the Lenses
A lot of what we believe of ourselves is due to the fact that we were conditioned to believe it. It holds true for me and I am sure it holds true for everyone. I have learned all my life that I supposed to be and do a lot of things in order to build myself a good reputation and esteem. My brain has been conditioned to think in this manner to an extent that I do not even realize that all this is expected out of me by others. I have begun to expect this from myself! And the bar keeps getting raised higher and higher. That is also, probably, the cause of most of my stress and fear of failure or rejection.
After today’s discourse, Deepak made me realize that it was high time I cleansed the lens of perception and see myself as I truly am. I need to differentiate between the esteem created by my ego and my true self-esteem. The real self-esteem is always firm and unwavering since it emerges from the spirit. The ego-built self-esteem, however, is fickle and insecure. It places you on an altar one day, for being able to live up to its (or others) expectations and drops you way down the next day if you fail to repeat it. We need to let go of our need for approval by our ego and channel our efforts towards the centering thought of the day:
I am a perfect, divine creation.
All the lessons so far, constantly teaching us about our miraculousness and divinity, will be of of no use if we continue to let our ego drive our self-esteem.
Tips to Completely Love Ourselves
Easier said than done, the process of letting go of our worldly self-esteem is very difficult. However, these tips should help. They have made a difference in my life and I am sure they will help you too:
1. Develop a daily routine to practice self-awareness. So far, the daily challenge keeps me connected to the consciousness of being a higher being than I believed I was. I need to continue this even after the 21 days of the challenge are up.
2. To quote Deepak, “When you feel out of balance, anxious, or alone, pause for a moment and take a deep breath. In the quiet moment of a pause you can assess the gentle refuge of your heart.”
3. Take a few moments to close your eyes and sit quietly, feeling your heart as a soft, warm enclosure. Let your attention settle there and rest as long as you wish.
4. Every time you feel you are failing to live up to something or someone, remind yourself gently what your true miraculous self is. In short, set your priorities right and take care of real self-esteem.
5. Remind yourself as many times as possible – “Your soul loves you unconditionally’.
6. Often, some really ugly experiences in life can disturb our inner peace and harmony, making it impossible to cultivate a self-esteem for ourselves. Deepak Chopra shares with us insights on finding your inner harmony that I found uplifting.
Meditation
As much as I found the discourse inspiring and uplifting, meditation went downhill today. Missing a few days of meditation and then hurrying up to log on to the website to complete my Day 5 lesson before the link disappeared (they are available only for 5 days from the date of posting) made me a little rushed and my thoughts kept wandering from one place to the other. It was with great effort that I was able to control my mind to concentrate on the mantra for a few moments. I am hoping this was OK and that tomorrow will be better.
