This time of year is not easy and joyous for everyone.
There will always be windows of delight and ease that find us.
But underneath the glitter and flashing lights of the Holiday season, many of us are grieving those who are no longer physically with us on Earth.
Others are experiencing anxiety at the thought of spending time with family members whose energy varies from their own.
Some are worrying about how they are going to come up with the extra funding for gifts, travel, and food and to participate, keep up appearances or avoid experiencing fomo.
November, December, and January can provoke a lot of uncomfortable feelings for many people.
You can change the experience.
This is your gentle reminder that you do not need to waste your energy feeling as though you have to keep up with tradition or anything that doesn’t work for where you are at in your life, anymore.
You do not have to put yourself through an obstacle course of anxiety to please anyone.
This time of year in its most natural sense is here for us to slow down, go within, rest more, listen to the cosmos and the energy around and within us.
To drop into our bellies and our hearts and really be present to the energy of love in all its forms.
You have the power to choose how you show up.
While the pulse of consumerism and the pressures and expectations of others are still a very real thing this season, just remember you have the power to choose how you show up and what you show up to.
Megan Monique is a professional intuitive, creative director and native Texan.
When she’s not lighting candles under the full moon and pulling oracle cards for her community, she’s building out creating illustrations, webpages, strategy, editing copy, creating content plans, leading teams, and having intimate entrepreneur-based conversations.
Megan works with thought-leaders to break down their BIG ideas into actionable and aligned steps that build momentum in the direction of their unique goals and desires.
Click here to come Backstage, meet Megan and the entire community of femme forward leaders.
I started teaching guided meditation classes in 2016 in small country down before it was trending. During that time I encountered a lot of people who felt like meditation just wasn’t for them.
They tried it on their own, or had another experience in a class or with a video on YouTube that just fell short.
There is a stigma around meditating that paints this picture where the only way to properly meditate is in complete silence or peace. With no distractions and a calm space.
This concept is far from inclusive.
Many of us do not have access to the time or space where we are guaranteed a silence, alone time or peace.
Over the years, in my experience with meditation I have adapted a new definition that is adaptable for most everyone.
Meditation is not about you getting still or silent. Meditation is about re-connecting with your Self and your High Power, or the high power of the planet or cosmos (whatever you believe or practice).
This means that meditation can look an infinite number of ways depending on who you are speaking with.
Some people find their meditative state in writing or crafting. Others in music or dance. Some of us do prefer to find the silent still moments to go within. You might like reading or hiking.
If you are showing up to your task with intention to connect with yourself and your spirit – you are creating a window of meditation for yourself.
Yes, you can still sit cross-legged on the floor with your fingers in mudra positions. You can still play meditation music while you bike, run, or lay on the floor and breathe.
The point is that meditation can look whatever way you need to it, as long as it inspires connection with self and creates a space inside of you for you to listen and hear what’s coming through.
If you find yourself wanting to meditate because you know it will make a difference in your life but 1) when you try to do it you can’t get your mind to quiet down enough 2) we feel like we’re doing it wrong or 3) we don’t stick with the process long enough to see results.
Let me reiterate this little secret….
There’s no one “right” way to meditate.
Here are some tips to help you break the vicious cycle of meditation-struggle and break on free to the other side of your meditation relationship.
Meditate with a Timer
Meditation doesn’t have to be something that takes up your whole day or even 15 minutes of it.
I recommend getting a kitchen timer that buzzes or beeps, setting it for 1-3 minutes. Dedicate that small duration of time to your sitting, walking, or crafting meditation. If you want to go longer, go longer.
If you’re just starting to create your habit, start with 1 minute. Even tackling several 1 minute intervals throughout the day will make a huge difference for you.
I know what you’re thinking, “what can I possible craft in a minute?” Your chosen meditative active may take you longer, but for that one minute of your timer, you’re intentional focused on being present with yourself and the activity at hand. Not letting your mind wander to worries or other tasks.
Choose Your Intention
If you’re sitting in a quiet room trying to clear your mind to nothingness, it can be an incredibly difficult task. Especially at the beginning of your practice.
Choose an intention for your meditation. Ask yourself what you need more of in that day. Your answer might be joy, romance, connection, love, creative expression, movement.
Whatever you may be needing in that moment, hold the intention of what you want to create or call into your life as you meditate.
Take intentional breaths and recall experiences or dreams in your mind that are aligned with your intention.
You can also place objects around you, smells, colors, sounds that feel aligned with the intention you’re holding for your meditation.
Have Fun with It
We all want to infuse as much joy and happiness into our lives as we can. Why should your meditation practice be any different?
Have fun with your meditation! Make it work for you. Toss the rule book out the window and listen to your body, mind and spirit.
One of the most important things we can do for our meditation practice is to answer what our spirits are calling us to do. Some days that might be to set our timer for a minute and daydream about frolicking in fields of fairies or sitting on a quiet beach somewhere.
Other days, it might be to surround ourselves with water and absorb its healing powers.
Sometimes our meditation practice is laying on the floor crying.
It can look however you need it to. Don’t let standard definitions of meditation leave you feel excluded from being able to start or develop your practice.
Release the rules you’ve put on what it means to meditate and instead, operate from the space of bringing yourself joy, peace or whatever other intention you set out to create that day.
Megan Monique is a professional intuitive, creative director and native Texan.
When she’s not lighting candles under the full moon and pulling oracle cards for her community, she’s building out creating illustrations, webpages, strategy, editing copy, creating content plans, leading teams, and having intimate entrepreneur-based conversations.
Megan works with thought-leaders to break down their BIG ideas into actionable and aligned steps that build momentum in the direction of their unique goals and desires.
Click here to come Backstage, meet Megan and the entire community of femme forward leaders.
This month’s theme in our Backstage Pass community and on the blog is INSPIRED! We have some wonderful conversations lined up for you.
If you keep scrolling, you’ll find a few of our hand-selected articles to highlight the conversation around inspiration. Take your pick and browse some of our outstanding writers and topics!
How to Remain Inspired as a Woman in Business
“If the last two years on this planet have taught me anything, it’s that I am a powerful resource for this world and it needs me. I also must have daily inspiration surging through me as I build better ways of doing business with women globally.
It’s imperative, actually and I implore you to make the same inspired choices for yourself in how you show up to work, in your personal life and shoot, even at the grocery store.”
Women in Leadership: Inspiring Others and Changing the World
“There is no question that women are powerful and can be great leaders. However, many times women don’t take on leadership roles because they feel they aren’t qualified or they don’t feel confident in their abilities.
What we need to remember is that when women step up and take on leadership positions, they inspire others to do the same.
Women who lead show other women that it is possible to achieve anything they want, regardless of their gender. Leadership means different things to different people, but one thing is for sure – when women take on leadership roles, the whole world benefits!”
“Are you feeling overwhelmed by all suffering in the world right now?
While we must stay vigilant, informed and support those suffering around the world, we must also care for ourselves and there is nothing quite so healing as entertainment. To that end, here are some shows to provide you temporary respite from the state of the world.”
“We see this thing we think is reality, but it’s not reality. It’s actually all based on our assumptions of it, the frameworks that have existed since before we arrived.
For example, we have frameworks of patriarchy and colonialism still at play in our current world. Those are not my favorite frameworks, and so I don’t like to assume that they are true just because we can see evidence of them.
I want to dream of new frameworks, and then create them.”
“I have been dancing with inspiration and inspired action for as long as I can remember. In my 20s, I always felt like I was chasing the next inspired moment.
Inspired actions would come to me like a wave I could ride into the vision of my future.
When I reached my 30s, I went through some more challenging life events that deprived me of my inspired actions and visions. I was in survival mode where the most important thing was to make it to the next hour or day in one piece.
I am in the latter half of my 30s now, and my relationship with inspired thought and action has shifted quite a bit. Inspired moments are no longer something I chase, but something I allow to find me.”
“As a thought leader and a woman in business, I’ve always been curious to push the envelope on how we can use tech for more effective altruism.
Last year at this time I was teeing up the launch of this big idea I had during Covid closures in 2021 on how we could better connect women to the tools & resources we need to be effective and strong leaders. You know, like a boys club but instead for women leaders who want to see the world change.”
This month’s theme in our Backstage Pass community and on the blog is INSPIRED! We have some juicy conversations lined up for you.
Are you ready to open your mind and heart to get inspired this month? If you have an article you’d like to submit on the topic of being INSPIRED, we would love to hear from you.
Today, you’re going to hear from our new Creative Director, Megan Monique and what the topic of being INSPIRED opened up for her. When you’re done reading, take a moment to leave a comment and let us know what resonated with you!
I have been dancing with inspiration and inspired action for as long as I can remember. In my 20s, I always felt like I was chasing the next inspired moment.
Inspired actions would come to me like a wave I could ride into the vision of my future.
When I reached my 30s, I went through some more challenging life events that deprived me of my inspired actions and visions. I was in survival mode where the most important thing was to make it to the next hour or day in one piece.
I am in the latter half of my 30s now, and my relationship with inspired thought and action has shifted quite a bit. Inspired moments are no longer something I chase, but something I allow to find me.
I don’t go searching for them, I make sure I leave space in my day, in my heart, in my mind, to feel inspired. To be gifted with inspired moments.
And most importantly, (I’m still working on this one) I do my best to not attach an end result to the experience of an inspired action. I savor the inspired happening for just what it is and nothing more.
When we tie our inspired moments to real world actions that must be productive or producing, we are diminishing the arrival of the inspired moment.
When you are inspired, stay present when what’s presenting itself. Listen to it. Play with it. Release expectations and enjoy!
Here are a few ways that you can tap into and navigate being inspired in your own life whether inspired action is something that comes easily for you, or if it’s been missing for quite some time.
Struggling to Be Inspired
The world we live in today is a heavy one. There is nothing light and free and fun about the things we are working through on a societal and social level.
But that doesn’t mean that inspired thought and action does not exist. It is actually the golden thread weaving our entire existence together.
The ways in which we are inspired can and will change over time.
When you find yourself struggling to be inspired, start at where it all began. Your childhood.
There is a practice often used when we’re doing inner child healing, where you refer back to what was fun and enjoyable for you as a child. When you engage in the activities you did when you were little that brought you joy, that spark of inspired action and what matters most to you will come rushing back.
The more you engage with your child like inspired thoughts, the easier it will be for that same inspired action to flood into other areas of your now adult life.
While this practice is a powerful and helpful one. It’s important to not get stuck here.
Not all of us had childhoods where there is the luxury of reaching into a bag of inspired, enjoyable moments to utilize in our adult lives. And sometimes, this practice just doesn’t work for everyone.
That’s okay!
Sure, our child-minded-inspired actions can reinvigorate our adult lives. But it is not the only way to tune back into what it is you are inspired by.
Leaving Room for Your Inspired Experience to Change
Opening yourself up to new spaces, conversations, people and activities can also light your inspired spark.
The Backstage Pass is a perfect place to start for its inspiring connections of thought leaders, industry disruptors and business activists & where the community is well of inspiration.
You can even use your immediate surroundings to spark inspiration back at you. look around your environment at home. Your community.
Look within yourself and how you structure your day. Are you creating pockets of time for inspired action to show up? Do you have your dial turned on so that when an inspired moment happens upon you, you will in fact be receptive to it?
As you are moving throughout the day, consider what thoughts come to you: “That would be cool to try that.” Or “I’ve never been to that new restaurant downtown.” Or “I think I’ll buy a different style of blouse than I normally would.” Or “Let me buy this plant for my friend just because.”
Inspired action and thoughts come in all shapes and form.
The goal isn’t to be inspired and see your inspiration through to some kind of self-created endgame that produces results. (That is a very masculine and capitalistic perspective.)
The point is to feel the inspiration and let it guide you to more inspired places.
When you find yourself inspired, it may only be for that one moment of experience. Your inspired actions do not have to result in anything but you feeling… inspired.
So leave room for inspiration to show up throughout your day in all the forms. Even if it’s just a lovely idea that pops in your head as you’re driving. Give gratitude for the inspired moments that find you and be open to more pouring in soon.
Moving through the World Inspired
I know most of us here in America hold expectations of inspired thought and action to bring big sweeping change through our lives and communities. But the reality is that all things here on Earth are done in small movements.
Sure, there are moments and actions that cause change forever. That is undeniable.
But when it comes to us being inspired in our lives and the actions we take, we often want those very actions or results to be dramatic. Big. Noticeable.
Whatever we are to do with the inspired action that finds us, we must milk it for every morsel it carries or was it even worth it?
The truth is that the hand of inspired action is a grace-filled one. It is a twinkle of delight meant to muse the senses and creativity. It is a soft and loving hand, guiding you down an experience of exceptional inspired moments.
As you move through the world, inspired – do not place too much weight on actions you take from your inspired moments. Do not carry the pressure of capitalism into the tunnel of inspired action.
I invite you to relish in the experience of being inspired, just for the sake of the experience itself.
You are worthy of having enjoyable inspired moments for yourself without having to make anything more of them, but simply enjoying and acknowledging that they exist.
Megan Monique is a professional intuitive, creative director and native Texan.
When she’s not lighting candles under the full moon and pulling oracle cards for her community, she’s building out creating illustrations, webpages, strategy, editing copy, creating content plans, leading teams, and having intimate entrepreneur-based conversations.
Megan works with thought-leaders to break down their BIG ideas into actionable and aligned steps that build momentum in the direction of their unique goals and desires.
Click here to come Backstage, meet Megan and the entire community of femme forward leaders.
