Jaclyn Beckerman Coaching

I just finished Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert the other day. It makes me want to go to an Ashram! (Ideally in India – I’ve got a serious travel bug). I tend to be very curious about things and easily enrolled (within reason) into anything spiritual or transformational. Though I’m not going to lie, I’m not completely convinced that I would be able to handle it. It seems pretty intense. However, I’ve certainly done some very rigorous self-development work already so perhaps I’m underestimating myself.

In case you haven’t read the book or don’t know what an Ashram is, I pulled this from Wikipedia: ‘Traditionally, an ashram is a religious hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo.’ From what I gather the intention is to have a spiritual experience of connecting with God. I’m intrigued.

Elizabeth Gilbert speaks of having actual experiences of God and the unconditional compassionate love that exists within that state. Fascinating. There’s certainly a part of me that is VERY curious and begs to have that kind of experience myself. If you haven’t garnered this yet, I’m fond of Eastern philosophies. No, I have not studied them in depth, but from what I know of them, I like them. That’s enough for me to want to explore.

She mainly seems to do a lot of mediation. My own meditations are very different than those Liz Gilbert speaks of and I haven’t anywhere near achieved the blissful state that she and many other spiritual writings speak of in their quests to spiritual enlightenment. So hey, I want in the club too.

I can experience stillness more easily than ever before in my lifetime. I could hardly meditate at all before (and had little sense of how to anyway). Let me tell you, meditating absolutely makes a huge difference – instilling a sense of peace and wholeness that I hadn’t before known possible. Since November I’ve been taking Intuitive Tool classes where you learn a lot of wonderful meditation techniques via visualization and build the skill of accessing your intuition. They’re amazing and led by Deganit Nuur (deganitnuur.com). In addition to the classes she offers she also does incredible intuitive readings.

It’s funny because I didn’t even know how starved I was for a spiritual connection until Accomplishment Coaching introduced me to guided meditation and some incredible books like Conversations with God and A Return to Love. Those certainly rocked my world.

That’s actually what led me to seek out Sacred Center in the first place. It’s so great what comes into your life when you create the space for it.

Anyway, I’ve found the Guru Gilbert speaks of in her book, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda who studied under Swami Muktananda (http://www.siddhayoga.org/guru/index.aspx). I’m planning to go to their Tuesday evening mediation tonight and check it out. Will let you know how it goes…