A mini interview and happy thanksgiving

I’m back in New Zealand! Today we draw the winner of the 3-month membership that was kindly donated by last weeks guest, Sandy Newbigging. And the winner is Anne Louise! Congratulations Anne, I’ll get those details to you very soon. Don’t forget you can trial the Calm Community for free for 30-days, you can check that out at www.sandynewbigging.com/calmcommunity Mini Interview with Britta Britta is from Sweden and started meditating 3 years ago after taking a course on the recommendation from her sister. How regularly do you meditate? It depends a lot on the day. I try to meditate for 20 minutes, 3 times a day. Sometimes I do more, sometimes I do less, sometimes I don’t meditate at all. But I really can see a huge difference between the days that I meditate and the days that I don’t. If I don’t I do get grumpy, and it kind of like when I haven’t been sleeping. I always take advantage if I’m on the bus or train to take the extra time to meditate. What helped you maintain a consistent meditation practice? It came along by itself. What has helped is arranging to get together with other people and meditate together because I feel I get inspired by meeting other people who meditate. We try to get together every week, we meet at a different house each week, its a bit like a book club but for meditators - it’s really fun. What is the biggest impact that you’ve seen in your life from meditation? I don’t take things so seriously now. I know everything is going to be ok in the end and understand that I don’t need to worry so much. I realise there is no need to worry about stuff. What brings you joy? I love nature, swimming, skiing, spending time with friends, my job. Do you have more joy now that before you meditated? Definitely. I just see everything, When I go to work, I just see everything. Even though I don’t like mornings, I love biking to work, going through my town. I just love it. It’s not about hating mornings, even if I’m tired if I’m present then it doesn’t matter. What does daring to be happy mean to you? It does take courage to be happy. That has been my experience. You have to put yourself out there and dare to enjoy life. It’s Thanksgiving day in the US! So take a moment today and even every day to acknowledge what you are grateful for and notice the difference that energy is. Gratitude is an incredibly powerful uplifting emotion, that is expansive and high vibe. The opposite, which can be so easy to fall into the to focus on lack and scarcity. Notice the difference when you’re in that kind of energy and space. Notice that it’s more constricting and closed. If you have any questions and would like some support with your meditation practice, you can now leave me a voice message directly on my website. Just go to lilab.life/contact