This weekend I completed Deepak Chopra’s 21 Days of Abundance Meditation Challenge. This program challenges you to spend 15 minutes a day in focused meditation exercises around the topic of abundance. You spend another 15-30 minutes of that same day completing an exercise that helps you to explore things in your life that may be limiting or contributing to you embracing that abundance. Upon an invitation from a friend, I accepted the challenge and did my best to release any preconceived notions about what this exercise would look like or bring.

Perhaps you can relate to my story. As someone who has invested in a lot of personal growth and development, I could’ve easily gone into this challenge with a “been there, done that” type of mindset. While many of the concepts were not foreign, when presented in a new light, these ideas opened up a whole new world of possibilities for me. Thanks sis!

Particularly in this season, which has brought much anxiety and many fears of the unknown, this challenge was enlightening. The meditation exercises alone helped me to focus my thoughts and energy on a more positive and empowering narrative than the world is offering right now.

Here are five of my most powerful takeaways that I’m certain can help you through this season as well.

1. Abundance is limitless and it comes effortlessly and easily.

   True abundance is the ability to fulfill one’s desires with minimal effort. We never have to strive for abundance because we already have it. In fact, this is biblical for us Christ followers. Did you know that Jesus came so that we may have abundant life? When He died on that cross, we immediately received it. (John 10:10) If we focus on the abundance all around us, we learn that we can access it at any moment. Call to action: Release thoughts of limitations and lack and attune your senses to the abundance all around you.

2. Judgment of ourselves and others is a barrier to abundance.

   This meditation challenge encourages you to release the need to judge people or circumstances as right or wrong. This is a hard concept for many of us to grasp because judgment is so engrained in our society, especially with the rise of social media and reality TV. It forces us to constantly judge people’s choices. As it relates to our tendency to judge ourselves, learning to take responsibility for our choices without placing blame is much more empowering. And when it comes to judging others’ choices as right or wrong, we must remember that we are all human. That means that we should give each other grace to be just that – human. Call to action: Stop shaming people, including ourselves, for the choices we make.

3. Everything is as it should be.

   When we accept things as they are without forcing or being attached to an outcome, we have more peace. I learned through this challenge that I can be intentional about my desires, and be unattached from the results of those efforts. This is not an easy thing to do when you are an ambitious, go-getter who likes to set and achieve goals. But when you realize the two concepts (being detached from outcomes and being goal-driven) are not mutually exclusive, it opens up a whole new world for you! (Side note: how to do this is a whole other blog post! Stay tuned…) Call to action: Stop striving for results and accept outcomes for what they are.

4. Our struggles in life develop our strengths.

   None of us enjoy going through hard times and difficulty. I love to struggle, says no one ever. But, when we embrace those seasons and learn from them, we come out of those situations much stronger and wiser. Whenever we feel that something is challenging or not in our comfort zone, our natural reaction is to avoid it, procrastinate on it, or quit altogether. We must understand that embracing that thing that challenges us will actually help us grow and to live abundantly. When we deprive ourselves of opportunities to grow, we’re actually interfering with abundance. Call to action: Feel the fear/pain/difficulty, and do it anyway.

5. This too shall pass.

   Everything has a season – the good and the bad – and seasons come and go. Sometimes in the moment things can seem so big and so permanent. In reality they are not, so we shouldn’t grasp so tightly to them. Cherish and revel in the good moments and find ways to appreciate and grow from the bad moments. And regardless of these changing circumstances, we should be comforted by one constant. God is with us. Call to action: Celebrate each moment and season for what it is and learn from it all.

Considering my love and passion for living and empowering others to live an abundant life, I could not experience something like this and not share it with my golden life tribe. But I encourage you to experience it for yourself, because everyone’s breakthroughs and revelations are different – one of the beautiful things that makes this whole program so powerful. Either way, I pray that these five takeaways blessed you. If they did, pay it forward and share with someone else who could use some tips on how to experience the abundant life right now.