On Your Birthday, Celebrate AND Meditate!
I recently celebrated my birthday! A few days prior I was finalizing the end of my doctorate program’s summer school session & I hadn’t slept in 3 days, but the Leo in me has an indefatigable LUST for LIFE & I was determined to put my best foot forward for the glorious occasion known as my birthday :) A 365 day journey around the sun was necessary to get to the next year in my life & best believe I would make time to toast to that very enjoyable ride!
I firmly believe a birthday, especially our own, is a unique day meant to be acknowledged & celebrated with sparkles, glitter, & gold. The Meditation Society of Australia backed me up on this. They offer nearly 50 free online courses featuring a step-by-step guide for people learning to meditate, complete with guided meditation exercises & music that you can download & play. Class #27 is dedicated to learning how to value your birthday a whole lot more. Heeyoo! The excerpt below is taken straight from Class #27′s lesson (click the link here to check out this meditation in it’s full glory).
Your Birthday- the day of your Soul.
The birthday is an extremely important day to the spiritual aspirant. Whether we realize it or not, we do arrive at a particular time and place for a specific reason. There is nothing random about you being born on the date and time you were born.
For this reason we should treat our birthdays with real reverence.
On that special day our highest vision of our journey here was born. We have all sorts of grand and magnificent potentialities and our birthday is a time to reflect upon our highest image of our self. Realign and centre ourselves.
Brutal honesty is needed on our birthday. Are we progressing towards that highest vision? Are we loving more than we have in the past? Are we more unconditional with our love? More on target? Are we evolving the fastest? Most of us are not able to answer all these questions in the affirmative. So if not, our birthday is the day to rededicate ourselves to the real in us, with renewed vigour and renewed commitment.
Make your birthday an example for the rest of your life. Say to yourself “what would I do on a perfect day? How would I live?” And then just follow your heart. In this way each birthday becomes a visionary precursor to the following few years.
We recommend you spend at least 1 hour in meditation or more on your birthday. If you can, take a break from all your routines. If you are working, ask for the day off. If you have a holiday, spend the day doing things to pamper your soul. Be in nature. Go to the beach. Read a book. Listen. In silence.
Astrologers will tell you all sorts of things about your birth date and your natural tendencies. We each are different players on the same team, but we do play at different positions. This is how the team will be the most powerful. Imagine what would happen if we were all the same, if we all wanted to play at full back or full forward. It would be a mess. That is why our birthday is so important. Every minute of every hour of every day, the world is changing. The planets are aligned another way, the tides somewhere else. There is not a moment that has passed that is the same as another and not one in the future th
at will resemble another from the past. Our birthday shouts to us that each of our paths are unique, and to value our experience, our intuition.
We each are unique and magnificent creations. Born at exactly the perfect time, with the most perfect of potentialities. As we manifest our highest we make all of us a little better, a little higher, a little happier.
Celebrate the joy of life, the wonder of you. You are an awesome creation and a magnificent and glorious creator. Take the time on your birthday to glance back at the journey so far, but to make yourself more determined than ever to manifest your highest vision of yourself.
Our birthdays are our soul’s visionary days. Treat them with reverence. Our special connection with the infinite is more powerful than ever on our birthday.
A Birthday Reflection.
Because I’m a Leo, I naturally extend my birthday celebrations into more of a birthweek affair and I encourage all signs of the zodiac to draw out birthday festivities for as long as people are willing to tolerate you ;) BUT for realsies, my celebrating would not be so sweet & oh so complete without the company of fabulous family, lovers, & friends. To be able to surround myself with the uplifting people in my life & have them raise their glass in my name is certainly a moment to cherish & be grateful for. During my birthweek I spent time in LA & Chicago and I had the opportunity to….
- Say booyah, boom, done! to my 2nd year of school at USC & officially get to call myself a 3rd year Doctorate of Physical Therapy Student (mind you 3rd year=FINAL year!)
- Admire my marvelous friends as they surrounded me in good company at an overflowing dinner table at Fusion Sushi in Manhattan Beach
- Partake in the devouring of 4 carrot cakes over the course of 3 days.
- Engage in some well deserved self care & got a birthday remix manicure & pedicure
- Be silly & wear an absolutely ridiculous/fabulous outfit to my birthday breakfast, just because I could.
- Spend time near the ocean & marvel at the madness that is Manhattan Beach 6-man volleyball tournament. Hello to a 20,000 person birthday party.
- Sleep for 12 hours straight without judgment.
- Use my new surf board to catch some waves with my main squeeze
- Travel to Chicago to see my family & life long friends
- Check out the fascinating Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS exhibit in Chicago with my bestie. Go see this NOW!
- Eat a deliciously satisfying (& healthy!) dinner in Chicago at the Karyn’s On Green. Vibe: Contemporary, Stylish, Vegan with delicious food & a vibrant bar scene. Yumm, highly recommend this beautiful eatery.
- Enjoy a rad view of the Chicago skyline from my yoga mat during a yoga jam & kirtan meditation sesh at Chicago’s South Loop Corepower Yoga. BREATHTAKING VIEWS of Chicago from your yoga mat guaranteed. DO it.
When I go to bed I certainly count blessings, not sheep! Making a list of the positive experiences I’ve had this week allows me to be so much more grateful & appreciative of all the joy in my life. How could I possibly think anything is lacking?! On my birthday I also made it a priority to reflect on everything that has been accomplished over the past YEAR. Whoa.
As this week wraps up, I get to have my teeth shined by the dentist tomorrow right before I fly back to LA. Soon after landing I’m embarking on a Yoga, Surfing, Music ROADTRIP up the legendary Highway 1, from LA to SF, in a Mint Green 1979 VW Bus. Yep, life is good. Stay tuned. In the meantime & in between time I’ll be busy acknowledging the awesomeness that already exists in my life today & expanding my vision of what is possible in my life :)
Horoscope says, “By choosing to embrace a mind-set of abundance, you will automatically put forth powerful energy that can transform 
your reality.”
FACT!
Check out more meditations under the focus page!
Lots of dopeness went down this week from celebrations to meditations. Much love & many thank yous to all the fabulous souls from LA to Chicago who made my birthWEEK a celebration of ever-grateful proportions!
xoxox
ar