Why you should have a go at the 21 days of Abundance meditation challenge by Deepak Chopra

During the COVID19 quarantine swiss life got a little quiet. Cut off from usual social life, I have decided to dedicate time to the rich garden which grows inside the mind.

I started with signing up for the most popular course at Yale: “The science of wellbeing”, taught by the amazing Laurie Santos. The course is available for free on Coursera at this link: https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being/. I am still working through the classes, but I will review the course in a later article, stay tuned. If you’d like a little taste, I highly recommend this conversation with Sam Harris: https://samharris.org/podcasts/196-science-happiness/

While learning about what makes us all really happy, and what on the other hand we think makes us happy, but actually doesn’t, a friend invited me to join a meditation challenge. The challenge is called “21 days of Abundance” and it is curated by Deepak Chopra (for those of you who haven’t heard his name before: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak_Chopra). It has been going around the world for a few years, and currently it is circulating as a whatsapp challenge: a friend invites you to a whatsapp group through which every day you receive a meditation guided by Deepak accompanied by a short journalling exercise. You can also find the whole course on the official website, for example here: https://deepakchopra.it/ and on open spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1SH70rrW6GtiAHVQA23Bjj. However, I would recommend joining a whatsapp group, it always helps to do activities which require regularity and discipline with others, or at least it helps me!

The meditation challenge consists of receiving every morning an audio clip of about 10–15 minutes. The meditation guided by Deepak Chopra opens with a particular mission and topic and then presents a mantra and lets the practitioner meditate in silence repeating the mantra in their head. At the end the theme is presented again. The meditations have relaxing soundtracks, such as the sound of a river, of the sea, of a forest. Together with the audio clip, a journalling task also comes daily.

The theme of Abundance is in the foreground throughout the whole meditation series. The meditations start with focusing on identifying people who we feel hold abundance in their life, then moves to money and materialistic things, understanding our intrinsic potential, what is limiting it and how could the limitations be transformed by shifting our perception. There is some contemplation about gratitude, things we love and that “cost us nothing” and the practice of being open to the messages from the universe, of accepting what comes to us and seeing the potential of every situation, ultimately realising that we hold Abundance within us and around us.

The meditations are silent, with a mantra which matches the theme of the day. This was particularly interesting for me, I am a regular meditator, but I practice usually meditating with an open mind, wandering the fields of awareness, sometimes contemplating a theme, but rarely focusing on a mantra. It has felt powerful to me to have a beautiful mantra to repeat. Here are some of the mantras using along the challenge which I particularly liked, and which are now written on post-its scattered around on my bathroom mirror:

• Tat Tvam Asi, as translated by Chopra as “I see the other in myself and myself in the other
• Om Varunam Namaha: My life is in harmony with the Cosmic Law
• Om Vardhanam Namaha: I nourish the Universe and the Universe nourishes me

I particularly liked the second half of the challenge, with its focus on going with the flow, trusting the intelligence of the universe, accepting events in our life “with a light and open heart”. I also really enjoyed the contemplation on the constant exchange we have back and forth with our external world. What we give out, comes back. If you want to have love in our life, you should give love, if you want to have success, you should learn to be humble and help others succeed. Indeed, as we nourish our surrounding, our surrounding nourishes us back.

As I finish the challenge while following Laurie Santos’ Science of Wellbeing course, I realise how the two are deeply connected, and in fact are presenting very similar perspectives. Once again I am surprised by how much Buddhist philosophy got right, and is nowadays supported by scientific studies. Time and again, gratitude comes up as a powerful mean to enhance our wellbeing and happiness. Time and again we discover that the pursuit of money and material possessions does not enhance happiness (above a certain threshold). And recognising our natural talents and harnessing our full potential bring us joy, fulfilment and a lasting sense of purpose.

I recommend to everyone to have a go at the 21 days of Abundance meditation challenge. There is only insight, positive and transformative energy and deep joy to be gained.

“Practice living with a light and open heart”

Thank you for reading! Till next time,

Chiara