Oprah Winfrey:  by Miriam Bolber, of the Examiner: Let’s face it, these days if you let it, life can really get you down. Thankfully, though, there’s Oprah Winfrey’s ‘Super Soul Sundays’ airing on the OWN network, to help you get out of your funk & inspire you to make positive changes in your life.

Each week, I look forward to Oprah’s sit down with esteemed spiritual leaders & authors who somehow have insight as to how we all can improve our lives, as they offer up words of wisdom we can all benefit from. For those who take the time to tune in, Oprah’s mission is more than accomplished, “I wanted a place for people to go every Sunday to wake-up (to discussions) that are thought-provoking, eye-opening & inspiring. This will lift you right on up. It’s food for your soul.”

In addition to finding your own ah-hah moments from O’s inspiring super soul conversations each week, you can also create abundance in your life by participating in Deepak Chopra’s 21 day free online meditation challenge. This was the recent topic of conversation on O’s ”Super Soul Sunday sit down with spiritual leader & author, Deepak Chopra. The online mediation is about a week in, but no worries as once you register, you can access any of the missed days meditations. It’s been a great way for me to start each day & I have already witnessed some of my own mini miracles. To access go to: www.chopracentermeditation.com. Below are some excerpts from Oprah’s recent Super Soul sit down & Meditation 101 with Deepak Chopra where he explains the benefits you’ll receive from meditation & how this will transform your life. I’ve followed it with another meaningful conversation Oprah had with best-selling author, Gary Zukav.

Oprah with Deepak Chopra/Meditation 101:
Deepak Chopra says he’s meditated every day for the past 40 years. He began this spiritual practice while a student in medical school to relieve stress & kick his pack a day smoking habit. The effects of meditation on Deepak’s life were so profound, it became a cornerstone of his teachings.

Oprah: How do you define meditation?

Deepak: Meditation is defined in the following way. It’s a progressive quieting of the mind until it reaches the source of the mind, which in spiritual tradition is called the soul or the spirit. It takes you to your source.

Oprah: Why should someone do it?

Deepak: The reason they should do it is it’s the most effective way to manage stress & when you are stressed you don’t sleep well you’re not good in your relationships & there are biological effects, your blood pressure goes up, heart rate speeds up your immune system. So the first reason is stress, management & you’ll improve your physical health, your mental health& emotional well being. Here’s the real reason, once you do all that, you open the door to your spirit, the field of possibilities. It opens the door to your soul. It opens the door to creativity because you are connected to the source of creation.

Oprah: How does meditation differ from prayer?

Deepak: Prayer is you are speaking to G-d & meditation is allowing the spirit to speak to you but it speaks in silence & it then manifests as intuition, inspiration.

Oprah: Is being present, a form of it’s own meditation?

Deepak: Yes, it’s called mindfulness. If you live mindfully, you will make conscious choices & it will change your life.

Oprah: How does meditation create abundance?

Deepak: The specific abundance meditation opens you up to what we call abundance consciousness. So let’s say you are feeling gratitude, it opens your heart & your spirit to the source of abundance which is the universe itself. So if you open yourself up to abundance consciousness then you create neural networks, connections between neurons that make you notice abundance, that make you feel grateful. That make you open your consciousness to opportunity where other people see a problem, you might see an opportunity. What is good luck? It’s opportunity meeting preparedness. So what we are really doing is rewiring the brain in this meditation to open ourselves up to this state of being where we live in an abundance consciousness not scarcity consciousness. If you’re scared & living in scarcity consciousness then it will be a self fulfilling prophecy.

Oprah: What I thought is for the mind to stop & you are in G-d space.

Deepak: What you do in these meditations is you introduce the intention, then you let it go. Then you use mediation to transcend, get into the G-d space & then you let the universe handle the details. It handles the details through insight, intuition, inspiration, creativity, gratitude, choice making. These are the by products. Here’s the formula: intention, transcendence, detachment, let the universe handle the details. The source of the universe is the source of you too.

Oprah: What’s going to happen to me, you, all of us, joining in this force of a 21 day abundance mediation challenge?

Deepak: You will create a consciousness that will change the way you think, the way you feel, the way you behave, the way you socially interact, your personal relationships all will head in the direction of abundance consciousness. You will actually rewire your brain.

Below are the daily meditations so far & accompanying affirmations. To access them go to: www.chopracentermeditation.com & connect with other “karmically connected souls.”

Day 1 The Reality of Abundance “Today I behold all the abundance that surrounds me.”
Day 2 The Source of All Abundance “I create my personal abundance from an infinite source.”
Day 3 Mind, Matter, Spirit “Today, I focus on what I want to attract in my life”
Day 4 Pure Consciousness “From this moment forward, I invite unlimited abundance into my life.”
Day 5 The Field of All Possibilities “Today, I embrace my potential to be, do, and have whatever I can deam.”
Day 6 The Seeds of Success “Everything I desire is within me.”
Day 7 Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire “I use my conscious intention to manifest my dreams.”
Day 8 Abundance & the Law of Pure Potentiality “Through the Law of Pure Potentiality, I can create anything, anytime, anywhere.”
Day 9 Abundance & the Law of Giving “Today, and everyday, I give that which I want to receive.”

Below are some more excerpts from Oprahs Super Soul Sunday which stood out to me & those I thought I’d share:
Deepak: There’s a difference between self esteem & self image. The reason people have all this plastic surgery is they’ve forgotten themselves & they are identifying themselves with their self image. The real self is beneath. It’s immune to criticism & is fearless.

Oprah with best-selling author, Gary Zukav:

Oprah: One of the things that impressed me the most & really stayed with me forever, (13 yrs ago ) is on page 31 of ‘Seat of the Soul’ when you say “When the personality comes fully to serve the energy of the soul, that is authentic power.’ That awakened a spark of knowing in me that I never knew existed. I now call them ah-hah moments but I realized oh, when my personality comes to fully align with the energy of my soul & I allow my soul to be the guide that is when I am the most powerful. That is when I am in my sweet spot.

Gary: You were born to live in the sweet spot. That is the creation of authentic power & that’s how we’re all evolving now. Creating authentic power is developing the ability to distinguish between love & fear within yourself & then choosing love. It doesn’t matter what is happening inside of you or outside of you.

Oprah: Now you know the most exciting chapter to me in ‘Seat of the Seat of The Soul’ & the one that has altered the course of my life . It is the principle upon which I rule my company & the principle in which I rule every action in my life & that is intention.

Gary: Yes. That’s at the heart of it. That at the heart of creating authentic power. Intention. I want to suggest that everyone watching this consider the possibility that you are a powerful, creative, compassionate, and loving spirit. Try that on for size. If you find it doesn’t fit. If you find there’s a distance between who you think you are & what you say & what you do then consider that distance is the distance you have to travel.
When you are not aware of what your intention you are creating with fear. When you are aware of intention, then you can choose whether you want to create with an energy of fear or love.

Oprah: I think the most important thing to understand is the principle of cause & effect. For every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction. Every action is going to have a consequence & that intention is what is going to rule that cause & determine the effect.

Gary: Exactly. Whatever you throw out above you comes down. Once you understand that, you become more thoughtful about what you throw into the air. Every intention, you are throwing something into the universe & it will find you. This is the universal law of cause & effect. In the East, it’s called Karma. Here we call it the Golden Rule. It is to allow us to learn through our own experiences, how powerful we are as creators & how we are responsible for what we create.

Oprah: It’s like the wonderful line from the Color Purple..’Everything you try to do to me is already done to you.’ What really happens is whatever you do onto others, is already done unto you. You can’t escape it.

Oprah: : How do people actively apply these principles? 

Gary: Go inside. Develop emotional awareness. By turning inward instead of acting in the moment, into that space you can chose consciously . Act from the most loving part of my personality. You have then changed your universe. Its your choice & you make the choice every time you choose an intention. Choose an intention of love instead of intention of fear. That is the spiritual journey, path.

Oprah: Isn’t the ultimate lesson to Dorothy in Wizard of Oz..you’ve always had it my dear, you’ve always had the power.

Gary: Yes that you are a powerful, and creative, compassionate & loving spirit & the more you cultivate the loving part of your spirit the more it begins to fill your experience and field of awareness until that’s all there is. Creating authentic power is a process, not an event. It’s done decision by decision, step by step.

‘Super Soul Sundays’ airs locally every Sunday on OWN at 11:00 am. To find out what channel OWN airs go to www.oprah.com/own.
To join Oprah & Deepak on the 21 Day Meditation Challenge, sign up for free online at:www.chopracentermeditation.com
Your soul will thank you.