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Today I’m sharing the key lessons and mantras that I’ve developed from practicing the Liberation Kriya (Kundalini yoga meditation for a fresh start) so far.

In this meditation, you have to hold a pose for 9 minutes (every 3 minutes, there is a slight change to the pose) for 40 days straight. If you miss a day, you have to restart from day 1. I actually learned the latter from further research (watching the Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa video), after I had already begun the meditation and missed days without realizing it was wrong. So after doing the meditation for two weeks already, I had to restart from Day 1 to get it right.

Don’t quit. Commit.

The first thing I noticed when I started this meditation was that it’s hard; it hurts to keep your arm up for that long. My arms were so weak that I would tremble and have to breathe long and deep because it was basically an exercise I had to sit through. What I love about the Gurmukh video is that she says “If you feel like putting your arms down, my best advice is: don’t.” Simply put: If you feel like quitting, don’t. Just like that. Quitting it not an option, so remove it from your mind. Because it’s not worth it. If you quit, then you’ll have lost all your hard work and have to start all over again to build up to what you have right now. Quitting is not worth it.

Patience + Perseverance

These two words have been key words and mantras that I’ve been repeating all year. They’re two characteristics that I hope to instill in myself, because I believe with patience and perseverance, you can get through anything. Life is a marathon, so having strong patience and perseverance are key. I found myself repeating these two words over and over again to myself when the meditation gets tough. I tell myself: it’s only a matter of time before 9 minutes is up, I can be patient and sit through this short time. When it’s physically demanding, I tell myself to persevere—the mind must be strong to support the body. It really is mind over matter and I believe with a strong mind, you can accomplish anything.

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

Really though. As cliche as this phrase sounds, it really helped me when I realized: “I’m not going to die. Sitting in this pose for a 9 minute meditation won’t kill me. But you know what? It’s going to make me stronger, physically and mentally.” So I choose to sit through it; I choose strength; I choose growth. It’s an exciting thought that if I can complete this challenge, the only outcome is growth. It can only go up from here. This applies to anything in life that is a challenge or outside of your comfort zone; if you take it on, commit and do not give up, the only outcome is growth. That’s incredibly empowering.

Going on Day 18 of this meditation today, I’ve seen how much I’ve grown mentally and physically from this meditation by simply choosing to commit and not quit. It’s become less and less difficult; now I can sit through the 9 minutes without struggling as much as before. I can easily sit through this meditation now, and each day I am looking forward to it more and more. I feel like this is analogous to anything difficult we take on in life. It’s difficult in the beginning; you have to first commit, not quit, then be patient and persevere until you’ve reached a state where it starts to become natural, effortless and even enjoyable. I’m feeling that ride right now and it’s so empowering and reassuring that I can do anything if I choose to commit to it. It takes a lot of time and effort and it will be difficult at first, but if I ride it out, eventually it will get better and easier because I’ve grown stronger through that journey.