Seven places to discover serenity in The Peace and Purpose Meditation Coloring Book

We encourage you to explore seven areas of meditation to find inner solace.  The number seven is a divine number that is related to inner wisdom, intuition, and inner strength. They are all areas that can enrich our lives through the Peace and Purpose Meditation Coloring Book.  We encourage you to find at least seven locations that speak to you and use them in your regular practice.

1. Water--Incorporate water in your meditation practice.  Water can represent the cleansing of our spirit.  A rebirth into a new focused life of personal growth.  We can go to the ocean, bathing in the salt water and absorb the benefits.  We can go to a lake and take in the stillness of the lake.  We can sit by a waterfall and envision ourselves under it being cleansed. We can meditate in the shower or a bathtub full of bath salts.  We can listen to a water fountain.  We can find an app that plays the sound of rushing water or rain.  It could be as we soak in the sun floating in a pool, that we connect to our inner journey.  Mindfully, we allow the water to rejuvenate and cleanse our spirit.

2.  Nature--Thinking of natural settings or being in nature as we meditate grounds us and increases our well-being.  We can find nature in parks, forests, deserts, gardens, with our houseplants, and with our animals, even.  Being on a trail allows us to take each step and pause.  We can  pause to smell a flower, pause to view the snow collection, pause to see nature in all her wonder and beauty, pause to see the animals, pause to have conversations with flowers as they are  blooming, pause to understand that we are part of nature.  We become connected to the universe and grounded by the healing vibration of Mother Earth.

3. Time--Picking the time that resonates with us to meditate is another conscious choice we can make.  We can get up early and find a nice sunrise to contemplate as the sun and our souls greet the new born day.  Or, we discover we are not a morning person, but feel the peace of a beautiful God painted sunset.  It could be that we find we get a better sleep when we meditate right before bedtime.  The time is ours to choose, and it should resonate with us.

4. Mirror--There are many experts who suggest we look at ourselves in the mirror, look deep into our own eyes and give love and compassion to ourselves.  The value of the mirror is we know that we can meditate inside and in front of something that is a reflection of who we are to ourselves.  It is here we are able to look inside and have conversations with ourselves.  We can reflect in the mirror our feelings; we can say our affirmations to the mirror which we may have emblazoned in erasable marker on its surface.  The mirror allows us to look back at ourselves knowing that we are growing in strength, removing all those things that we want to remove, and affirming we are flourishing into a better being.

5.  Exercise--Through exercise, as little as 30 minutes a day 3 times a week, we can increase our well-being.  As we visit the weights, the yoga mat, the running or walking trail, our minds begin to meditate on what we are doing.  Exercise no longer feels like work; instead, it feels as though we are giving ourselves internal exposure to the beauty and strength that we have inside.  As we stretch our bodies and move, we are taking care of ourselves and affirming our commitment to our well-being.  We are  feeling our stretches, our feet pounding the earth, our hands grasping the weights, or our body on the mat.  We are reminded that we are caretakers of our bodies. It is here that we, also, find a moment to say that we’re OK. Our stretching and exercising is our daily regimen to keep ourselves focused on healing.

6.  Community/partnership--Forming an accountability partner or a community will add to our well-being, self-care, and personal growth.  We can do our meditation in unison and then we have found our accountability partners, and we no longer have to be alone on our journey. We can find others who understand the therapeutic value in communing in spirit.  These soul sisters may be our coloring partners, our yoga partners, or our prayer partners.  It doesn’t matter what we call them. It only matters that they are like-minded in their pursuit of self-care.

7.  Personal altar/sanctuary--For our meditation, we can create a sacred spot.  In this spot we can gather pieces that reflect who we are and represent what we cherish.  We can collect religious statues, stones and crystals, pictures of loved ones or spiritual icons, and books that echo our spirits.  We can have a chair that becomes our meditation chair or a pillow or a mat.  We can bring a candle, chimes, a portable waterfall, incense and music. We can use chanting to create energy in our sanctuary. We have our own altar where we can explore our inner temple. We make this hallowed ground, and we know that when we are present in this personal space, we are connecting with Source.

Although some of these places lend themselves to meditating and coloring with the Peace and Purpose Meditation Coloring book, others will be ideal just for reflecting and completing the exercises in the back of the book.  Some of the places described may bring more insight because they touch a place deep inside of us.  The journey is ours to discover who we are and who we want to be.