Go ahead—ask yourself the following questions and notice if they strike a chord or awaken a longing within you. Do the people around you motivate you to want to become a better human being? Do your friends, family, and co-workers make you feel excited and passionate about living your life? Have you ever wished you could hang out with people who inspire you? Make you feel courageous and brave? Help you to become healthier and happier?
Guess what? This is exactly the purpose of an Energy Meditation Circle (EMC). It’s all about inspired human beings who meet to encourage, uplift, and awaken each other through meditation, breathing, and harmonious living.
The meditation techniques practiced are drawn from Dahn Yoga and Brain Education and many circles are led by graduates of the Energy Principles Leadership Training (Dotong Course); some leaders are meditation experts and breathing and some are beginning meditators. Currently, there are 451 EMCs throughout the United States with over 4,500 people reaping great benefits from circles led by parents, grandparents, lawyers, teenagers, retirees, and working folks. All leaders, however, have one thing in common: a noble desire to benefit others without expecting anything in return because they have awakened to the “greatness” inside themselves.
In northern California, Luanne Shifflett decided to start a circle with children. She went to her granddaughter’s preschool and taught eighteen four-year-olds (fourteen of them boys!) how to breathe, meditate, and share loving kindness with others. First, they make a circle and create an energy ball with their hands. Then they go to a “happy place” in their minds. With a huge grin, one of them said, “I was with my grandma!” Their teacher said she had never seen them all quiet at the same time. Ever!
In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lynn Alexander was so inspired by her own experience that she has since opened up six EMCs. One serves the employees at the Land Bureau’s Indian Affairs Office and the others are held at senior and multigenerational centers across the city. Lynn said, “Wherever I offer classes, people are starving to know how to enhance their health and get through middle age differently from what they see around them.”
Many circle leaders are using Meetup.com to reach out to the wider community and find like-minded individuals. Liron Golan in Closter, New Jersey, who had only been practicing the techniques for about two months, courageously started a “Meetup” group; twenty people attended the first circle! About leading the group, Liron shared, “You don’t need to be a master trainer. All you need is your heart and your intention and to be in the moment while you are leading and you will be amazed what a great experience the people around you will have.”
All over the country, everyday people are gathering up such courage; by “walking the walk,” they are becoming leaders in their families and communities and making a difference, one person and one breath at a time.
Many people think of meditation as simply sitting with closed eyes and feeling peaceful. The purpose of energy meditation is to see what’s really happening inside so you can make a clear choice to act and live in a way that reflects your inherent greatness within. Just think—if many people began to live lives of inherent greatness, what kind of world would we see in our future?
To find or create a meditation circle, visit www.energymeditationcircles.com. To ignite your courage and create a life of greatness, get started with Energy Principles Leadership Training. For more details, visit www.energyprinciples.com.
— Melissa Koci
