And welcome to Wednesday.

Woo.

I'm Heather Masters and today is also day 10 of my 10 day challenge.

So woohoo.

And celebration because I've actually gone live for 10 days and it has been a bit of a challenge being such an introvert.

I much prefer doing my podcast, to be perfectly honest.

What I wanted to share on Wednesday.

Woo.

Today is the theme of community.

I think over the last few years, especially the last four years, we've seen the world pulled apart in many ways and people go their separate ways rather than a coming together of community to help and support each other through these shifting and often challenging times.

So I wanted to just explore community and if you're on your own and you maybe are reluctant to go meet people, there are other ways of joining communities online and being part of something that really aligns with your values and helps you focus on what's important to you, what's fulfilling for you, what's going to help you thrive through these changing times.

So one of the options is guided group meditations, and there are a lot of those out online.

It's really, it's not too difficult to find them.

The importance is obviously finding meditations that, that work with your beliefs and value systems, I think are one of the things that's sometimes overlooked with meditations is because they're putting you in a translike state.

You know, be aware of what's been spoken and how that's influencing your unconscious mind.

There are some meditations that I've been on that I've had to actually pull away from because I, I, I don't align, for instance, with meditations that invite in the world's energy because right now the world energy for me is not something that I want to bring into my own energy field.

So be, be careful about that.

I, I know that people leading the meditations have good intentions, but if you know anything about energy, you don't want to be inviting a lot of the, the world's energy into your energy field.

Right now it's about keeping your own energy field clean, in my opinion, and setting boundaries.

I think we're going through a time where that is a powerful practice to learn and to take on board.

And there are obviously very many meditation techniques.

There's mindfulness, loving kindness, body scan, and obviously spiritual techniques as well, and healing techniques that you might want to join in with.

One of the ones that's I really like at the moment is the focus on, on a new world, a new future for humanity where things have changed and we're raising consciousness and we're raising the power of light around the world.

So that's, that's just me, that's just where I am.

But even using apps like Headspace, you can join in the meditation without necessarily connecting to other people.

So it's not like have to go online.

You just know that there's a meditation starting and you follow the guided meditation at that time.

But there's a community and that community effort has scientifically been proven to lift the energy and change things around the world.

So that might be something you want to do from a community perspective.

There are also discussion circles and I used to be part of a woman's discussion circle and I absolutely loved it.

And these are topic based discussions.

They can be topic based discussions where there are conversations obviously around specific topics like personal growth or mental health or spirituality or even, you know, going deeper into that, not getting more specific.

So something around loss or grief or being a carer, whatever it is that you need support on.

There are circles out there and it's just a matter of again, looking around and finding the right ones for you.

There are Q and A sessions that allow participants to ask questions.

And this can be related to meditation practices or spiritual concepts or more practical things like how you stay resilient when you're caring for a loved one.

There are also, as everybody probably knows, a whole range of workshops and classes and I'm developing some of my own.

I've kind of made a decision this week to develop some classes around the the Choosing Happy podcast because I explore a lot of mindfulness and resilience and other techniques, especially around visualization and success.

And I also have guest speakers.

So I'm intending to pull all of that into workshops and classes that really benefit people.

There are, there's the option of community sharing sessions where you can join a community space that is safe and private, where participants get to share their journeys or their breakthroughs, or request feedback and support.

That's something I do with my creative writing tips, which is kind of, I think I've mentioned before, is an accidental group.

But I do that in the group and I do that in the private group as well.

So there's, there's those options and again, you can find them by searching.

And again, it's something.

The community side, especially the sharing in sessions, is something I encourage with all of my personal and spiritual development courses.

In fact, all of my courses, whether you're building a business, whether you're creative writing, or whether you're looking for mindset support, I think that community with Those sharing sessions is key.

Mindfulness challenges.

Again, you can find this on Headspace.

I, I support Headspace only because I use it.

I'm sure there are many others.

You know, I just find it really, really useful.

You can find 30 day challenges, you can find themed weeks focusing.

So for instance, with Head Space, you can meditate around stress, you can meditate around grief, you can meditate around, around joy, whatever it is that you want to focus on.

And those meditations are really specific to support you on that particular subject.

There are silent retreats.

You can find virtual silent retreats where participants engage in silent meditation followed by group reflections.

And there are mini retreats that focus on specific themes or practices over a few hours.

So yeah, you can look around and find those as well.

The creative expression workshops.

So there's art and meditation, combining art with meditation that allows participants to express their experiences of creativity.

And art and meditation workshops can really help if you're going through something.

They can help release limiting beliefs or they can help heal if you're in a grieving state or there's something that you, you just haven't expressed.

Sometimes the unconscious mind chooses art and meditation to express those kind of blocks and on unexplored feelings.

And the same is with writing circles.

And again, this is something that I do and I've been putting off my journaling, but I now have a few participants waiting for it.

So I'm going to be facilitating 30 days of journaling where participants get to write about not just their meditation experiences, but their experiences of what comes up for them in journaling.

And they again can join in the community and share and ask questions and explore.

So that's something that I'll be putting out there very soon and I'll drop the link in the comments.

So all of these different practices can help to create an engaging and supportive community environment.

Now, there are obviously lots and lots of communities out there based on subjects, based on topics, based on interests, based on what each participant wants from that community.

So that's probably the place to start is to really sit down and contemplate what it is you're looking for from the community and then look for a community that really can support you in getting your goals met.

But the main thing is that community enhances connection around the world and it enhances connection to the subject that you're exploring.

So I would recommend, if you can, to reach out and find a community at this time who can support you and help you, especially if you're alone and feeling isolated.

So that's Wednesday Woo for today, all about community.

And as I say it's also day 10 so I won't be going live tomorrow.

It's the end of my live consistent challenge.

Please do like share, subscribe and follow because it does help me with my channels and I really do appreciate it and I appreciate you for staying with me and for listening over the last few days.

So my next live video will be Friday for Friday features and I look forward to seeing you then.

Have an amazing and miraculous week.

Until then, thanks again for watching.

Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this week's episode.

If you enjoyed it or think it would be valuable to others, please do share.

And if you really enjoyed it, please leave me a review.

It really helps the podcast.

All of the links are in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you next week on the Choosing Happy Podcast.