Hay House Meditation Challenge

You know how I love to do all of these challenges and then report back! (I did this meditation challenge at the same time I did the Spirit Worker Challenge which you can read about here.)

This one was a 7-day meditation challenge from Hay House with Matteo Pistono explaining the process each day. I had just come across the 4-day spiritual awakening challenge from Hay House when this thing popped up, too.

Naturally, I did both.

Day One by Louise Hay

Let’s get this party started! The morning meditation was almost 30-minutes long; it seems like most of these challenges last around 10-15 minutes, speaking to our busy lives and limited attention spans. However, Louise Hay is more old school as far as I’m concerned, so the longer duration probably speaks more to the time she recorded it. Certainly longer sessions are more beneficial than shorter ones, but it’s also better to do anything than nothing!

Louise Hay herself passed in 2017, so hearing her voice again, being soothed by it with her affirmations and gratitude was like covering myself in an old, favorite, warm blanket.

Hell! She even convinced me to thank my refrigerator this morning.

Evening with Louise Hay

Another longer meditation, and I fell asleep to Louise Hay’s voice. Both of these offered the old affirmations that we collectively used to use to start our days. I must say, some of that has passed on in my own life, but it’s a nice reminder that it’s still there for me to use.

Day Two

Morning by Kyle Gray

A much shorter meditation for the morning; it was a body scan. I’ve done a million body scans, and each offer their own insights. But I liked this one because it allowed us to apologize to ourselves for the various abuses we’ve done to these shrines (as well as others having harmed us, too). It lead us into being willing to change and support our bodies more. With a lilting Irish accent, it was lovely.

Evening by Nirlipta Tuli and Uma Dinsmore-Tuli

It was a Yoga Nidra led by Nirlipta Tuli and Uma Dinsmore-Tuli. I was so excited. I’ve never done Nidra before, but I’ve heard wonderful things about it. I’d say within thirty seconds of its start… I fell asleep.

Which is the point of Yoga Nidra. However, I had wanted to be awake for some of it at least! I was very tired. Oi! I suppose this means I should just attend a live class.

Day Three

Morning by Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph.D

A 30-minute challenge which focused on the breath, focused on imagining limbs growing heavy, limbs growing warm. I had monkey mind, but overall was still able to focus enough to get something out of it. I had a hard time with the warm limbs because some of my body areas were already receiving sunlight! The heaviness was nice, though, and for some reason it was really easy to feel with my right leg.

Evening with Robert Litman

This was 20-minutes long and meant to reset nervous system. He explained about benefits of breathing through the nose vs through the mouth, which was cool learning about the science. However, I felt like it was more lecture than meditation.

Day Four

Morning with Jeralyn Glass

She called it a work for our endocrine system, although she didn’t explain why we were working with that system or how it affected the system. Yet, this so far has been one of my favorite meditations. It was sound healing. All of the singing bowls were easy to get lost in and absorb their vibrations.

Evening by Dick Sutphen

This was a FULL HOUR! As it was supposed to lull you to sleep, I suppose it worked–I missed the whole thing again. I’m not going to lie–all of these meditations going on while I’m asleep make me a little nervous because of whatever subconscious psychobabble is taking place while I’m snoozing. His voice didn’t resonate so much with me; it seemed like a voice from a television show.

While I’m trusting that Hay House wouldn’t say anything negative, that scene from the Workin’ Moms episode named “Consent” still lingers! (One word summation for the episode: creep.)

Day Five

Morning by Spring Washam

THIS was perfect timing as I was doing the Spirit Worker Challenge with James Van Praagh. This also spoke to overcoming fear. This woman’s voice and guidance were lovely. It was a short 20-minutes and I wouldn’t mind listening to this one again.

Evening by Belleruth Naparstek

I’m not sure if it’s the meditations or life that are causing me to fall asleep so quickly this week, but I missed the guided meditation and fell into dreamland very quickly. I must say, though, that I had vivid dreams occur the following morning!

Day Six

Morning with davidji

I really enjoyed myself. This is the first walking meditation I have ever tried. I wish the speaking part had lasted a little bit longer, but being guided about what to focus and feel as I encountered my walk, and then listening to the music. I walked slowly, much more slowly than usual, but it seemed to work with the music.

Evening with Nicky Sutton

This was a 2-hour sleep meditation, and she had a nice, soothing voice. It almost reminded me of ASMR, the type of inflections she used. I turned it off before it ended, although I had totally fallen asleep upon hitting play. Very hypnotic.

Day Seven

Morning by Anita Moorjani

She spoke of different frequencies. While I meditated, I was in and out of consciousness, yet was acutely aware of her voice in the background.

Evening by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

It was sad to have the final meditation by another one of the lost greats, and he focused on mantra sounds. OM and shal-OM; expressing gratitude; sinking into sleep.

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Night times seemed to all basically be some form of hypnosis with positive affirmations; letting go; having gratitude. There’s nothing wrong with that, but my personal ego is still so mad that it was so easy to fall asleep because I feel like I missed so many of the recordings. They clearly served their purpose well!

For more information about Hay House and their offerings, visit here. Or you can just purchase their Empower You Unlimited Audio app. The app has some freebies and I think when they offer these series for free throughout the year, they’ll just automatically pop up in your app. Another bonus in the app–you can set a sleep timer to the meditations and your phone will just turn off.

Happy Meditating!