Last Monday I visited the Shambhala Meditation Center of Minneapolis. They do a thing each Monday night called “Fresh Start Mondays” which is geared toward new people. It sounded like a good way to get acquainted with a more formal way of meditating… as opposed to my haphazard and infrequent methods.

It was a non-intimidating environment which is a plus because I really didn’t know what to expect. True to my mantra the last several years, I went to stretch my comfort zone. That happened on a physical as well as mental level. We started off doing some yoga poses. I haven’t done yoga outside of my apartment and it’s been awhile since I’ve done it there. Then we moved on to sitting meditation on cushions alternating with a session of walking meditation. Afterwards, the facilitator gave a short talk about the purpose of Shambhala meditation and Q&A. Overall, it was a good experience. They have drop in meditation on Sunday mornings and I expect I’ll be dropping in on at least one or two Sundays this month.

That means I won’t be at my LDS ward which has moved to 9am after starting at 1pm for the last 2 years. (Sidenote: 1pm is a soul sucking start time. Soul. Sucking.) I’ve only went once or twice since the election. I was on self imposed sabbatical before that. My relationship with the LDS church has been tenuous one for the last several years. It is stronger at some points than others. When I go to other places, for example, when I visited Unity while in Nebraska last month, I feel more connected and I think I need to find a place that feels more like that here. I’ve visited the nearest Unity congregation before and it didn’t have the same vibe as the one in NE but there’s other Unity congregations and progressive churches in the metro I can check out.

And I think I will. Maybe this will be a year of exploring different churches to see if I can find one that meets more of my spiritual and social needs. This is a year of many changes. I’m not working. I’m going to school full-time through December to complete a degree. I’m committed to physical and mental lifestyle changes, which was the reason for the visit to the meditation center. My spiritual side needs some nurturing, too. I need a community that feels supportive and good to and for me.