Sedona AZ (Decdember 12, 2011) – Here’s a great way to start the year 2012 peacefully. The 15th of January marks the first day of the annual 40-day world-wide annual meditation effort The Winter Feast for the Soul and the public is invited to participate in the opening meditation day at the Sedona Creative Life Center.
Last year over 10,000 people in over 29 different countries participated in this worldwide event as they committed to a personal spiritual practice for 40 minutes a day for 40 days. The Dalai Lama has endorsed the Winter Feast for four years and Deepak Chopra has added his endorsement saying, “Meditating forty minutes a day for forty days, as done in the Winter Feast for the Soul won’t just further one’s conscious evolution, it will have an effect on humanity. Humanity will be at peace when enough individuals choose to make peace a part of their spiritual practice. ”
All are invited to join the non-denominational opening ceremony of the first day of the Winter Feast for the Soul at a one-hour gathering at the Chapel at the Sedona Creative Life Center on Schnebly Hill Road on Sunday, January 15, at 4:00 pm sponsored by the Sedona Meditation Training Company. Attendees must be on time to participate in the group meditation. Led by Sarah McLean, Ken Dauth and Patty Miller, attendees will hear inspirational readings and be guided into a silent meditation. The event is open to the public, though space is limited. No meditation experience is necessary. Admission is $10. To register visit www.SedonaMeditation.com, or call 928-204-0067.
After the opening ceremony, the public is invited to attend a meditation gathering each day for the remainder of the 40 days of The Feast at the art studio of Richard and Carol Gandolfo at 220 Goodrow Lane in west Sedona. The 40-minute silent meditations start at 10 am on January 16th and will be held each day through February 23rd. For more information on the daily meditations, call Patty at 928-274-4892.
“Winter Feast is that when people spend a block of time each day focusing inward they will discover there a source of inner peace. That peace, if shared by enough people will spread around the world,” says Winter Feast founder, Valerie Skonie, of Hailey Idaho, who visited Sedona recently. She said that the initial inspiration for the Winter Feast came when she read a three-line poem by a 13th Century mystic Jelaluddin Rumi:
What nine months does for the embryo
Forty early mornings
Will do for your growing awareness.
That’s when she decided to make something happen. Spiritual practice can be defined as prayer, meditation, reading sacred texts, yoga, martial arts, and expressive arts. “We even had a woman who committed to singing for forty minutes a day last year,” reports Skonie.
Consider the stories of Noah, Elijah, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed. Each spent forty days in retreat or contemplation. When these prophets returned from their inner journey, they had changed, and, in turn, their world had changed. “Now it is our turn to participate in this shift and not to look to our spiritual leaders to do it for us,” says Skonie. You can learn more about the Winter Feast for the Soul by going to their website: http://www.winterfeastforthesoul.com.