Deepak Chopra's 21 Days of Abundance: An Interview with Jiezhen Wu

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What does Deepak Chopra’s 21 Days of Abundance practice mean to you?

On a personal level, I have found it to be very grounding, inspiring and powerful. Especially in the midst of this pandemic and major health crisis and social upheaval that we’ve been facing this year, this practice has given me space to breathe, find my feet, replenish my cup and embrace the abundance and possibility of each moment. Each day during the three-week journey is an opportunity to pause, to check in and to take stock of how I’ve been living. So often we move through our days on auto-pilot – but this practice gives me space to stop and pause and really reflect on how I’ve been living and how I want to be living. Having this opportunity to pause and reflect on these questions is incredibly valuable and eye-opening.

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Let’s unpack the idea of abundance (and scarcity) – how has the practice in creating an abundant consciousness impacted your life?

“The 21 Days of Abundance journey has really allowed me to choose how I want to respond to the world instead of just reacting to things that happen.”

My mom always said this to us when we were growing up, “We can’t change what happens to us but we always can choose how we want to respond.” Now of course, this is much easier said than done, and it takes practice. But the notion that we can choose to live more mindfully and more consciously can truly shift how we experience the world. And while there are some varying opinions on how long it takes to build a habit, having 21 days to create that time and space for yourself is really beautiful and a practice that bears so much fruit in years to come.

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What advice do you have for those who have never practised meditation before or are new to the concept?

I think this is a very accessible practice. Those who join the group can do it in their own time during the day, it’s not that you have to do it at a set time and that schedules have to be interrupted. It’s just about finding 15-20 minutes in the day, be in the morning or the evening, whatever works best for your day. Generally, I do this in the morning, although sometimes it ends up happening in the evening, but either way it is a great way to check in and slow down.

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How does it work, exactly?

Every day I will send a meditation recording and a short message of a particular task. Once you’ve completed it, you can reply with a short message to confirm that it’s done, and that way the group chat is not filled with different off-topic messages. It has a real sense of organic flow as people do this across the different time zones: the last time I did this we had participants in Asia, Europe and North America. It’s a really nice way to be in a community without being overwhelmed by community, which I think a lot of people appreciate.

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You’ve done the practice a few times now – what advice do you have for people continuing this to the very end of the three weeks?

Lean on the energy of the group and see this as a gift to yourself – just 15-20 minutes each day to take some time to nourish yourself amidst the uncertainty and chaos of the current time we live in can make a huge difference. Think of it as sowing seeds and cultivating inner resources to support yourself through this unprecedented time, and not to get swept away by the turbulence of the world, but rather to

“focus our energy on the abundance of the moment we have right in front of us and to create more of that bliss and possibility in our daily lives.”

Deepak Chopra’s 21 Days of Abundance (as facilitated by Jiezhen Wu) begins Wed, 1 July 2020, and will take place via the Telegram app. You can register here.

Full credit for this project belongs to the inimitable Deepak Chopra – we are merely acting as facilitators, in providing a safe space for our community to participate in this meaningful practice.

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