Today, trust that your heart's longing, no matter how awkward or unskilled or complicated, is embraced by Love. Our discouragement and humility opens us to Love.
Thomas Merton writes, "True love and prayer are learned in the hour where prayer has become impossible and the heart has turned to stone."
Today, trust that your heart's longing, no matter how awkward or unskilled or complicated, is embraced by Love. Our discouragement and humility opens us to Love.
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Buddhist teacher Tara Brach in Radical Acceptance writes that we can become "addicted to judging and distrusting ourselves." She advises countering those habits of thought by meeting your anxieties with compassion. Don't belittle your suffering because you know other people have suffered more or because you think you should have overcome more by now. Be as gentle and soothing as you would with a child. As you would with a child, don't indulge fears by letting them control you, but speak to them with patience, non-judgement, firmness, and love. Today, let go of stories you tell yourself about what kind of person you need to be: always happy or organized or reliable or wise or adventurous or funny or warm or perfect-in-any-other-way you have imposed upon yourself. Today, be fully yourself, in all your beauty and confusion. Treat yourself with humor and tenderness. Trust that you are lovable and acceptable.
Both our fear and desire for stimulation work together to heighten the drama in our life, cause us to exaggerate, ruminate, speculate, gossip, blame ourselves and others, and imagine the worst. Today, reduce drama in your life. Turn to Love to tell you the story of your life; to guide your actions and reactions; and to bring you trust and peace.
Today, see the innate, spiritual nobility in yourself and everyone you meet. This means to appreciate and value the dignity and worth of ourselves and others--and to speak and act from that understanding. Offer respect. Only accept respect.
You are not alone, fighting your own worst tendencies. Love itself is with you, defending your freedom, giving you strength and insight. Feel that force with you, supporting you. Love allows you to be gentle, patient, kind, even amused with yourself - while still providing you power and courage.
Today, don't judge any of your emotions. Negative or uncomfortable emotions are not a flaw in your character. They are signaling something important to you. Sometimes they are telling you about something that needs your attention and care. Sometimes they are residue from past experience which, at some point, will need attending. You are not broken or flawed!
Today, remember that it is more important to do your activities with awareness, gratitude, and a sense of spiritual richness than it is to accomplish a certain number of tasks. When you start to get that sort of buzzing high from accomplishing things that makes you feel too wound up (and results in a crash later), read that as a signal that you need to slow down. Maybe take a break to do something that feels as if it has depth and substance to you, such as reading a wonderful book, listening to music that moves you, cooking something delicious, writing in a journal, singing, playing with children, staring at the clouds as they change, getting your hands dirty in a garden, walking underneath trees . . .
Today, as you do your tasks and activities of the day, stop before you feel exhausted, overwhelmed, annoyed, or burdened. If you are answering emails, stop while you are still feeling fresh and productive. If you are cleaning, stop before you feel grouchy and put upon. If you are running errands, leave more time than you think you need between them and stop before you feel wearied. As soon as you feel yourself feeling obsessive about your productivity, stop.
From Buddhist teacher Tara Brach's book Radical Acceptance:
"In our lives, we often find ourselves in situations we can't control, circumstances in which none of our strategies work. Helpless and distraught, we frantically try to manage what is happening. . . . The more we fear failure the more frenetically our bodies and minds work. We fill our days with continual movement: mental planning and worrying, habitual talking, fixing, scraping, adjusting, phoning, snacking, discarding, buying, looking in the mirror. What would it be like if, right in the midst of this busyness, we were to consciously take our hands off the controls? . . . what if we were to intentionally stop our mental computations and our rushing around and, for a minute or two, simply pause and notice our inner experience? . . . A pause is a suspension of activity, a time of temporary disengagement when we are no longer moving toward any goal. . . . The pause can occur in the midst of almost any activity and can last for an instant, for hours, or for seasons of our life. . . . We may pause by stepping out of daily life to go on retreat or to spend time in nature or to take a sabbatical. We may pause when we feel suddenly moved or delighted or saddened, allowing the feelings to play through our heart. In a pause, we simply discontinue what we are doing - thinking, talking, writing, planning, worrying, eating - and become wholeheartedly present, attentive, and, often, physically still. . . . A pause is, by nature, time limited. We resume our activities, but we do so with increased presence and more ability to make choices. |
AuthorTarn Wilson is the author of the memoir The Slow Farm and numerous essays. You may read more of her work at tarnwilson.com. Archives
September 2020
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