Tag: Be fully present

A bit far from our experience here in Ireland these days with constant rain and flooding. However, it is not a bad practice.

Try this: Think of a current “drought” in your life.

For 10 minutes, just trust that it will all be okay. Trust that you’re being guided.

Trust, against all odds and evidence, that you are safe. When I use this exercise on my drought fears, the strangest thing happens: I feel it raining inside myself. I become a microcosm of the life-giving rain that, someday, will bring California back to life. Or so I trust.

Martha Beck 

The second time I have posted this insight from Ram Dass, but I like to be reminded of it.

When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it.

You just allow it.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying “You are too this, or I’m too this!” That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.

Ram Dass

One method I learned from my teacher, Diana Winston, is elegantly simple. In your usual meditation, simply add a few words to each time you notice your attention wandering: May I meet this too with kindness.

Whatever comes up, repeat this phrase of loving-kindness toward your thoughts, feelings, or sensations. Do it as many times as you need to, then guide your attention back to the anchor of the breath once again.

And then, as you move through the day, try repeating the same phrase – “may I meet this, too, with kindness” – whenever you notice you are being hard on yourself, judgmental toward yourself, or unkind in any way. Often, learning to meet yourself with kindness can feel like the medicine your heart and inner life yearns for, especially if you’re used to meeting yourself with all kinds of judgment and past conditioning.

Amanda Gilbert, May I Meet This, Too, With Kindness

When you’re worried about something that hasn’t happened yet, notice how your mind projects images of the future. You see the movie of what could go wrong, what you might lose, how it might hurt.

Contemplate the images in your mind.

Is that what really will happen?

Really?

Are you guessing again?

Notice.

Byron Katie, Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life