Some thoughts from St Francis de Sales, who lived in the beautiful French town of Annecy, on the soft approach we should take toward challenges and towards ourselves:
When you encounter difficulties and contradictions,
do not try to break them,
but bend them with gentleness and time
St Francis de Sales
photo of tree in County Clare by Maureen
You may not control all events that happen to you
but you can decide not to be reduced by them
Maya Angelou
photo bart everson
Mindfulness is an act of hospitality.
A way of learning to treat ourselves with kindness and care that slowly begins to percolate into the deepest recesses of our being while gradually offering us the possibility of relating to others in the same manner. Working with whatever is present is enough. There is no need to condemn ourselves for not feeling loving or kind. Rather, the process simply asks us to entertain the possibility of offering hospitality to ourselves no matter what we are feeling or thinking.
This week try taking some time to explore the possibility of sitting with yourself as if you were your own best friend.
Saki Santorelli, Befriending Self
photo Carriec
Remind yourself to loosen up your opinions about what you think you are doing or where you think you are going. This is a practice that can be done informally, with regular reminders to yourself throughout the day. Or you can do a formal ‘wandering’ practice: Sitting in an upright posture, allow yourself to be with your breath, your body and all your sense perceptions, thoughts and emotions. You can notice how all these experiences come and go, as long as you don’t try to hold onto any of them. This is a practice of release from effort, and allows a sense of peace and not-knowing to arise naturally.
Melissa Myozen Backer Roshi in Richard Fields, A Year of Living Mindfully
photo: brookie
Liberation ….is a process of mentally, emotionally, stepping back from any state and seeing it just as a state, without reactions and attitudes.
This simple skill, which most of us can do from time to time, is what we develop in … practice.
Ajahn Sucitto, Kamma and the End of Kamma
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