Not break but bend

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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

Dignity

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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

An act of hospitality

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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

 

Release from effort

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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

An unhelpful way of using the mind

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Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow,

it empties today of its strength

Corrie ten Boom, Clippings from my Notebook

with thanks to Laura Syrat for the photo of cat sleeping in Nice, France.

Step back

step back

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