Let's face it you, me...all of us are so hard on ourselves. It's the human condition, really, to be hard on ourselves. It's so deeply ingrained in us and all around us that it is such a hard thing to break out of.
And let's get real, you can't just read a book about it and then bingo it's all fixed and before you know it you are constantly all cozy and kind to yourself. You can take a course on loving kindness towards yourself but then you walk out that door or get off that zoom call and the next moment something so simple and small seems to trigger those feelings of guilt and self judgement...and the spiral of being hard on yourself goes on and on...it's exhausting isn't it?
Being kind and easier on yourself is not simply a "nice" concept that sounds like it would be a good idea for us to explore, in our spare time. Being kind, loving and easier on yourself is a super power that serves and supports you in every aspect of your one wild and most precious life...
It helps you heal, and studies confirm this.
It just makes you feel more awesome and healthier - it's not just the green smoothies and 100 push ups sweetie!
It contributes, in such a huge way, to bettering relationships with everyone around you. The extent that you are kind and loving to yourself, is the extent that you can be so with others - makes sense to me!
It improves creativity - ever tried being creative when you are beating yourself up? Not so effective...
It improves your daily performance - whether you are around a meeting table at work or getting things done on a personal front - we humans are just more productive when we are kinder to ourselves. Just test that out one day...
We enjoy life more and isn't that what we all want at the end of the day...to enjoy our life and not get so hung up on stuff that sucks the life force out of us - the small stuff...
Here's the thing, dearest one, reading these words, we tend to be even harder on ourselves when our brain and mind are in this non-stop busy mode that seems to have become the norm for most of us. It's harder, perhaps sometimes impossible, to access kindness towards yourself when the brain is busy - it's just the way it is and the way we are wired. When the brain is in busy mode - it's in survival and stress mode so it's pretty much not interested in being all kind and loving towards you.
So enter Meditation - you knew I was going to go there didn't you...
Meditation calms the brain and mind and when that happens the brain actually communicates with the human heart (and this isn't whoo whoo stuff here, it's actually happening - look up HEART MATH, it's so cool!).
Your intelligent, intuitive heart is the place where feelings of love and kindness towards self originate. So doesn't it make sense that engaging this wonderful space within us is necessary and a first critical step? Meditation does this. So it makes the practice of love and kindness, being easier on yourself actually accessible and available to you.
The more you practice in meditation, when the brain is calm, the better you get at bringing this into your everyday life and moments - so so awesome and lovely! I get so excited about this and not because I have it all figured out or because I'm sitting on a mountain top wearing robes and chanting in a cave, but because this is my practice and I see how helpful and incredibly healing it is.
So this is our practice with the next meditation I am creating on the Symphonies Journey. The practice of being so kind and easy with yourself - so gentle. The exact opposite of being hard on yourself is being GENTLE with yourself...such a worthy powerful practice that serves and supports every aspect of life and living.
See you on the journey...
