Time: 8am
Place: My new mindfulness nook
Practice: Metta, loving kindness
I did it. I made a little meditation nook in my home. It took a little bit of time to figure out where it would go (small living space) but after moving a dresser in our ginormous closet to have a little space under a stairway to make a simple little altar and space for my cushion. My morning practice felt more grounded (maybe just an illusion) and felt a little like it had a home. And I do find the Metta practice super challenging...and usually, the last few times I have played with it, after a few rounds of:
"May I be well
May I be peaceful and at ease
May I be happy"
I experience the sensation of warmness in my chest that I start to associate with joy and feeling loved. I think, and I don't have a whole lot of research to back this up, that a huge portion of our suffering can be preventing by actually loving ourselves. It was a nice practice today.
1 comment:
You're onto something, there girl! Not 'loving' or 'radically accepting' ourselves leads to much suffering. It often takes the form of what the Buddha called the 'second dart.' We feel sad about losing a friend (for instance) and then we feel bad about feeling sad because "I'm supposed to be a yogi, non-attached blah blah blah."
Or, speaking of "mental formations," all that inner commentary about how we're not good enough, can't do something as well as someone else, again blah blah blah" really really hurts!
Post a Comment