Good Morning!
Today’s exercise involves the practice of loving kindness. This practice involves repeating phrases designed to generate feelings of care for oneself and others. In Buddhism, loving-kindness can be described as a mental state or an attitude that is achieved and maintained with practice. It is the act of generating unconditionally warm, nonjudgmental feelings towards yourself and others. The key to this practice is the warm, positive feelings.
Research has demonstrated that even short loving kindness practices have profound effects on our behavior and quality of life. Loving-Kindness practices are among the most effective for self-care. If you are caring for others personally, if you worry about people–but are not physically close to them, if you know someone who is ill, if you are responsible for many people and experience frustration at limitations on your ability to help…this practice can be very useful. It is a way of doing for others even when it might feel you have little control over their circumstances or your own.
Perhaps, you are feeling depleted from stress or from giving to others. You need to feel cared for. Again, engaging in a loving kindness practice is a way to restore your own level of energy. It is a way to stop perfectionism. It is also a way to stop acting in small, uncaring, or unthoughtful ways. Think of it as being the best you, by seeing and honoring yourself. It can be one of the best ways to avoid burn-out or to recover from burn-out and to restore a sense of wholeness, well-being and connectedness to others.
This is one of my favorite practices. This morning, as I do this practice, I’ll be thinking of each of you…those of you I know well, those of you I have met once or twice, and those people I have never met.
Please click this link to follow along with this special version of loving kindness. If you can see the video, use eyes open as visuals add to this experience.
Hope this impacts your day just a little. Go back to this practice as often as you find helpful.
Peace,
Michele
