When we constantly hear that we should be smart, better connected, more productive, wealthier – you name it – it takes real courage to claim the time and space to follow the currents of our talents, our aspirations and our hearts, which may lead in a very different direction.
Tag Archives: Sharon Salzberg
Comforting Thought: Real love allows for failure
Real love allows for failure and suffering. All of us have made mistakes, and some of those mistakes were consequential, but you can find a way to relate to them with kindness. No matter what troubles have befallen you or what difficulties you have caused yourself or others, with love for yourself you can change, grow, make amends and learn. Real love is not about letting yourself off the hook. Real love does not encourage you to ignore your problems or deny your mistakes and imperfections, You see them clearly and you still opt for love.
Comforting Thought: Don’t resist or block off your feelings
Real love for ourselves, by definition includes every aspect of our lives – the good, the bad, the difficult, the challenging past. the uncertain future as well as all of the shameful, upsetting experiences and encounters that we’d just as soon as forget.
This doesn’t mean that we have to celebrate everything that’s happened to us or write thank you notes to people who have hurt us. But, like it or not, the emotional residue of our experiences is part of who we are.
Comforting Thought: Your body is not just mineral and elemental. No, it’s vividly alive
Your body isn’t just mineral and elemental. No, it’s vividly alive, as anyone knows who’s ever danced, had a sore throat, made love or stubbed a toe.
All of the baroque variety of life on earth is considered to come from a tiny common ancestor who appeared about 4 billion years ago.
Still today, on a cellular level, basic functions like respiration look similar in plants and animals. So does your DNA -we humans share about half of our genetic material with plants. We truly aren’t very far away from anything.
Comforting Thought: Real love runs on a lower voltage than our culture leads us to believe
When we pay attention to the sensations in our bodies, we can feel that love is the energetic opposite of fear. Love seems to open and expand us right down to the cellular level, while fear causes us to contract and withdraw into ourselves. Yet so often, fear keeps us from being able to say yes to love – perhaps our greatest challenge as human beings.
Comforting Thought: Love is the energetic opposite of fear
When we pay attention to the sensations in our bodies, we can feel that love is the energetic opposite of fear. Love seems to open and expand us right down to the cellular level, while fear causes us to contract and withdraw into ourselves. Yet so often, fear keeps us from being able to say yes to love – perhaps our greatest challenge as human beings.
Comforting Thought: Kindness is a muscle we exercise
Kindness is not a fixed trait that we either have or lack, but more like a muscle that can be developed and strengthened. We exercise kindness in any moment where we recognise our shared humanity- with all of the hopes, dreams, joys, dissapointments, vulnerability and suffering that this implies. Such simple but profound awareness levelsContinue reading “Comforting Thought: Kindness is a muscle we exercise”
Comforting Thought: We should allow ourselves to receive love and care from others
Paradoxically, letting go sometimes means allowing ourselves to receive love and care from others. Our can-do culture has made many of us believe that we should always be self-sufficient. Somewhere along the way we also get the message that asking for help is a sign of weakness. We often forget that we’re interdependent creatures whoseContinue reading “Comforting Thought: We should allow ourselves to receive love and care from others”
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