Tag: compassion

You Get A Gold Star for Positive Self-Talk

A spray of of 20 gold star shapes attached to a branch-shaped wire. The background appears to be wood painted dark blue and sparkly silver.

You get a gold star for positive self-talk! Perhaps you’ve practiced mindfulness today, even for just a few seconds. Maybe you’ve reminded yourself to treat others, or yourself, with compassion and kindness in the midst of a struggle. It could be that you were really starting to stress out, and instead you took a deep breath and refocused your thoughts to a happy memory. Perhaps you even simply took the time to notice that you’re feeling stressed out, which even just a few months ago you weren’t able to do yet. These are all versions of positive self-talk. And if…

Practice Makes Imperfect in Meditation and I’m Okay with That

A sea surfer on a skimboard in the middle of the sea seems to be surfing alone. The sea surfer seems to be a young woman but the photo is in black and white making it difficult to tell.

Practice has been given a bit of a bum rap. Whether it’s sports of some kind, one of the arts, or any other discipline of the mind or body, we often expect the impossible out of practice. That is, we expect to be made perfect at the pursuit. Or at least some aspect of the pursuit. And then we take it as a personal failure when that doesn’t happen. Does this sound familiar to you in your meditation practice? If so, would you like to change that? There is another way of looking at perfection and imperfection – in meditation…

How to Stop Random Thoughts During Meditation

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A beautiful early morning sky, with the sun breaking through the clouds in a halo of yellow, orange, pink and violet. At a far distance, 7 birds are in flight.

One of the biggest misconceptions about meditation is that it will silence the mind. In fact, learning how to stop random thoughts during meditation has become the Holy Grail. But see, here’s the thing. If meditation could silence the mind, our entire planet would be cured of its many ills. Humanity would become cooperative. War would end. Suffering would cease. We would have utopia. The reality is, as you practice, you will have thoughts. That’s what the mind does – it has thoughts. Lots of thoughts. This includes ideas as well as emotional reactions to those ideas. Some thoughts are…

Etiquette of the Soul

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A dreamy, soft-focus closeup of stems bearing lovely yellow and red flower buds and blossoms. The background is also yellow, with white and brown.

Have you ever considered the rare and beautiful value of expressing etiquette of the soul in your daily activities? Is there such a thing as “moral manners”, or “spiritual manners”? What would they looks like? How would they feel? Let’s consider social manners first, since that’s something we’re all pretty familiar with. And then we’ll move onto to spiritual manners. What Are Social Manners? Fundamentally, social manners consist of taking into account how people feel. Not in a scary, co-dependent way, but in a compassionate and inclusive way. Showing up on time, waiting your turn, please-and-thank-you…pretty basic stuff, really. But…