I love this so much Jess, and it's crazy I was just thinking about this concept earlier today (I swear we are on some telepathic shit or something 😂). It's easy to look at a failure in the moment as evidence that you're behind or you shouldn't keep going, but when you look at the bigger picture, I always see that I'm doing a lot better than I give myself credit for. We tend to focus too much on what we haven't done vs. what we have done, so it's a good habit to give yourself more grace as life happens.
💙 A question for you:
Where in your life are you asking yourself to be somewhere other than where you actually are?
Maybe you think you should be further along. More certain. Less tired. Already over it.
What changes if, just for today, you start with:
This is where I am. What do I need from here?
I love this so much Jess, and it's crazy I was just thinking about this concept earlier today (I swear we are on some telepathic shit or something 😂). It's easy to look at a failure in the moment as evidence that you're behind or you shouldn't keep going, but when you look at the bigger picture, I always see that I'm doing a lot better than I give myself credit for. We tend to focus too much on what we haven't done vs. what we have done, so it's a good habit to give yourself more grace as life happens.
Befriending Ourselves
Loving-Kindness-maitri-toward ourselves doesn't mean getting rid of
anything. Maitri means that we can still be crazy after all these years.
We can still be angry after all these years. We can still be timid or
jealous or full of feelings of unworthiness. The point is not to try to
change ourselves. Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves
away and become something better. Its about befriending who we are
already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now,
just as we are. That's the ground, that's what we study, that's what we
come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest.
~ Pema Chodron, From the book, "The Wisdom of No Escape,"
;-)
Great piece, Jess. Oftentimes, we tend not to realize how far we have actually come.