Self Compassion Meditation
Listen to the audio here
WELCOME TO WEEK FOUR
Today we have a guest meditation from Kristen Neff who you will hear from tomorrow in our interview. She is an expert in the skill of self compassion and today she offers the self compassion body scan.
Bringing an attitude of kindness to yourself is a key ingredient to practising mindfulness and certainly a support in daily life. It’s so easy to comfort others when they are in difficult situations, but when it comes to being our own best friend, for many of us, this can ben challenging.
Whether it’s not meeting our own expectations, or feeling like we should have been “able to manage better”, there can be shame, anger, self-criticism, self-loathing that arises which add another layer of suffering onto an already difficult situation.
So too, in the actual meditation it can be easy to get frustrated at ourselves when we experience the mind constantly wandering away from where we want it to be.
Love After Love
Derek Walcott
The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you have ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
Practising the new breath meditation today will help you train your brain to become better at focussing and observing.
This is a skill that will translate into everyday life as you become better at noticing what is happening from moment to moment, both in relation to your inner emotional world and in relationship with others.
Noticing, is the first step to freeing ourselves from automatic habits and finding more skilful ways of navigating through life.
Just like physical exercise, which requires muscle to meet resistance in order for strength to develop, the distraction you experience in meditation can be likened to the resistance you experience at gym. It’s the ability and discipline to bring your attention back when it has wandered, that is the key to strengthening your mental muscle of attention and focus.
stay on track
Mark off your daily meditation here
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