Practicals skills in actually being kind to ourselves

Feeling our heart in a really hard time

Its courageous to remain open to our own heart. Especially when we feel helpless. It’s not self indulgent to care about ourselves, in fact it’s the basis of remaining in touch with what motivates our actions. What can we bring to heal our the current pain of racial inequity? 
Whatever we do; how we are will matter as much…
Let’s explore together.

What is our common ground?

It’s amazing how we can feel connected or disconnected. Let’s go back to our roots and connect with our basic commonality.
Can we set the ground for collective liberation?

This article
really helps us to rexamine some of the common assumptions we have culturally around our “brain” or mind.

When we worry it has a self-perpetuating quality. There is a kind of edge or intelligence in us that doesn’t feel nourished by anxiety and worry. Underneath our worrying is often a fear of something happening. When we shy away from feeling our feelings we are running away from our life.
If we can feel what it is we are afraid of and be with our fear, we can find a kind of positive sadness.

“If we face our fears,… we can realize that Fear is not the Ogre” Chogyam Trungpa
This is (sort of..LOL) explored by Luke Wilson and Jimmy Fallon:

Can we just be? When we feel the speed of “getting things done” mind, and we slow down what happens?

Are we irritated, why? Do we feel relieved? one after the other ?

What happens when we surrender to the present moment ?

How can we be ” all ears” for a moment ?

Does it “hurt” to slow down and feel? Let’s heal and enjoy just being for a moment, what do you say?

It is clear that self aggression has a kind of grip on us as a society.
Even in our theories of evolution this self critical aggressive fearful voice, has swayed the narrative towards almost justifying the selfishness that arises out of a lack of perspective and emotional skill.
UC Berkeley professor Dacher Keltner counters the centuries-old argument that we are hard-wired for selfishness, in his book Born to Be Good
Our existence on this planet is undeniably interdependent, and therefore relationships are foundational to being a human being.
Societies are comprised of communities, which are made of these very relationships, and these relationships enact the principles we hold whether conscious or unconscious.

Louie CK is amazing.
He is very genuine, and so he is very funny.
Here he is sharing something universal, that “forever empty”.
He shares in such a way that he is encouraging us to feel our sadness,
in order to feel fully alive.

A similar notion is called Sadjoy by meditation master Chogyam Trungpa :

You may have seen this wonderful Ted talk by Amy Cuddy. I find it very interesting from the point of view of a meditator.
What most people think of when they imagine someone meditating is a an upright and relaxed posture.

In fact this posture of meditation is exactly what is being referred to in the talk. However it’s simpler. We don’t have to be alone necessarily, we can just have “good head and shoulders” as meditation master Chogyam Trungpa said.
I’m sure some meditation practitioners have since approached Amy, and shared this ancient and current discoveries commonality.

We feel confident and centered when we have a relaxed and upright posture, it’s dignified and any attention it draws to us, is something we can handle best in this very posture of “good head and shoulders”

I’m really happy to share my interest in meditation practice with you!