Hello lovelies!
I have been reading about and meditating on self-compassion and learning to be a gentle friend to ourselves for some time now. I'm drawn to this because I have a very harsh inner critic who can get me down if I listen to it or identify with it. So while I don't really do New Year's resolutions, I do like to set an intention for myself and my creating and teaching. I believe that at our core we are whole, creative, loving beings and that these things the mind comes up with are noise from how we've been conditioned as we grew up. The challenge is not to identify with them and see them as clouds passing by in the sky or waves rolling through an ocean (easier said than done right?). What I seek then is to remind myself and you of our true nature, to "reteach ourselves our loveliness," as Galway Kinnell says:
"The bud stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow of the flower,
and retell it in words and in touch,
it is lovely until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing."
This ability to be a gentle friend to ourselves, to hold ourselves with loving kindness only helps our creativity (and our lives in general). It's like the river or current within us that our creative energy flows with. When we are filled with harsh self-judgment (even self-judgement that we shouldn't be so harsh!) our creativity seems to come to a screeching halt. The antidote seems to be to accept whatever is going on for us, noticing it, observing it without judging or getting "hooked" by it. Letting it come and go. This is so challenging. I can get hooked very easily and completely caught up in random, creativity-killing thoughts. That's why I wanted to write about this and share my journey so that we can encourage each other. So here are my 2024 intentions/hopes for us all (these are my version of the loving-kindness teachings in Buddhism:
May we feel at easy and happy.
May we feel well in body and mind.
May we feel safe and protected.
May we feel whole and complete.
May we create with joy and freedom.
May our hearts know peace.
