The Art of Self-Compassion: Combining Meditation and Heartfelt Practices
"You are not good enough!"
"You should have known better by now!"
"How old are you? FIVE?"
How many times have you allowed your inner voice to manipulate you?
Did I hear too many times?
Your stumbling on this article might not be a sheer coincidence. You might have been guided by a higher intelligence who wants you to be more kind and compassionate to yourself.
I'm sure you are not treating your friends or loved ones like you treat yourself. Why? Because you fear they might ditch you, right? So, why do you allow yourself to be bullied and pushed around by your inner voice?
Sighly, you might respond: I've always done it. I don't know any different.
Well, my friend, it's time you change your attitude towards yourself. Not only that, but you significantly raise the standards you treat yourself. You are invited to acknowledge and validate your feelings without judgment or criticism. Practising daily self-compassion is essential for your emotional and mental well-being.
Here are a few avenues and practices you can explore to activate your self-compassion muscle:
Self-compassion begins with becoming aware of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions and, as such, noticing and recognizing when you're harsh or judgmental. During these moments, consciously choose to treat yourself with kindness and compassion, especially if you feel like you don't deserve it.
Accept your mistakes and shortcomings and understand they are part of your life experiences. Instead of scolding and punishing yourself, practice self-kindness and self-love and give yourself the space to grow and learn from your experiences.
Embrace your humanity! No human is perfect. Successful people make mistakes and use their failures to learn and grow.
Never be ashamed of your feelings and emotions. They are valid because they are yours. Once an emotion has been validated, it tends to move around and create space in your body and mind.
Most people tend to be harsh and critical of themselves when they feel tired, overstretched, and scattered. Creating time for self-care practices like meditation, exercise, and walking in nature with your loved ones can help create space and harmony in the body and mind.
You might find it hard to say no if you are a people pleaser. That's why it is essential to set healthy boundaries to avoid burnout and overextending yourself.
Give yourself permission to forgive your past mistakes; instead, remind yourself of all the valuable lessons you learned from them. When we repeatedly look back, we lose sight of where we are going.
Create positive affirmations and place them where they can be easily visible. So when the mind begins to spiral into negative self-talk, replace self-criticism with self-compassion and self-esteem.
A powerful way to cultivate inner peace, compassion, and overall well-being is to integrate meditation and heartfelt practices. So, let's explore the following practices:
Loving-kindness meditation: often called Metta, is a form of meditation that activates and rekindles the power of love and compassion for oneself and others. It involves repeating positive phrases or intentions to cultivate these emotions. You can incorporate Metta into your meditation practice by dedicating a portion of your meditation session to sending well wishes and love to yourself and others.
Compassionate breathing techniques: During meditation, bring your attention to your breath and invite your awareness to rest in your heart space; use this as an opportunity to connect with your own heart and extend feelings of compassion and goodwill to yourself and others. Breathe in peace, exhale love, and extend these sentiments to those you care about.
Gratitude Meditation: Most of us have many things to be grateful for, but we need to practice gratitude daily to remember. Begin your meditation practice by reflecting on people and things you are grateful for.
Tonglen Meditation: is a Tibetan meditation practice where you breathe in the suffering and pain of others and breathe out love, compassion, and healing. This practice helps you connect with the suffering of others and develop a compassionate heart.
Mantra Meditation: create a mantra that beseech feelings of love, kindness and compassion. Repeating such a mantra infused with loving words and feelings will generate a sense of inner peace in your heart and clarity in your mind.
Compassion Journaling Practice: Use journaling to reflect on your feelings of compassion, love, kindness and gratitude.
Body Scan with Loving Awareness Meditation: During a body scan, meditation, approach any discomfort or uncomfortable sensation in your body with a loving-kindness and compassionate awareness. Every time you encounter pain or discomfort, come with a sense of care and understanding as if you were comforting a friend.
Walking Meditation with Loving Kindness: While spending time in nature, walking mindfully, focus on every step you take and send out intentions of love, compassion and well wishes to all people, places, trees, plants and animals in the world.
Group Meditations: are very powerful as they can enhance your experience and overall well-being. Every Thursday from 7- 8 pm at the amazing location of The Lake House Kent, you can join us for a beautiful loving-kindness and compassionate meditation.
Combining meditation and heartfelt practices into your meditation sessions and infusing them with love, compassion, gratitude, and other positive emotions will help you develop a more open heart and a greater sense of inner peace, compassion and connection with others.
