Get beyond the hassle and bad feelings by admitting fault. Remind yourself how it’s in your own best interest to admit fault and move on. It takes a strong person to admit fault, and it puts us in a stronger position with others.
Life shows us generosity in a magnitude of ways including our senses and the natural world. The best thing we can do is to receive generosity.
Where does it hurt? The practice: Recognize suffering in others. We’re usually aware of our own suffering, but seeing the suffering in others: that’s not so common. All the news and pictures of disaster, murder, and grief that bombard us each day
If you don’t see progress in your own life, then you will feel stagnant, or declining. Learn to notice the things that are improving all around you.
Painful experiences range from subtle discomfort to extreme anguish – and there is a place for them. Sorrow can open the heart.
What do you do when the bottom falls out? Take heart. By “taking heart,” I mean several related things: Sensing your heart and chest, finding encouragement in what is good both around you and inside you, resting in your own warmth, compassion, and
Humans are vulnerable to being alarmed, manipulated, and even intimidated by threats, both real ones and “paper tigers.” Understanding how your brain became so vigilant and wary, and so easily hijacked by alarm, is the first step toward gaining more control over that ancient circuitry and is less rattled or distracted by exaggerated, manageable, or false alarms.
We have a choice: we can let things change and do what we can, or we can fight it and likely end up feeling even worse.
Understanding facial expression gives us a chance to feel connected to others. Try to open to and receive the faces of others.
To know yourself more deeply, track the breath inside yourself. Inhale, oxygen surges into your brain and activates and accelerates the heartbeat. Exhale, you activate the soothing peaceful nervous system. In the breath you are home in this moment, this Now.
Much of the time the fear we trigger in others is mild but people can feel threatened by stimuli they’re not actually aware of.
There are two wolves in ones heart, a wolf of hate and a wolf of love. The wolf of hate breeds alienation and conflict with others. The wolf of love is fed with our hearts, hope and by our sense of what’s good.
Bullying at all scales causes much suffering. What can we do? Recognize bullying and its enablers. Protect yourself, strengthen alliances with others, and stand up and speak up as best you can.
Clinging is never relaxed and has a sense of strain. As you cling less, it becomes natural for one to lighten up, have more compassion and forgive.
Ask questions – it’s one of the best ways to listen well. It shows you’re paying attention, it gets things out in the open and it slows emotional conversations.