I can't believe we're starting week four already! I've made it three weeks, and only missed two meditation sessions! My practice hasn't yet evolved into an unskippable habit yet, but I'm hopeful it will as I continue to stick with it.
I'm excited and nervous for this week's practice: Lovingkindness Meditation! It will be interesting to see what happens when I direct Lovingkindness at myself, and I already have a list of people I'm not looking forward to trying to send Lovingkindness to! I'll have to start with the neutral people and see how that goes.
Each week as we've extended our practice into new territory, I've felt threatened, and uncomfortably challenged. Don't I deserve a cookie just for trying to follow my breath for twenty minutes? Why do I have to concentrate on my thoughts and feelings, too?? This week is by far the most challenging evolution, but after the practice I've had the last few weeks, I feel like maybe I can do it.
It's so timely for me that we embark on Lovingkindness meditation today: It's Ash Wednesday! Catholics all over the world are getting their foreheads smudged, and embarking on a 40-day journey of sacrifice and self improvement. The facebook buzz the last few days has been, "I don't know what to give up for Lent yet!" Giving up something you enjoy can obviously help you to grow by showing you you can be happy without it, and by providing you with time and money you can use for the good of others, but I decided several years ago that the 'giving up' model was self-limiting.
The last few years I've tried to focus on an area I feel it would benefit me to grow in, and challenge myself to identify unhelpful patterns, and build in more thoughtfulness and love.
This year I'll be working with anger, and judgment: trying to find greater compassion and understanding of others and myself when mistakes or painful situations happen. I'm so excited to kick off this forty-day journey with a week-long primer on Lovingkindness meditation. I'm hopeful I can keep up this practice throughout Lent and beyond, bringing greater empathy and love into my life...
Though I'm looking forward to watching myself change, I'm also aware that getting fixated on the results could lead to trouble: anger and frustration directed at myself for not meeting my expectations, for starters! By bringing more awareness and compassion into my interactions with myself, I'll have more patience and love at my disposal when dealing with others...
Wish me luck!
Live Omily,
~em
Wishing you Luck!
Wishing you the best in your journey - very admirable. Be careful not to turn that anger inward :)
Thanks
Thanks for your comments about Lent, Omily! Great post.
I'm glad you appreciate
I'm glad you appreciate them! I often feel hesitant to talk about my belief system in public arenas like this. It's obviously a sensitive topic, but I feel like open sharing about what beliefs work for us, as long as there's no sense of pushing those beliefs on others, can lead to healthy dialog and mutual respect, and I hope the idea of taking 40 days to honestly evaluate yourself and seek spiritual growth and personal improvement can have a broad appeal beyond the religion I practice it as a part of. Of course, if the practice of Lent within the Catholic church carries meaning for someone else reading the blog, then being able to tie it into our meditation practice is so much the better!
It's interesting for me because, there is an emphasis in Sharon's book about how meditation can work for anyone because you don't have to believe in anything to practice it. That's such a wonderful, freeing idea. On the other hand, many people I know don't feel comfortable practicing meditation because they DO believe in specific things, and aren't sure the practices are compatible! From my perspective, I'm able to offer the other side of that same coin: that you can tailor your meditation practice to beliefs that you do hold!