Meditating on the idea of sending some loving kindness out into the world--and to individual, specific people--might seem silly to some people, but for me it's a useful thing to do at times. I feel like talking a bit about why right now, for whatever reason.
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Actively cultivating and meditating on an attitude of loving kindness, both toward myself and especially toward others, is a way of getting past all that stuff that has accrued over the years, back to that true part of me, that empathetic, caring center that has always been there
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I'm not "good" at the practice of it--it's not like I just wipe away all the years of fear and trauma and bitterness that have accrued--but it's still a good practice for me. It's a way of feeling more connected to the people and the world around me.
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It's a way of looking past my own fear and anxiety about the moment we're in right now and feeling the collectiveness of the struggle. It's a way of remembering the person I really am. They never went away. They just got obscured by anguish and fear.
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Other specific things I find useful at times are imagining myself as an adult comforting the withdrawn, terrified child I once was, letting them know that it's not their fault, that they deserve love, that they'll be okay.
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And telling my father (who is no longer alive), who was the source of so much of my suffering as a child but who had his own terrible demons and struggles, that I forgive him, that I know he was suffering too, that he did the best he could.
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Anyway, at this moment, when I find all my fears and anxieties activated, when my loneliness is exacerbated by the quarantine, when things feel so precarious & uncertain, I find mindfully looking past myself and getting in touch with the kindness I carry within especially useful.
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