“You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.”
— Swami Vivekananda
Life becomes more expansive when you release the past and become in the moment. When you believe in the power of presence you are linked to the divine in the most joyful way.
Yesterday we explored overcoming self judgment as the most important way to discover your true self. Often guilt and shame blocks our ability to care for our self. Caring for your self brings you into the present moment rather than judging yourself which takes you to ruminate in the past. In our meditation we contact the true self and self compassion is effortless.
Today’s Message of the Day:
“Yesterday, we learned how to heal self-judgment by connecting to our wholeness. Today’s meditation shows us how this integration of the separate self progresses into self-love and self-compassion. We might think that self-love involves adopting a positive attitude toward ourselves, but positive attitudes cannot bring true self-compassion. Real love and compassion are simply the presence of pure awareness awake to itself. When we are living in the present moment, we are open and accepting, not resisting or grasping. That presence of consciousness is your true self, and that is real self-compassion.”
The CENTERING THOUGHT for today’s meditation experience was:
“The presence of my self is compassionate.”
The SANSKRIT MANTRA used in the meditation:
Karuna Hum
(I am compassion.)
This mantra reverberates that your essential nature is complete compassion.
Today’s four journal prompts were:
- The opposite of self-judgment is self-compassion or self-kindness. Describe the ways you are kind to yourself in terms of forgiveness, appreciation, relaxation, patience, not imposing rules, laughing, and honoring your best qualities.
- For each item on the list, note how often you act on self-compassion, from “Not at all” to “Every day.”
- Write down at least one way you could start being kinder to yourself, starting right now.
- Use this space to reflect further on your experience today.
It’s hard to be kind to others, if you can’t be kind to yourself. Explore these journal prompts and find some compassion for yourself.
May your evenings be peaceful and your days energetic!
Thanks for posting your meditation experience. I lost all of my journal entries (due to the 5 day limit on the website) but thanks to your work, I now have the questions and can reflect again and document my responses. Hope you are enjoying your meditation journey!
You are so welcome. I have really enjoyed this experience and the feeling of doing this together with like minded people.