Be kind to yourself day
When you become aware of the negative talk inside your head, it is truly amazing. I’ve been on this mission to kick the habit and so how I’m doing it is acting like the person who is talking in there is a good friend instead of me, and as any good friend does, I tell her, “Now come on, it’s not that bad, it’s okay.” My self talk ranges from criticizing myself for not doing everything on my mental and physical lists in a timely and organized manner to guilty feelings of pleasure that I took from seeing a tree’s new growth this morning in City Park when Japan is struggling to overcome such a disaster that is not yet over. Truly, do you think I could be a better friend to myself?
I listened to Ani Choying Drolma, a Buddhist nun, chanting and felt as if I could transcend this mind of mine if only through her voice. She says, “At the very beginning of my stay at the monastery, I was still very wild, with a lot of negativity in my heart, in my mind. I was always ready to protect myself. That means to be angry or to fight. But that slowly, slowly transformed.”