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~I invite you to listen to the audio version shared above, where a guided meditation is provided that follows what is shared below in the text.
An action by another triggers us. Our hackles shoot up. We begin to feel emotions that are painful. This cycle of reacting, defending and feeling unwanted emotions is suffering that we can prevent. It won’t feel preventable to the untrained mind. After all, we didn’t say those hurtful things, we didn’t contribute to the unwanted event, and that part is true, but it is how we let outside events direct our emotions that prolongs suffering.
This was a really difficult truth for me to understand, but when we exercise the skill of observation in these moments – stepping back, seeing both what has happened outside of us and how we have instinctively reacted, we then have the space, just a bit more distance to not be nudged into action that will further our pain.
This simple stepping back to observe plays the role of pausing us before we do what we may have done in the past – lash out, harbor a negative thought that spirals into a day of worrying and catastrophizing or any other number of actions we take that deplete our energy and pull us away from being constructively engaged with our life and the world.
By taking this pause, we are better able to see the true source of our suffering. We cannot heal until we see clearly. And so long as we are blaming outside sources, we are not looking within to see what has been pained and is wanting to be healed. It doesn’t mean that what was said or what happened is okay. It just means that by looking outside of ourselves to prompt others to do something differently, we aren’t acknowledging that we cannot control them. We can only control and navigate our own life and actions, and if we are continuing to take actions that cause us further suffering, we haven’t healed what needs to heal.
When we first see this resistance to looking within, to reactively blaming those around us, we have already grown. We have already exhibited that our awareness has strengthened, and the healing has begun. As we continue to instead look inward each time we observe this resistance, we will discover a freedom and an ease in our mind as we are no longer battling or trying to prevent unwanted events that we have no control over. We now know we can be at peace because we know how to stop fanning the flames of suffering.
Let’s begin . . .
~To conclude each meditation session, I encourage you to recite a mantra of your choosing and design. In the Contentment Masterclass, I share my example, which you are welcome to use, tweak, or look to as a template to design your own. Also provided to enrollees of the course is a free trial of the guided meditation app I use.
Click here to listen/read the previous Méditation in the series.
No. 41 — How We Build a Foundation to Invite More Fulfillment and Peace
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~Learn more about TSLL’s Contentment Masterclass: Discover the benefits of Meditation, which is included in the detailed syllabus shared here, watch the trailer, and read student reviews.
~Comments will be turned off for Meditation posts as you cultivate a practice guided by what you need and your journey to cultivating inner peace and aligning with your true self.
