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How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
How to Meditate: Meditation 101 for Beginners
10 Science-Backed Benefits of Meditation
What is Meditation?
Benefits of Mindfulness: Mindful Living Can Change Your Life
Mindfulness 101: A Beginner's Guide
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Hi, welcome back to
your Daily Mindfulness.
In today's session we're
going to talk about the subtle
aggression of self-improvement.
I'd like to start by sharing
a poem by Bob Sharples.
He says:
Don't meditate to fix yourself, to
improve yourself, to redeem yourself;
rather do it as an act of love, a
deep, warm friendship to yourself.
In this way there is no longer any
need for the subtle aggression of
self-improvement, for the endless
guilt of not doing enough...
it offers a possibility of an end to the
ceaseless round of trying so hard that
wraps so many people's lives in a knot.
Instead, there is now meditation
as an act of love, how endlessly
delightful and encouraging.
So notice how that poem feels to you.
For me, there's something
very resonant in it.
I've often seen my meditation
practice as a subtle aggression of
self-improvement as Bob puts it.
This feeling of needing to
do this in order to become
a better version of myself.
But anytime that I can step out of
that intention and instead make the
intention an active love, of caring
for myself, of appreciating myself, of
showing up for myself in the best way
that I can in this moment with all of
my foibles and all of my wonder, then
the meditation practice transforms.
It becomes easier.
It feels more impactful.
And that quality of peace that I'm
often after by trying to improve
comes when I let go of not trying to
become some better version of myself.
So I offer that invitation to you as well.
It's very common in our culture to be
caught up in that subtle aggression
of self-improvement, constantly
needing to grow and to be better.
Maybe there's a place for that in
different areas of your life, but at least
in your meditation practice, let that
be a space where you let some of that
go and instead make it an act of love.
Thank you for your practice.
I'll talk to you in the meditation.
Take care.
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