Two ideas have been on my mind this past few days and I wanted to share them again here at my blog and see if I can emphasize these ideas more because they seem so important. The first idea is that happiness, peace and love are natural occurrences of being in the present moment. The second idea is compassion for self is very important as a way to offset much if not most of our upbringing.
If you are able to spend most of your days moment by moment then happiness, peace and love will be your experience of life. When you wander in your mind from being present then you lose your happiness, your peace of mind and contact with your heart. The Now is the doorway to your highest and most satisfying human experiences. Actually what else is there than the now except in the human mind, which tends to prefer the longing or regretting the past and the worrying and hoping about the future. This mind obsession about past and future keeps you far from happiness, love and peace of mind.
The best ways to keep present include: mindfulness, meditation, quiet contemplation, listening with empathy, developing the inner watcher, and other present focused activities (see past blogs for more information about these practices). If you learn to be in the moment you set yourself free to live a joyous and fulfilling life.
The second point of having compassion for yourself seems very important. My own story of being raised Catholic and hearing almost constantly about what was wrong with me and all humans soured me towards others and myself. It took me years to shrink away the self-doubt and self-dislike of the early programming from my family, my schooling and my religious misguided education.
Today I actually saw that old not deserving messages creep back into my thoughts. My wife and I are looking for a new home and two we looked at earlier in the day were in our price range but they were not ok and my doubting self was willing to settle for much less. That settling for much less comes from lacking enough compassion for myself. I deserve a wonderful place to live.
Those who have self-hatred don’t understand this sense of self is learned from the teachings of those who have faulty beliefs about themselves and the world. Compassion is the opposite of self-hatred. Self-hatred is a mental construct that needs to be deconstructed and that is best done with compassion.
Compassion for you and I simply is a better and more accurate way to relate to who we are. A compassionate heart is a powerful tool for transforming all that is wrong in the world to peace, love and happiness.