Yesterday, I was beset with emotion based on various circumstances, be it a project I am working on, with finances of my business, but specifically the day’s health challenges. My mind strayed and I felt overcome with self-judgment, disappointment, and sadness. I had forgotten the truth of my existence. I had forgotten to be mindful as I allowed the critical mind to be in the forefront.
We all have our moments, even myself when I am not choosing skillful means in how to respond to life. Thankfully, through my training and practice, I can stop, step back and let love lead the way a little more quickly than I had in the past.
As I was deciding on what to write as a post for today, I found myself venturing back into a manuscript of a book I have been writing for a couple of years. In it, I found my own words comforting me, along with a practice that truly assisted me in seeing myself with the warmth of present love. I share this excerpt with you below.
In our lives, we have desired such love as the world has not seen. We pen sonnets to it, sing soulful ballads, search the world over for that one perfect love.
Only to be disappointed time and time again.
What is Love? What is the Heart?
We forget our own tenderness of our heart by the extraneous focus for its capture. When I studied with a former Buddhist monk for a time, even after all my years of spiritual practice and study and meditation, he zoned in on the one area that needed the deepest growth, my own heart.
Years of abuse, failed relationships, disappointments, and betrayals still were a thorn in my heart. The love of my current husband was not the balm to heal the past. My cats brought comfort, yet, to truly heal the heart, I must face my heart.
Underneath it all, I desire happiness. I would not have traveled the spiritual path for so long had it not been a consistent desire. My quest for solace would not have taken me to roads of meditation and mindfulness. My heart yearned for its own healing.
We have all walked this world downtrodden, beaten by our experiences that have made us cry from the deepest wells of our soul. Our hearts may have been injured by the ravages of abuse in some form. We cry out from the darkest hole for someone to lend a hand and uplift us from this place.
Only the Universal Love can do such a feat. Only our willingness can carry the task forth.
Then the Light of Awareness, the Truth, rests on the heart. A crack appears and the Light enters within.
We have been closed off to Love. The heart is the jewel of our being. It is the Presence of Love.
It is not only for ourselves to experience this love, but to extend the precious Light of Love to others in the world.” When the prison walls seem so solid, how can I do this?” you may wonder.
It is through practice and determination and even mistakes along the way. However, each time you set the intention to bring the Light of Awareness to your heart, you have made leaps and bounds.
We have been hardened by the world, by those harsh experience that has occurred to us. We have been cynical, fearful, hateful and closed. Is this what you really desire? We both know the answer.
Let us practice together to open our heart to the Realm of the Divine, the Jewel of Light, and the Embrace of Love.
Practice Seeing Yourself With Love
- Choose someone in your life that you know truly loves you. It could be someone you know now, someone from your past, or even a pet. Someone who saw the your basic goodness.
- Imagine this being sitting across from you, perhaps holding your hands. This being is looking at you with the greatest love and respect.
- Now see yourself through this being’s eyes, focusing on the good qualities that is seen in you and this being’s deep love for you.
- Ask yourself, “What does this being see? Why do they love me?”
- Move slowly in this exercises so you can see and feel what this being feels for you.
- When you are ready, return to yourself and notice how it feels to possess these good qualities.
- Absorb the good of this experience, savoring the love, worthiness, and good that exist within you.
How has this practice helped you today?
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