Kind Awareness to Thoughts
The meditation included in this weeks newsletter is meant to bring awareness to your thoughts for a few moments. When we become aware of thoughts we need to do so with kindness for self and others. It's easy to get caught up in judgment as we do this. Judgment to ourselves for not staying focuses, judgment to others for not doing things the way you feel they should be done, judgment to our judgments!
After doing the meditation think back to the thoughts that you had, especially those that were repeating. As yourself a few questions:
Does this thought hurt or help you?
Is this thought true?
Is this thought driven by fear or anxiety?
How can this thought be reframed?
By bringing loving kindness to your thoughts, you begin to see where they are unhelpful or even detrimental. Thoughts can be modified over time though. By reframing the thought, changing it to a positive and helpful one, you can begin. Each time you notice a particular thought arising, use the reframed version. The more often this is done, the better the chance of the detrimental thought disappearing.
As an example, if my thought is that people are being stupid in this current pandemic, I could reframe that to “some people are using a defence mechanism of denial right now because they are afraid. I Can be gentle with my thoughts toward them while maintaining my boundaries.”
Try to reframe your thoughts in a similar way and you will find more peace for yourself.