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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Letting go...

Letting go of an emotion, like fear, does not mean you never feel fear again. That would be repression. Instead, it means you never feel fear the same way again.
Fear occurs. Sadness occurs. Happiness, loneliness, joy, jealousy, anger, they all happen. It is part of the range of human experience. As you come toward peace, sure they may happen less. But there are plenty of stories about gurus and enlightened Beings displaying intense emotions.
So what does it really mean to let go of an emotion? It means you let go of toying with it.
You feel happiness and you have to toy with it. You try to hold onto it so it doesn’t leave. You pet it and admire it and when it changes (like all things must) you mourn it.
Similarly, you feel fear and you can’t help but toy with it. You immediately react against it with anger or pain, you feel this way or that way about it. Either way, fear becomes your focus. You keep trying to reject it and by doing so, it remains present.
Why is it that happiness departs more easily than fear? Because you reject fear but embrace happiness. You aren’t afraid to experience happiness, you open yourself to it. But you are afraid of experiencing fear, sadness, anger, or other typically repressed emotions.
When you are no longer afraid to open yourself to your experience of the moment, whatever it contains, then you stop toying with it. Whatever emotion comes, comes. When it leaves, it leaves.
This stability creates a feeling in you. You watch moods and moments transition from one to the next to the next. But You are still continuous. The feeling that such a continuity creates evades description. Most saints and yogis have simply called it Peace.
Don’t worry about the fine line, for no such line exists. Don’t worry if you’re really letting go. If you have doubts about letting go then the only thing you know for sure is that you haven’t let go of your doubts.
Silence your doubts, if only to better hear over the noise of your mind. Go inward, meditate, and find out if there’s anything actually there anyway. The buddha was quite insistent that everything was emptiness. And yet so full it seemed to krishna!
Namaste, sister. I hope this helped a bit. :)
  
Source:http://lazyyogi.tumblr.com/

This is all there is


Friday, February 3, 2012

Self-Acceptance: More Substance than Self-Esteem

 Read the complete article : Self-Acceptance

A positive outlook on who you really are inside is essential to feeling good about yourself, no matter what is going on outside. Unfortunately, you cannot just will self-acceptance to happen. It has to grow. Psychologist Christopher Germer explains in his book the mindful path to self-compassion that the development of self-acceptance occurs in five stages.

Stage 1: Aversion

People instinctively respond to uncomfortable feelings with resistance, avoidance, or rumination (repetitively reviewing a problem to solve it).
Germer illustrated this with the story of a mother, Brenda, whose 9-year-old son died. She became so overwhelmed with her grief that she generally stayed in bed. When she did go out, she would observe people in a detached way-feeling like a foreigner.

Stage 2: Curiosity

When aversion doesn't work, people become curious about their problem. They want to learn more about it; even though they feel anxious.

To continue Germer's example, Brenda's grief became so overwhelming that she wished she could die. Then she "was seized with terror." She questioned what would happen to her surviving daughter and realized that she had to choose between giving in to her emotions and finding a way through.
Psychologist Todd Kashdan explored curiosity in depth in his book, Curious?. He explains that when people are curious about their problems, their anxiety about those problems decreases. Also, some people are generally more curious than others. While highly curious individuals feel anxious just like anyone else, they show more tolerance for distress while they pursue their interests. Curiosity motivates them to find and integrate meaning from experiences. Thus, highly curious people are oriented toward building a fulfilling life; leading them to thrive and feel a strong sense of well-being.

Stage 3: Tolerance
People in this stage endure their pain while still wishing it would disappear.

Once Brenda decided that she needed to live for the sake of her daughter, she found a way to tolerate her grief enough to function as a mother.
Stage 4: Allowing

As people's resistance erodes, they begin to allow their feelings to come and go. Rather than just acknowledging and tolerating feelings that overpower their defenses, they openly let their feelings flow through them.

With time, Brenda realized that she felt close to her son whenever she felt her grief. She also felt close to him at times when she was grateful for having known him. As she allowed for her different emotions, she was able to have a healthy relationship with (feel love for) her deceased son.

Stage 5: Friendship

People in this stage not only allow for their feelings, but they actually see value in them. It's not that they actively want to feel upset, but they can be grateful for the benefits that their situation and its related emotions bring to their life.
“When you lose touch with your inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.”
—     Eckhart Tolle