slowing down...
I'm trying this wonderful meditation exercise. Just slowing down everything I do, and even how I speak. Sometimes I can do this, sometimes I can't, but I'm determined to get there. I got this meditation from my studies of Zen Buddhism...It appealed straight to my heart, so I knew that this was for me...
The first thing is to clear all the misconceptions of life that I've inherited, gained from my experiences, and learnt from those who have passed in and out of my life. This involves a total cleaning out of my head and heart. All thoughts, prejudices, proven and unproven feelings. Everything. Consciously telling myself that I am a new person every second is helping me a lot - for I am - we all are - new with every breath we take....so how can we let anything color our mind, and worse, stay in our mind, even from the breath that has passed?
The second thing is to be quiet. Not externally quiet with internal turmoil happening, but totally quiet externally as well as internally.
This does not mean suppressing negative or hurtful thoughts - it means looking at them and then sending them off, always trying to keep the mind and heart clean.
I need to get to know myself; treat myself kindly; choose things that I would like to do, and then do them at my own pace; make myself believe that it is okay to botch things up, but that I must then get up and turn the page and go on; take the time to find out what is right for me and not rush around making things right for everyone else; believe that I have a right to be happy and so do things towards this; remind myself of what is important for me and to me and not to give those up, even if no one else understands it; tell myself that it is all right to walk away instead of getting into an acting-reacting cycle; and most importantly, walk away from people and situations that are hurtful and negative, no matter what....