So those who have been following me for a while will know I often feel anxious about doing new things...and overthink (a lot!) It's something that I have been thinking about as part of my own journey to be a mindful self compassion teacher, both to support myself and my own practice and also to help me best support and embody mindful self compassion across the whole of my being.
I must admit it has been something I have struggled with, because in my heart, I know really and honestly, I'd rather be less anxious and more calm, chilled, able to just move on from things that stress me out. And in our teacher training I suddenly had this realisation that changing how I think about it and how I feel it and embody it can make such a difference. When I think about feeling broken by getting anxious all the choices I seem to have are that I am broken, so I need fixing (but hello, been like this for ages...) that I need mending, or that with anything broken we just have this idea that we need to either give up on things or throw them away.
But hang on...I'm a human being, complex and real and surely these can't be all my options? When I recognise I am SUFFERING it feels a little tough to acknowledge, but allows me so much more expansion and space to both support myself and allow myself to choose to find others who may support me on that journey - when I know I am suffering, I can use my core knowledge of Mindful Self Compassion to recognise this is part of my common humanity - that all humans suffer and are it is part of life to feel these things - rather than an expectation that everything should be perfect and zen like instead we can offer ourselves SO MUCH for how we are feeling in the midst of whatever is happening for us in life right now. This is generous, and expansive and allows both for us to support and love ourselves, little by little, step by step, and also to see what else we need right now to thrive.
In the moment we can turn to a whole host of things to explore gently what may support us most right here in that moment - encouraging, honouring, loving, supporting, caring for ourselves are just a few ways to start that journey of connection with our own heart.
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