Every year people wait until the first of the year to make their New Year’s resolutions. This year we were able to make new decade resolutions. If this motivates you to make improvements in your life then go for it. But if this is just an opportunity to set some goals that you’ll never reach and use to berate yourself, you might want to rethink this. This year I’ve decided to have a word for the year. My word is compassion. Compassion first and foremost with myself. If I don’t have compassion for myself I’m not going to have compassion for my fellows. I don’t think that we can have too much compassion for ourselves and if you grew up in a dysfunctional household, you most likely didn’t receive much compassion either. When something is not taught or modeled for us as children it is difficult to incorporate into our lives as adults. We have to make a concerted effort. Begin with visualizing how a loving, compassionate parent might be for you. If you had a loving parent walking around with you all the time, what would they say? How would they respond to you? Wouldn’t it be nice if the voice in our head was that loving and compassionate parent? We all carry around in our heads a version of a critical parent that is ready to pounce on any mistakes we make. Replacing that voice with a more compassionate and loving voice will benefit us greatly. Begin small. Even if you spend five minutes a day recalling the things you’ve done well recently. Meditate on compassion and see where it takes you. I hope you experience more loving kindness in your life.
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