Hi everyone. This week we read up to pg 154 Feeling Feelings III, We talked about numbness and feeling our feelings vs numbing them out, about the difference between "May I feel loved" vs "may I be loved" pg144 and how that has to come from within.
This week's question to contemplate is how good are you at knowing the difference between seeing something about yourself and judging yourself about that thing?
For me, this is a continuing practice of awareness. It is often hard enough to recognize when I am behaving unskillfully, so when I do, I often scold myself about it. I am learning through my practice to just try to be aware of something without labeling it good or bad, but it's a deeply ingrained habit to break. As was said in the meeting, it's progress, not perfection. One thing that helps me is I've named that critical voice in my head "Bertha", and when I start to judge myself critically, I try to say "no Bertha, that's not true. I just acted unskillfully, but it doesn't mean that I AM unskillful" (or bad or whatever) Sometimes Bertha is still very loud in my head, but more and more, I can soften her voice with a moment's pause, breath and gentle word. As I said, I'm a work in progress, but at least today I am working on it.
What about for you?
