See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance , or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation - to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance and acknowledging ourselves as deserving of blessings without guilt or obligation.
In this quote, Jon Kabat-Zinn encourages individuals to recognize the value of self-gifts, such as self-acceptance and intentional time spent without purpose. He highlights that these gifts are not only beneficial but also essential for personal well-being. The act of accepting such gifts without obligation allows us to cultivate a deeper connection with ourselves and the universe, fostering a mindset of abundance and self-worth.
In practice
In a motivational speech about self-care in a wellness workshop.
Once you have established yourself as a center of love and kindness radiating throughout your being, which amounts to a cradling of yourself in loving kindness and acceptance, you can dwell here indefinitely, drinking at this fount, bathing it in, renewing yourself, nourishing yourself, enlivening yourself. This can be a profoundly healing practice for body and soul.
One way to look at meditation is as a kind of intrapsychic technology that's been developed over thousands of years by traditions that know a lot about the mind/body connection.
Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide us.
Practice sharing the fullness of your being, your best self, your enthusiasm, your vitality, your spirit, your trust, your openness, above all, your presence. Share it with yourself, with your family, with the world.
The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.
In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are same. So if you’re not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you’re not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness towards oneself are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
When we are more energized by the practice of blaming than we are by efforts to create transformation, we not only cannot find relief from suffering, we are creating the conditions that help keep us stuck in the status quo
Lies always come first, dragging fools along by their irreparable vulgarity. Truth always lags last, limping along on the arm of time.
He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
We tend to treat our knowledge as personal property to be protected and defended. It is an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order. [...] We take what we know a little too seriously.
I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life.
Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.