Hello,
Pasha Lindy here.
Welcome.
Today we'll be introducing some ways to cultivate self-compassion and courage.
Practicing self-compassion and resilience have been some of the most revolutionary things I ever did in my life and no longer do I feel like such a victim to the ups and downs that life throws at us.
I'm not so much at the mercy anymore of things like back pain or social anxiety or burnout and I'll tell you a bit more about me and my story as we go but like many others who've taken this same journey,
These tools taught me to become more confident,
More self-caring,
Less perfectionist,
Less self-critical and more joyful than ever.
My job is to remind you that you're already strong and that you can trust your good heart because underneath those doubts and that self-criticism there's a goodness in you that this session is speaking to and so we'll be connecting with that goodness which you might see as a kind of inner teacher or inner coach or grandparent or even your sacred self.
Now this goodliness,
The intrinsic goodness of your own heart,
Already knows how to be friendly,
Caring and supportive because you already care for people and things in your life and all we have to do now is include ourselves in that care.
So here's a story to get us started.
The King of the Birds.
This is a Celtic tale and the story goes that long ago the birds had a contest to see who would be their king and all of the birds were understandably vying for this title and it was declared that the winner would be the bird that could fly the highest in the sky for he or she would have the vast vision of a ruler and see all and now the eagle became filled with pride for it is surely I,
He exclaimed,
Who can fly the highest.
Yet all of the birds were determined to try.
Blackbird and heron and crow and pigeon all trained very hard that week to fly for as high and as long as they could and the day of the contest came and the birds took off together racing through the sky on flew Blackbird and heron and pigeon and crow at first neck and neck with eagle up and up they flew and as they did their strength ebbed away fell the exhausted Blackbird away fell heron away fell crow and pigeon and sure enough there was eagle at last left alone flying high in the sky he swooped with delight and exclaimed who is the highest who indeed is king of the birds actually I am came a small voice from behind eagle's ear and there lay wren nuzzled secretly in between eagle's wings indeed wren was now the very highest and so it was wren and not eagle who became the king of the birds now this is a wonderful story of cleverness but it's also very much about self-compassion and resilience being self-compassionate and resilient means knowing our own strengths and weaknesses wren knew it couldn't outfly eagle on muscle power alone so wren found a way to be supported when we're self-compassionate we embrace our weaknesses our wounds our suffering and we find the support we need sometimes we need to dig deep inside ourselves and find our own inner eagle to support us other times we need to reach out to others and rest a while on their eagle shoulders and sometimes we just need to relish our strength to soar high and take time to celebrate our qualities and swoop for joy like the eagle so today you're invited to reflect on this story when have you been like the eagle in your life when have you been like the wren and when you feel like wren how do you reach out to others for support or support yourself i'll leave some silence now for you to reflect on this or journal press pause if you need more time and there's further reflections like this in a track called connecting with self-love which you'll also find on my channel and which i'd recommend for you to do next if you have another 10 minutes well take care dear friend bye bye for now
