Hello friends,
I hope you're having a wonderful day today.
What I'd like to do today will only take a few minutes,
But I think it's an important few minutes to take as we consider,
Reflect on maybe how we feel about ourselves and others in our lives.
And the exercise I'm going to take you through in just a minute won't take too long,
But I thought it was worth sharing and doing with you because I did it with my 14 year old son last night.
And I tried to do some mindfulness exercises with him a few times during the course of a week because he struggles with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
And because of that he often struggles with focus and completing tasks,
Especially those in school.
And so I was working with him last night and what I'm about to do with you,
I did with him.
And when we were finished I asked him what that experience was like for him.
And he said that it was hard,
Part of it was hard,
But that it was really good and that he felt better when we were done.
And I thought if my 14 year old son got something out of it,
Knowing that he doesn't really like doing mindfulness activities all the time,
That it was maybe worth sharing with you all.
So here's what I would like you to do.
First sit comfortably wherever you are,
Whether it's in a comfy chair or a cushion on the floor.
You could lie down if you want or maybe you're even going for a walk to get a little bit of exercise.
But be comfortable with whatever you're doing.
And when I ask you to in just a moment,
I'm going to ask you to think about one by one people in your life that you love and also people in your life that love you.
And we'll take about 60 seconds to do this.
And when you think about them,
I would ask you to picture them one by one in your mind and picture a very soft,
A very pleasant,
A very calming sunset orange glow around them.
Like they're standing or they're sitting or they're encapsulated within a sunset orange ball.
And try if you can to send them loving thoughts,
Loving emotion and loving kindness.
So here we go.
We'll do this for about 60 seconds.
So take that first person and put them in your mind in that sunset orange ball and just focus on them and on those feelings.
Let's say for maybe 15 seconds and then we'll go to somebody else.
Okay.
Go ahead and start that right now.
Okay.
Move on to somebody else that you can think of and do the same thing.
And now somebody else and somebody else.
And one more time with someone else or it could be a pet or someone else that you might love or that you know loves you.
Okay.
So that's to get us started.
I'm going to ask you to do the same thing now,
But picture people in your life that you don't like as much.
Maybe that frustrate you or irritate you or make you angry and picture them one by one in this soft glow of a sunset orange ball.
And again in your mind you're picturing them and you are sending them emotions and thoughts of peace and love and kindness.
So take that first person that you feel not so great about and start doing that now.
And change it up to someone else.
And someone else that maybe you don't like or someone that gets you angry or frustrated.
And switch it up again to someone else that you feel that way towards or maybe you know they feel that way towards you.
Maybe that you know they don't like you very much or you irritate them for whatever reason.
And one more time somebody else for the last few seconds of this exercise.
Okay.
So now the final thing I would like for you to do if you haven't done this already is I would like you to picture yourself in that warm glow of a ball with sunset orange something very soft and loving and caring and comfortable and picture yourself now.
And you're sending that positive energy to yourself within that ball for the next few seconds.
Okay well thank you so much for doing that exercise.
When I asked my son about it last night the hard part he said was when he was thinking about other people that he didn't like very much and putting them within that soft glow of a sunset orange ball if you will he said that was hard.
And I believe that and I'm guessing it's hard for a lot of us to do that.
But with practice we're really doing that for our benefit so that we can start hopefully to feel differently about people that make us angry or frustrated or people we get irritated with.
We don't like their personality.
We don't like what they do their behavior.
But as my son also said last night I asked him how does it feel to carry that frustration and anger and irritation around with you every day towards those people.
And he said it's tiring.
And of course it's tiring carrying around those sorts of emotions day in and day out can be very tiring.
So I would encourage you once a day to picture and to do this exercise and picture people in your mind that you really like and love and other people that you feel differently about and just take a few minutes every day to do that.
Maybe sometimes with the same people maybe different people but also make sure that you include yourself because so often we're so focused on a task at hand or other people in our lives that we forget about taking care of ourselves.
And it's important of course that we do that.
So make sure you include yourself in this exercise and I think over a period of time maybe a few weeks you'll notice slowly but surely that you will start to feel differently towards those people that irritate you.
And maybe you'll become less irritated with them.
Maybe at some point you'll even start to like them and appreciate them.
But regardless this is a great chance for you at least for a few minutes throughout the course of your day to put that heaviness of those not so positive emotions to put those emotions down and rest and focus on something that is more pleasant and more calming and more peaceful and warmer than that heavy load of frustration and anger and irritation and patience those things that we carry around with us every day.
So again thank you so much for listening.
I greatly appreciate it and I'm humbled that you've decided to spend a little bit of time with me today and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
