Real Life - Bringing Practice Into The Day

It is one thing to practice loving kindness while relaxed on your seat or cushion. Then you have to get up and face the day. Here is an invitation and practice to help you put your good intentions into effect. Spread kindness wherever you go in this Real Life series.

Reviews

I love the quiet mornings as it really sets the tone for the day and allows me to witness the sun rise!
Btw I was drawn to this practice by the picture of the child and dog… a representation of innocence and unconditional love! 🙏🏻

Tony this was beautiful and such a great reminder to hear. Thank you for always being my inspiration to become a better person. 💕🙏🏻

Tony dress is layers to keep warm, have very good warm boots for walking, gloves or I prefer mittens, Wool socks, and long underwear oh and a nice hat. Have a wonderful trip to Iceland.

Beautiful meditation and great reflection to soak in ❤️

This is another favorite that I'll be using regularly. Wonderful.

Lovely meditation. Thank you.

Thanks Tony for your thoughtful words. Especially like the reminder that we will only pass this way once so should be mindful of offering kindness and compassion where we can. 🙏

Beautiful 😌🙏🏻💗

Always love your talks of wisdom

Oh how this struck close to home for me! My troubled grandson is living with me right now and I find bliss in my meditation one minute, and the next feel my hackles rising due to his oppositional defiance. It’s a very hard teeter-totter I am on lately.
Thank you for these very much needed words of wisdom Tony. So grateful.
🙏🏽🐾🌷🦋🌸💕🌹🙏🏼🍁🍂💖

Great, full of wisdom, like always 🙏🍀

Thank you, good ideas. I'm trying to say to myself- "be curious" before responding...

Beautiful thank you

Thank you for this calm and focusing meditation 🙏🏻

EMPATHY. This is the meditation for that.

I so love this. Thank you

Such practical wisdom, delivered so gently, truly easily entreated. I listened twice,and participated first listening, then took notes the 2nd listening. For Grace to remember and apply these simple understandings regularly. Thank you.

My heart is overflowing right now. I had a couple of insights during this practice that I believe will ease the internal conflict I have had over standing my ground versus choosing to disengage and avoiding conflict. These insights are as follows:
1) Remember that all beings strive to be happy, and keep that in the foreground of my response rather than attempting to discern perceived intentions behind individual actions. (Which, as a graduate-level mental health/counseling professional, is my automatic response most of the time and has been a difficult habit to break when not in the office.)
2) Examine my personal principles and clearly establish if they have solid boundaries (and where those are) or "grey zones" (and where those are). Knowing my personal principles will enable me to better assess my own responses - walk away to maintain peace and equinimity, or engage to uphold that which at my core I feel is right (mainly major issues - abuse, neglect, human rights, etc.).

Since my early undergraduate years, I have had some version of a poster on my wall which shows the Earth from space with an arrow pointing to it, reading, "You are here." One version was the Milky Way galaxy rather than the Earth. Currently I have a magnet at work stuck to a framed photo on my desk with this photo on it, and additional text pointing out how ephemeral our own reactions are. In recent years, my meditation practice has sunk in to the extent that in situations where once I would have responded by shrinking back or growing hot with anger or frustration, I now hear a calm voice from my practice whisper, "I choose peace" and I simply state that it is not a subject I wish to discuss at this time.
(This is mainly extreme political differences within the household, often discussed by others at the dinner table, but as the lone dissenter hailing from an entirely different part of the country and with entirely different perspectives, I am often the focal point of others attempting to convince me of the error in my thinking and opinions. This is one of the biggest areas I struggle with - feeling comfortable discussing my views versus maintaining a lower level of tension. I suspect I will continue in the latter, but my personal comfort and knowing the reasons for my choice here is critical - and it has worked well. I choose others to discuss such things with, if I feel the need to talk at all.)

This practice brought so much of these core issues into sharp relief and I feel so much lighter now, relaxed, and aware of what steps I may take to deepen my awareness of lovingkindness towards others even in challenging situations or ones I have struggled with personally for a long time. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I've bookmarked and downloaded this practice, and look forward to others in this series. I see the light in you, Tony. 🤲❤️🤲