Five weeks until our class: Learning Self-compassion and Mindfulness Skills begins.
My colleague and I are carving time in our schedules and finding great places to prepare for this class. Today, it was Arella's for lunch. Cricket loves their nice cool floor and seems to know when the two of us get together she's in for a long nap.
We've taken on the challenge to spend the next five weeks practicing what we will be teaching. I am so excited! Our first assignment ... to ask ourselves each day without judgment - How am I feeling? and to take time to answer that question in writing format, honor the answer in a compassionate way. Sometimes it is phrased: to check in with ourselves. An interesting note for a person who is blind, and others may find it interesting too, the process is what is important - it isn't so important if you can read what you have written.
Insecurity, anxiety, and depression are incredibly common in our society, and much of this is due to self-judgment, to beating ourselves up when we feel we are't winning in the game of life. Kristin Neff, Ph.D.
It does take work to break the self-criticizing habits of a lifetime, but at the end of the day, you are only being asked to relax, allow life to be as it is, and open your heart to yourself. Kristin Neff, Ph.D. -- Self-compassion. Stop eating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.
Dinner included lovely dinner with friends and Cricket even got some play time with a pugle.
The journeys of Becky, blind from retinitis pigmentosa, and her beauitiful guide dogs.
3 comments:
Oh boy, this post was for me! I am very self-critical, which is evidenced by me calling myself self-critical! Ha ha. I like the idea of writing down how I'm feeling each morning. I think I'm going to start doing that. Thank you, Becky!
I find myself asking myself that exact question a lot these days. Hilly is going in for her final eval before the decision is made for her to go into formal training or be career changed. It's been a long and hard two months with her and we seem to have hit a brick wall in her dog distraction issues. Whenever she's gets particularly bad I stop and ask myself, "How am I feeling? Is my stress and anxiety on wanting her to do better tranferring to her through the leash?" It's a wonderful check-in with yourself that I feel does wonders in making your day better, and in my case, easier.
Love this Becky. I think that is a great assignment for everyone! Checking in with yourself and being in tune with how you're feeling and why helps a lot - especially when you are going through difficult times. I'm sure your positive attitude has helped so many people. I know it has been a huge influence on me!
p.s. St. George Target - name the time and I'll be there! ;)
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