Last Day of 2011
2011 was a hard year for everyone I know. Loved ones making their exit (my mom for one) and two longtime dictators, Lybia’s Gadhafe and North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, making theirs; friends losing jobs, changing jobs, seeking jobs; people holding onto their money and people opening their hearts.
I sat down this morning and asked myself, what did I learn this year? Answer: I learned at a deeper level that things are temporary. People move in and out of our life, objects come and go, habits change, physical discomforts spontaneously appear one day, stay awhile and then disappear. The less attached we become to what is moving through, the less it hurts, the less we suffer.
This is particularly true of the thoughts that pass through the mind. They are like clouds moving across the sky. When I focus on a thought, it stops passing through and stays. When I have no relationship to the thought, it vanishes into the nothingness it arose from.
This year I practiced being attentive to the thoughts that arise in my mind. They are like flags waving to get my attention. Then the choice is mine whether to engage them or ignore them. If I ignore a thought, it dissolves and I forget it was even there. If I do this consistently, the thought stops arising after a while. I do this with thoughts that proclaim, “He or she should do this or that. It should be different than it is. I don’t like this or that. So and so is to blame for how I feel.” Those kind of thoughts can really get me going in the wrong direction if I pay attention to them. When I ignore them, they die.
I think people suffer from depressing thoughts when they are not willing to ignore them. It has been my experience that all thoughts are temporary and only hang around if I feed them my attention. I think it was an important lesson to learn for 2011, that all things are temporary. What will the lesson of 2012 be? Well, I have 12 months to find out starting tomorrow.
Until you return, fill your days with GIGGLES, JOY, and APPRECIATION!
Sylvia Silk, D.D. Director of the Institute For Balanced Living, Los Angeles,CA, USA
DoctorofDivinity, SpiritualCoach, ReconnectiveHealingPractitioner, Writer
I sat down this morning and asked myself, what did I learn this year? Answer: I learned at a deeper level that things are temporary. People move in and out of our life, objects come and go, habits change, physical discomforts spontaneously appear one day, stay awhile and then disappear. The less attached we become to what is moving through, the less it hurts, the less we suffer.
This is particularly true of the thoughts that pass through the mind. They are like clouds moving across the sky. When I focus on a thought, it stops passing through and stays. When I have no relationship to the thought, it vanishes into the nothingness it arose from.
This year I practiced being attentive to the thoughts that arise in my mind. They are like flags waving to get my attention. Then the choice is mine whether to engage them or ignore them. If I ignore a thought, it dissolves and I forget it was even there. If I do this consistently, the thought stops arising after a while. I do this with thoughts that proclaim, “He or she should do this or that. It should be different than it is. I don’t like this or that. So and so is to blame for how I feel.” Those kind of thoughts can really get me going in the wrong direction if I pay attention to them. When I ignore them, they die.
I think people suffer from depressing thoughts when they are not willing to ignore them. It has been my experience that all thoughts are temporary and only hang around if I feed them my attention. I think it was an important lesson to learn for 2011, that all things are temporary. What will the lesson of 2012 be? Well, I have 12 months to find out starting tomorrow.
Until you return, fill your days with GIGGLES, JOY, and APPRECIATION!
Sylvia Silk, D.D. Director of the Institute For Balanced Living, Los Angeles,CA, USA
DoctorofDivinity, SpiritualCoach, ReconnectiveHealingPractitioner, Writer
Beautiful message, Sylvia. Very true. May you have a blessed 2012. Love, Lonni
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