The last portion of my lovingkindness prayers is “May lovingkindness manifest throughout our lives.” It has to start with gentleness in the way I treat myself and restraint in judging my feelings or thoughts. My negative self-talk isn’t apparent to me unless I purposefully pay attention to it. When I do pay attention to it I mostly cringe at how unloving I am. It is difficult to catch unless I slow down the forward motion of my internal critic. It hasn’t been so long ago that I purposefully started looking for evidence of spiritual growth when I identified my harsh self-talk. If I focus on the improvement I’ve made in beginning to make changes in default reactions that are unproductive, fear-based behaviors learned as a youth, I counter the negativity in my head. I can then sigh deeply, ask my benevolent creator for help working towards a fear-free life.
Towards a fear-free life
