As the temperatures fall (in the Northern Hemisphere) and we enter the holiday season, it’s routine to express gratitude for friends, loved ones, and the events that bring richness to our lives. We spread joy by focusing on others, but true joy also requires us to focus on our own needs and gifts as well. We encourage you to take time this season to be thankful for others and yourself—perhaps by adopting this modified meditation from Tara Brach: May I trust and be grateful for my own goodness. May I see and be grateful for the goodness in others.*
Questions to Consider:
- What are some ways you can be grateful for your own goodness without losing your focus on the goodness of others?
- How can you express gratitude and thanks for others and how they make you who you are?
- What feels risky about focusing more on yourself (or others)? What part of that might be an assumption worth testing?
Relationships are essential to humans and are a big part of what gives life meaning. And they are a two-way street. We all have personal interests to satisfy and we should take care of ourselves by asking for what we need from our relationships. And we need to do it in a way that considers others’ interests and doesn’t leave them trampled and bruised. We have to care for, and be generous to, others while taking care of ourselves. Sustainable relationships require maintaining the personal energy to care for others by Navigating Focus on Self::Focus on Others.
Posted In: News & Views