Because sometimes the breath isn't enough,
Right?
You know,
Like you have enough mindfulness and awareness to know what's going on,
And yet you're still clinging to it,
Like you still can't let go of that thought.
And when we bring kindness into our mindfulness practice,
Which is kindfulness,
It really does have a way of releasing us from it.
When we really think about whether we're judging another person,
If that's the thought we're stuck on judging,
Another person and thinking about,
Wow,
That's really unkind to judge that person.
Just looking at it through the lens of kindness starts to free us,
Right?
Our hearts start to fill with compassion and understanding.
We're just thinking about like maybe you were criticized and again,
Someone will criticize us once.
They'll say it one time,
And then we'll repeat it a thousand times to ourselves,
Right,
So it's not really the criticism that's so much the problem.
It's that we keep repeating it,
And it's hard to let it go.
It feels so threatening,
Right?
These kinds of thoughts are threatening to us.
You know,
A part of our brain,
The amygdala,
Sees it as a threat.
It releases the stress hormones,
The whole kind of,
Or sorry,
Initiates the stress response.
And stress is meant to keep us laser focused on the threat.
If the threat started from a thought,
We can't take our attention off the thought.
It's really,
Really hard.
And sometimes our mindfulness practice just isn't enough,
Right?
Sometimes we need something a little bit more,
And what I find is the heart is really the key to this.
And just kindness,
Just seeing it through the lens of kindness,
Right?
You're worried about,
So I see now a follow up on here,
Mary,
Or sorry,
That's a different,
Sorry.
We'll go to your question in a minute,
Mary.
When we can access the heart,
When we look at it through the lens of kindness,
Just,
Again,
You're lost in your thoughts,
You're lost in your worries and your fears about something that you heard,
And you just look at it through,
Well,
Is this being very kind to myself?
Is there kindness in this thought?
It is amazing the power of kindness to release us from that thought,
Right?
We become unstuck so quickly just by looking at it through the lens of kindness,
Because we all wanna be kind to people,
Right?
There's no one on here that isn't a kind person.
And so when we have our mindfulness practice and we're aware that we're being unkind to ourselves,
And there's maybe even a little bit of awareness of it,
But until you put that lens of kindness,
You're probably still gonna be a little stuck.
But the moment that you start thinking of it,
And I wanna be kind to myself,
I need to bring some kindness into this.
What is the kindest way that I could relate to this thought right now?
What is the kindest thing that I could do for myself right now?
And you will be surprised how easily it goes away.
We become unstuck.
It doesn't mean that it won't come back again,
Right?
And the same thing,
Let me apply some kindness here.
Kindness is soft and it's gentle,
And yet it's very fierce,
Because it takes us right to who we are,
Right?
Just wanting to see something through the lens of kindness starts to wake us up and get us back in touch with our hearts again,
Where we start to feel more whole and complete,
Where we feel good again.
And in that,
We then let it go,
Right?
Because in feeling whole and complete,
Our thoughts are a reflection of how we're feeling on the inside.
We're able to let it go,
Right?
So just keep practicing,
Looking at it through the lens of kindness.
Kindfulness,
Bringing kindness into your mindfulness practice.
That is sometimes what's needed.
People really struggle in mindfulness.
Like we think we're being mindful,
And to some degree,
Right,
You're aware,
You're torturing yourself.
I think someone back here,
Jen,
Said like,
Yeah,
I'm kind to everyone else except myself,
Right?
We are the worst to ourselves.
You know,
We'd be horrified to say anything remotely that we say to ourselves to another person.
We would never do it.
And so,
You know,
With mindfulness,
You know,
We can be somewhat aware of our thoughts,
But we're not,
You know,
We're not able to let go of them.
They're still quite sticky.
And that's the stress,
Right?
I mean,
You're having to override your brain's instincts for survival by putting those thoughts down.
That is not easy to do that.
So,
I mean,
If there was a snake in the corner of my room here,
I guarantee you every one of your comments would be Meredith,
Turn around,
There's a snake.
We can't pay attention to anything else until you deal with that snake in the corner of the room.
Because your brain is going,
Oh my God,
That's threatening.
I can't even stand that you're not in the room.
You can't even stand seeing me here with the snake,
Right?
It's that threatening,
And you could not take your attention off of it.
So it's really hard to put these thoughts down.
They're sticky.
And our brain's survival system,
Stress,
Is super strong.
So we need something equally strong.
Kindness,
Practicing kindness.
Just seeing it through the lens of kindness.
How can I bring kindness into this situation?
And then that might just get you unstuck enough to get back to the breath,
To breathe,
To help come into the feelings.
Because of all that stress that's there,
All that tension that's built up in your body.
So that you can breathe,
And you can even keep saying to yourself,
The kindest thing I can do right now is breathe and be with this.
