Don't go out. Stay at home. Maybe go to the grocery store. Maybe not. If you do? Six feet from everyone. With your gloves. With your mask. Have sanitizer with you for your entry and exit. Strange times, no doubt.
And your small talk when you're there? Kind of odd to do that six feet away. And if you do, you can bet I know what you're talking about. "Crazy times, yeah? Can you believe this? Did you hear that XXX people died last night?" Predictably not uplifting conversations.
Hard to really feel connected in times like these with so many restrictions. And while we're not feeling connected to others, are we connected to ourselves? Are we feeling anxious? Not very grounded? We may not be able to control how other people might react to our attempts at connection, but we have every opportunity right now to reconnect with ourselves.
How do we do this? There are a series of meditations that can illuminate such pursuits, but one very easy one is a simple metta meditation. We sit. We breathe. We get quiet. We get centered. And once our minds our clear, we can then go down the path of a guided metta meditation, or if you're familiar with them already, you can state your own mantras. A little something like this:
May I be at ease
May I be peaceful
May I be healthy
May I be protected
May I be free from mental anxiety
Feel free to change these in any way you find helpful, but you don't just say these things, the goal is to really feel them. They words do come from your mind of course, but you want to feel them in your heart. You want to not only say these things to yourself, but you want to actually experience and believe these words.
Usually in these meditations we will repeat the mantras for about 3-5 rounds. Enough times to start feeling and trusting them.
Once you are done with these graces for yourself, move them toward someone who has been beneficial to you. Someone you love, someone you are grateful for:
May you be at ease
May you be peaceful
May you be healthy
May you be protected
May you be free from mental anxiety
3-5 times until you know them.
Then for someone neutral. Your Uber driver, your mail delivery person, the clerk at the grocery store. Repeat the mantras.
Then onto someone who's been difficult in your life. This one really trips a lot of people up and you will get a negative emotional reaction when this person first enters your mind. We all have these people in our lives, but not only are these mantras for them, they're also for us so that we can relieve ourselves of the reactions we have when encountering them. Remember, it's the behaviors you don't like... Not that person. This one can be challenging.
After that, give these mantras to people in your vicinity... Maybe the people in your apartment building, maybe everyone in your neighborhood. 3-5 times until you really feel it.
Spread this out to your town or city, and then finally to the world.
While this isn't a substitution for the human connection that we're all lacking right now, you will feel a stronger connection to self, which ultimately is the most important step in our healing. These metta meditations can be done every day, preferably in the morning soon after you wake up. 20 minutes is all you really need. Right now we have the time.
There are countless YouTubes, free apps, and podcasts that can guide you on a 20 minute guided metta meditation if you so desire. The results will be the same.
Human connection is key to our happiness, but connection to ourselves can give us solace in times of unrest and you can always come back to self. A quiet mind, one that is aware, can get us through just about any storm.
And your small talk when you're there? Kind of odd to do that six feet away. And if you do, you can bet I know what you're talking about. "Crazy times, yeah? Can you believe this? Did you hear that XXX people died last night?" Predictably not uplifting conversations.
Hard to really feel connected in times like these with so many restrictions. And while we're not feeling connected to others, are we connected to ourselves? Are we feeling anxious? Not very grounded? We may not be able to control how other people might react to our attempts at connection, but we have every opportunity right now to reconnect with ourselves.
How do we do this? There are a series of meditations that can illuminate such pursuits, but one very easy one is a simple metta meditation. We sit. We breathe. We get quiet. We get centered. And once our minds our clear, we can then go down the path of a guided metta meditation, or if you're familiar with them already, you can state your own mantras. A little something like this:
May I be at ease
May I be peaceful
May I be healthy
May I be protected
May I be free from mental anxiety
Feel free to change these in any way you find helpful, but you don't just say these things, the goal is to really feel them. They words do come from your mind of course, but you want to feel them in your heart. You want to not only say these things to yourself, but you want to actually experience and believe these words.
Usually in these meditations we will repeat the mantras for about 3-5 rounds. Enough times to start feeling and trusting them.
Once you are done with these graces for yourself, move them toward someone who has been beneficial to you. Someone you love, someone you are grateful for:
May you be at ease
May you be peaceful
May you be healthy
May you be protected
May you be free from mental anxiety
3-5 times until you know them.
Then for someone neutral. Your Uber driver, your mail delivery person, the clerk at the grocery store. Repeat the mantras.
Then onto someone who's been difficult in your life. This one really trips a lot of people up and you will get a negative emotional reaction when this person first enters your mind. We all have these people in our lives, but not only are these mantras for them, they're also for us so that we can relieve ourselves of the reactions we have when encountering them. Remember, it's the behaviors you don't like... Not that person. This one can be challenging.
After that, give these mantras to people in your vicinity... Maybe the people in your apartment building, maybe everyone in your neighborhood. 3-5 times until you really feel it.
Spread this out to your town or city, and then finally to the world.
While this isn't a substitution for the human connection that we're all lacking right now, you will feel a stronger connection to self, which ultimately is the most important step in our healing. These metta meditations can be done every day, preferably in the morning soon after you wake up. 20 minutes is all you really need. Right now we have the time.
There are countless YouTubes, free apps, and podcasts that can guide you on a 20 minute guided metta meditation if you so desire. The results will be the same.
Human connection is key to our happiness, but connection to ourselves can give us solace in times of unrest and you can always come back to self. A quiet mind, one that is aware, can get us through just about any storm.
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