Reflections
As an infant, our mind is saturated with the outside world. What we hear and what we see largely becomes how we see ourselves, or our self image. Depending upon what we heard or what we saw, we develop a positive or negative self image. Because our self image is a direct reflection of what we bring into our life, we must ask ourselves, are we being a good friend to ourselves?
In this profound meditation, Nitima has us some questions on how we treat ourselves. While reflecting upon these questions, I thought about how I treated myself yesterday. Pleased with how I showed up for myself, I was reminded of how much my friendship with myself has grown. See, I grew up with a very poor self image. I saw myself a failure if anything short of perfection didn’t occur. Putting all of this unnecessary stress and pressure on myself, I couldn’t stand being around myself. Sick and tired of being sick and tired, I began a journey into meditation. Throughout this amazing journey, I became more aware of my thoughts, beliefs, emotions and actions. And through this process, I am becoming my own good friend.
Moving on, Nitima has us reflect on how we treat others around us as well as strangers. Reflecting upon these questions, I said yes to them all. Like so many others, I have notoriously treated others better than myself. I have given them more of my time and energy. I have notoriously believed in others’ abilities more than my own. Being kind is a motto I live by.
Lastly, Nitima asks us to do an exercise that I just began doing myself recently. This something is putting a smile on our face for no reason. As Nitima points out, smiling relaxes the muscles in our face. But, there’s more. Our subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between what is real or imaginary. Putting a smile on our face signals to the brain that things are good and our body relaxes. We actually begin to Feel Good!
We are the only one that are around ourselves 100% of the time. Knowing this, why not become our own good friend? It may take time to get to know ourself. It may even take some time to forgive ourself. But, taking this time is so worth it not just for ourselves, but for the many others we will come into contact with as we live our life.
Namaste 🙏🏻❤️☮️