Dear readers,
Today, I’d like to talk about cultivation.
Now that you have awakened to the Principle of Thought, what happens when you don’t cultivate? You end up living life ‘by default’.
So what should we cultivate? How about ‘loving kindness’? Hear me out, before you dismiss this notion out of hand.
The opposite of loving kindness is aversion. Aversion comes in many forms, from dislike (the mildest), to irritation, frustration, discontentment, anger and finally, hatred (most severe). And when you have aversion, you are filled with bad thoughts and this causes your brain to secrete ‘bad’ chemicals.
So you literally cannot afford to feel bad. But how do you avoid feeling bad when you are practising aversion (unconsciously) all day long? Thoughts like:
- “I can’t stand this.”
- “Oh my god, the weather is too hot.”
- “I don’t like it – this person irritates me.”
Imagine yourself living like this day in, day out – you are practising aversion.
That’s why it’s crucial to cultivate loving kindness.
By that, I don’t mean that you have to make yourself see the godliness in everyone. I am talking about having the energy of love and the energy of kindness inside you. Be kind to your thoughts. Be loving to your thoughts. Even when you are beset by some irritation or frustration, be loving to those bad feelings. Don’t let your bad emotions run away with you and be reinforced needlessly.
Although there may be days when other people push our hot buttons, you have to remember the inside out misunderstanding. All our feelings are coming from our thoughts created in the moment. So if someone angered you, it’s actually your thoughts about that person (or that situation) that angered you, not the physical person itself. If you remember my advice about fleeting moments, just don’t pay attention and those bad thoughts will disappear quickly. Your goal is to make your averse feelings disappear quickly, so that your mind can be filled with good, successful thoughts.
I will share an exercise in my next video to ramp up the feeling of ‘loving kindness’.
In the meantime, stay well.
Nancy
