You know those stressful phone calls you have to make to tech support at Verizon where you wait on the phone for ages in hopes that you will eventually reach a person who will be able to help you with your desperate problem?
When friends are suffering, this is what I share:
Kristin Neff’s Self-Compassion Break (visit her website, she’s amazing).
This simple technique is helpful to practice anytime you are feeling anxious, or suffering in some way. The sentences can be said very slowly, and listened to deeply, or over and over rather quickly, like a chant. So nourishing!
In this morning’s meditation class, our teacher was sharing about having reconnected with a long-estranged older sister, and about how now she talks with him for two and a half hours at a time, during which he speaks maybe 99 seconds. It’s a matter of listening, to all that pours out of her, including admonitions of what he should and should not be doing in his life.
Oh, my.
I started this blog because my oldest son, Ian, said mom, you should start a blog. Oh yeah? I responded. What should I write about? Like the other night, he said, when you were telling me about what you would want to do on the last day of your life.
Ok. I’ll start there.