Good Practice
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- Category: Connect
- Published: Thursday, 01 October 2020 11:10
- Written by Cherry
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"When something is painful, stressful, or upsetting, try to slow down to observe your reactions to this suffering. Ask yourself if you are downplaying or denying the parts of life that are hard for you. See what happens if you simply name your reactions to yourself, such as,"This is tiring ... that hurts... I'm a little sad ... ouch." Along with this basic acknowledgement, try to have feelings of support and compassion for yourself.
Be aware of now you might be adding suffering to your day, perhaps rehashing resentments in your mind or getting stressed about truly little things. It's really useful to be interested in how you make your own suffering. And when you see yourself doing this, slow down and see if you can make a deliberate choice to stop fuelling and reinforcing this add-on suffering. old habits may take a while to change, but if you make this choice again and again, gradually it will become a new good habit.
From time to time, consider how a particular experience could be changing your brain bit by bit, for better or worse. When you know this is happening, how might it shift the way you approach different situations?"
From 'Neurodharma' (chapter 2) by Rick Hanson (2020)