There isn’t much more that needs to be said about the year 2020, it was a tough and trying year for the majority of us and something I am happy to put behind me. The turn of the calendar gives all of us a chance for a fresh start on a clean slate, it is time to leave tough events of the past year firmly in the past and focus on what is right in front of us now. Here is some things I will be doing to tackle the new year and I encourage everybody to do them as well.
Approach Each Day as a Clean Slate
As the Dalai Lama has said, people live their life as if they are never going to die and then die having never truly lived. People nowadays worry too much about mistakes in the past and stress themselves about the future that they aren’t truly living, to truly live life we must always make the best of what is currently in front of us. I know how hard it is to fight anxiety and stress about the future, it is something I have to battle almost daily, but fighting against this feeling and just enjoying the current moment has already done wonders for me and I truly encourage everyone to try their best to fight the desire to dwell and worry.
Live Each Day with Gratitude
Even in our worst times in life there are still things we can look at and be thankful for. I have struggled personally a lot with depression so I know how hard it can be to look at the positives at your lowest but I assure everybody that they are there, at the very least you can be thankful you are still alive and able to turn things around. I wish I had this mentality earlier in life as this way of thinking makes me appreciate the good times even more and am better able to weather the bad times. One simple practice I encourage everyone to add into their daily routine, every morning you wake up think of things you are grateful for and every night before you go to bed do the same thing.
Try To Do One Act of Kindness Everyday
The one thing we can always control is how we treat other people, I am a believer in karma and putting good vibes out into the world and doing nice things will come back and repay you. Even if you don’t believe in karma, doing nice things for people is proven to improve people’s mental states and make them feel better, it always feels nice to give or to help someone turn their day around.
Practice Loving Kindness Meditation
This form of meditation can be very difficult, as pouring love onto yourself and others can feel unnatural, but it can have great benefits. Here is how you can practice loving kindness meditation (passage quoted from article linked below):
There are different ways to practice this form of meditation, each based on different Buddhist traditions, but each variation uses the same core psychological operation. During your meditation, you generate kind intentions toward certain targets including yourself and others.
The following is a simple and effective loving kindness meditation technique to try.
- Carve out some quiet time for yourself (even a few minutes will work) and sit comfortably. Close your eyes, relax your muscles, and take a few deep breaths.
- Imagine yourself experiencing complete physical and emotional wellness and inner peace. Imagine feeling perfect love for yourself, thanking yourself for all that you are, knowing that you are just right—just as you are. Focus on this feeling of inner peace, and imagine that you are breathing out tension and breathing in feelings of love.
- Repeat three or four positive, reassuring phrases to yourself. These messages are examples, but you can also create your own:
- May I be happy
- May I be safe
- May I be healthy, peaceful, and strong
- May I give and receive appreciation today
Next, bask in feelings of warmth and self-compassion for a few moments. If your attention drifts, gently redirect it back to these feelings of loving kindness. Let these feelings envelop you.
You can choose to either stay with this focus for the duration of your meditation or begin to shift your focus to loved ones in your life. Begin with someone who you are very close to, such as a spouse, a child, a parent, or a best friend. Feel your gratitude and love for them. Stay with that feeling. You may want to repeat the reassuring phrases.
Once you’ve held these feelings toward that person, bring other important people from your life into your awareness, one by one, and envision them with perfect wellness and inner peace. Then branch out to other friends, family members, neighbors, and acquaintances. You may even want to include groups of people around the world.
Extend feelings of loving kindness to people around the globe and focus on a feeling of connection and compassion. You may even want to include those with whom you are in conflict to help reach a place of forgiveness or greater peace.
When you feel that your meditation is complete, open your eyes. Remember that you can revisit the wonderful feelings you generated throughout the day. Internalize how loving kindness meditation feels, and return to those feelings by shifting your focus and taking a few deep breaths.
Make sure you check out the full article on LKM here
I strongly recommend this form of meditation because it has had very noticeable positive effects for me in my own life. Two areas it has really helped me with is how I treat others and my social anxiety. Getting into the routine of this practice, it is much easier to not get annoyed or angry with people like usual but see the good in them, the person that may rub you the wrong way is a great friend to someone else, it is all about perspective. Regarding social anxiety, this is something I have dealt with my whole life and something that has really improved recently, loving kindness meditation being a key factor why. Pouring love onto myself helps me be a lot more confident in all areas of life and helps me let go and not dwell on the stupid things I may say or the embarrassing moments that we all go through.
The mind is like a muscle, so the more we practice something the easier it becomes, so it is ok to feel frustrated when you first try meditation but if you stick with it I promise it will become easier and you will see the benefits play out in your life.
I hope this article can help anyone that reads it, I know there are tons of people in the world struggling right now and I want to try and help as many as I can. One thing we should all remember, we are in complete control of our mind so we should strive to make it a great place to be.
May we all have a blessed 2021
Green Buddhist 