Actively view disruption and messiness as valuable opportunities for personal change and transformation. This is because significant transformation rarely occurs in neat, clean, or painless circumstances.
Consciously use all life’s difficulties and suffering as “mud” or “murky nutrients” for your growth. These experiences are essential for your transformation and enable you to contribute uniquely to society.
Stop seeking definitive answers or trying to fix everything, and instead, engage in a continuous process of discovery, appreciating the beauty and sacredness of the unknown. This allows for ongoing learning and prevents the illusion of complete knowledge.
Approach every situation, person, or idea as if encountering it for the very first time, flushing away prior conditioning and assumptions. This practice reveals new insights and allows for continuous rediscovery.
Integrate short moments of silence throughout your day, even just one or two minutes of focused breathing. This practice helps you speak from your heart rather than a “swirling mind,” leading to more grounded engagement with the world.
Be present with pain and suffering for a moment, allowing the sensation to process within your body rather than running away from it. This direct engagement is crucial for healing your own internal “tenderness” and fostering transformation.
Allow your body to guide you by observing physical sensations like fear without immediate mental analysis. This helps the sensation process naturally in the body, preventing the mind from over-involvement and potential escalation.
When witnessing death or contemplating mortality, allow yourself to experience the profound softness, openness, and authenticity that can arise. This perspective helps cultivate “tenderness” as a gentle, sacred way of being in daily life.
Strive to engage with the world and your own life from a place of gentleness and softness. This enables you to take action from an open, sacred, and heart-centered place, rather than from tension or frustration.
When feeling vulnerable or experiencing emotional “tenderness,” remain present and engaged with it, rather than trying to escape or numb the feelings. This fosters a “powerful, liberating tenderness” and avoids reliance on harmful coping mechanisms.
Actively work on developing “heart consciousness” by using practices such as breathwork, song, meditation, chanting, and stillness to return to a heart-centered state. This allows you to operate from a distinct, deeper form of consciousness.
Strive to “be love” by engaging in the direct experience of being in the world every moment, free from judgment, the need for expertise, or the desire to fix things. This state of simply being allows for a profound experience of love and keeps the heart open.
Practice observing babies as they look around, noting their lack of judgment or prior knowledge. This can help you develop a similar state of pure observation and “not knowing,” which embodies a form of unconditional love.
Engage in meditation if you are a seeker, open to a quest of inquiry into life and self, and willing to live in ambiguity without expecting definitive answers. This practice is for those who embrace the process of inquiry itself.
If meditation is new to you, avoid starting an intense practice during times of extreme chaos or turmoil. Your system is accustomed to existing coping mechanisms, and a new, intense practice might be overwhelming.