Address your inner critic as ‘you’ (a demon) rather than ‘me,’ using playful mockery and goodwill instead of anger to diminish its power. Cultivate a relationship of friendship and care with yourself by asking ‘How do you feel?’ to foster self-compassion and understanding.
Develop awareness of your body’s innate intelligence by feeling its weight resting on the earth, relaxing muscles, and noticing sensations. This helps to unplug from mental programs and connect to a natural, given state of being, and can be enhanced by standing meditation or visualizing yourself as a rooted tree.
Instead of striving for 100% effort, aim for 75-80% to foster receptivity, playfulness, and holistic awareness of your body and heart. This approach allows for natural balance and is ultimately more effective than constant strain, as 100% effort often obscures receptivity.
Undertake training rules to avoid harming living creatures, taking what isn’t given, sexual misconduct, harsh speech, and intoxicants. These precepts are a vehicle to happiness, self-respect, and freedom from regret, fostering trust and security in relationships because people can rely on your conduct.
Actively participate in a community of practice or cooperation to gain support, receive compassionate feedback on blind spots, and foster harmony. This collective endeavor is essential for personal growth and for addressing shared human struggles through cooperation.
When overwhelmed by negative thoughts, take a breath and consciously shift your attention to simple bodily sensations, like feeling your feet, or keep your eyes open. This provides a direct way to unplug from corrosive mental states and allow emotional waves to pass without engaging them.
Redirect your intentions from seeking external satisfaction to finding peace within, such as by sending loving kindness to others or being at peace with discomfort. Approach this practice with gentleness and steadiness, not force or impatience, to achieve richer, more satisfying results.
Refrain from turning your mind into a tribunal that constantly blames, judges, and punishes yourself or others. Instead, acknowledge core emotions like anger or upset directly, take a breath, and ask ‘How’s that?’ to move towards understanding rather than endless rumination.
Abandon the idea of human supremacy over other beings or individual supremacy over others, recognizing that this mindset corrodes compassion and leads to conflict. Instead, embrace the shared humanity and interconnectedness with all life to foster cooperation and mutual enjoyment.