It's not about 'fixing' yourself

“Don’t meditate to fix yourself, to heal yourself, to improve yourself, to redeem yourself; rather, do it as an act of love. In this way there is no longer any need for the subtle aggression of self-improvement, for the endless guilt of not doing enough.”

Bob Sharples, from Meditation: Calming the Mind

Yes, it’s about meditation. 

BUT, it applies to ANYTHING. 

I’ve experienced it, you’ve experienced it. When we put pressure on ourselves to expect a certain outcome, we feel abominably SHIT when we don’t achieve it. 

With activities like meditation, the more you try and wish away your thoughts, the more they’ll appear. Sort of like when you want peace and quiet, a chainsaw starts hacking away, a dog starts yelping, and a baby far off into the distance starts crying. 

But what if we did things out of generosity to ourselves? 

For example, if we want to get fitter, we view each training session as a chance to be generous to our bodies. 

This prevents the frustration we get when we don’t see progress, or the pressure to hurry up and ‘fix’ ourselves. Instead, of saying “I need to be better”, “I should’ve improved by now”, treat it like a gift, expect nothing in return, and simply enjoy the process.

Jo