Lately, I’ve noticed that I’ve lost patience with myself. I become frustrated when I don’t do a task as quickly as I would like or as efficiently. I got annoyed by my feelings or my thoughts. Basically, I am not a good friend to myself at the moment. If I treated my friends the way I’ve been treating myself, I wouldn’t have any friends. So this month I want to focus on being a friend to myself and a better friend to others starting with this mantra: “I’m filled with loving kindness for myself and others”.
Loving kindness is tenderness and compassion toward others or toward yourself or both. Unfortunately, it’s common for people to be insensitive, impatient, frustrated, angry, and treat themselves with less compassion than they would anyone else. I’ve definitely fallen into this pattern and it’s a pattern I’m going to break this month. I’m going to be aware of the negative things I tell myself and change my inner dialogue from criticize to support as a friend. For example, if a friend told me that they felt frustrated by their lack of motivation to complete a task I would say that’s understandable and maybe it’s a good thing to take a break right now to see if that helps their motivation later. What I say to myself in that situation now? GET OVER IT. Not the most supportive or sensitive statement and that’s a pretty tame example.
I also notice that my negative and frankly rude thoughts about myself can leak into my relationships with others. By practicing loving kindness toward myself, I also hope that it will spread out to others around as well. I would like to treat others with loving kindness because I believe everyone deserves compassion. I hope to become more understanding, more empathetic, and more patient with people in my life, especially those I love.
So, it’s time to treat myself with more compassion and remind myself throughout the day to be kind to myself and others. By practicing this mantra and applying it to my life, I hope to become kinder, gentler, and more positive in general. I hope that it will relieve anxieties linked to negative thoughts about myself and provide increased mental wellness. What do you think of this month’s mantra?