I’m reminded that “in Recovery” is a tender place. It’s a softening. It’s heart opening. It makes me vulnerable… in a good way.
Something I heard at my 12-step meeting for food addicts that got me thinking about this. Our fellow said that when we are in Recovery we should consider that a place of intensive care. I heard this more as a recommendation to pay attention to the focused healing part of intensive care, rather than absorption with the injury or wounds that have taken us there.
Having just listened to Susan Piver‘s Daily Dharma Gathering taught today by Kate Lila Wheeler, I’m noticing that the meditation practice of loving kindness feels closely aligned with being in Recovery.
In Recovery we work the tools that help us to stay safe and free from harm, inwardly and outwardly. The practice of loving kindness does the same.
We become happier in mind and heart when we are in Recovery. This happens, too, with the practice of loving kindness.
Our bodies are a vehicle for liberation and become healthier and stronger both in Recovery and on the path of loving kindness.
Being in Recovery teaches us we have enough, we do enough, we are enough. Loving kindness practice helps us to live with ease, knowing that we have what we need to support ourselves.
Thanks so much to those lineages of family, loving kindness practitioners, and Recovery fellows who have brought us to life and offered us tools to help us align with our own goodness; and to help us develop a friendly, respectful and mindful relationship with what is arising for us.
May you be safe and protected, inwardly and outwardly.
May you be happy in your mind and heart.
May your body be healthy and strong. And when it’s not healthy and strong, may you be at ease with it, and may it be a vehicle for your liberation.
May you live with ease. May you have what you truly need to support you so that your heart can open.
Love & Light,
Valerie
Photo: Justine Hand http://www.gardenista.com/posts/diy-ode-to-spring-bouquet
Thank you for your thought provoking words of wisdom today! They are beautifully written!
Theolyn
Thank you, Theolyn.
I hope you and David are tucked in and cozy.
Stay warm and safe.
Love & Light,
Valerie
What a lovely post … thank you!
It reminded me of the chapter on loving-kindness and compassion in Phillip Moffatt’s book, “From Emotional Chaos to Clarity: Move from the Reactive Mind to the Clarity of the Responsive Mind.”
Specifically, he describes (at pp. 127-128) certain phrases he developed for a loving-kindness meditation, and suggests that you repeat them first for yourself, then for your loved ones and friends, then for teachers, strangers, and enemies, and finally for all sentient beings:
“May I be safe from internal and external harm.
May I have a calm, clear mind and a peaceful, loving heart.
May I be physically strong, healthy, and vital.
May I experience love, joy, wonder, and wisdom in this life, just as it is.”
Nice, yes?
Oops, that book title is “From Emotional Chaos to Clarity: Move from the Chaos of the Reactive Mind to the Clarity of the Responsive Mind.”
Dear Em,
Thank you very much for your comment! I’d like to pass it along in my next post. Okay?
Love & Light,
Valerie
Absolutely! It was a great book … we read it in our recovery dharma group.
Although it’s Phillip Moffitt, not Moffatt. Heh.