The Journey to Kindness and Compassion...Is a road we all need to walk in order to better our mind, body and spirit. All throughout our lives we take several journeys, some are large and cover the entire world on a physical level, while some are small, internal journeys where we walk along in search of our identity, our life path and our spirit. The internal path seems to be, in my own opinion, possibly the most ignored of all our paths. The Love Journey is the most important journey we can make in our lives.
Well, what is the Love Journey? It's an internal road that we can all walk in order to escape the daily bombardment of hate that we all face in the media, in the confusion of terrorist attacks, and in the despair of war. Sadly, most rampant is the hate that we show to those who live closest to us, our families, our neighbours, those we should care more about but neglect anyways; we even hate ourselves and our body image, constantly avoiding food while we slowly allow our bodies to die in starvation. These are only a few of the passive-aggressive ways in which we show hate. Whether you agree that these are examples of hate on a level with terrorists and war, these are simply a few examples that affect our daily lives and cause damage to our internal selves and, if not treated, to our spirits as well.
Although it may seem like an easy journey to make, the Love Journey could prove to be one of the hardest, rockiest roads for you if you've had your heart hardened due to hate. Hate can be born of several of the following elements: abuse, disapproval, anger, frustration, depression, self-loathing, societal-loathing, fear, and many more. The encouraging thing to understand is that although you may have experienced hate before, there is a way to get past it and move into the loving part of your spirit.
How do you find Love inside when you've been privy to Hate for so long? This isn't an easy question to answer because we are all so diverse in our beliefs, our culture and in our experiences. A good starting point is to look into yourself and see that there is something in there that holds beautiful qualities. How many times have you found yourself putting yourself down in just one day, let alone one year? Imagine how hard it would be to show love to others when you cannot show love to yourself. Now imagine how happy you would be if started complimenting yourself instead of hurting yourself. You can come up with some ideas on how you can allow your inner self to grow through self-love, here are a few examples; feel free to alter them to fit your own needs if you'd like:
Speak to yourself in front of a mirror, highlighting a few of the aspects of yourself that you love and affirm (out loud): "I love myself because ____________." Fill in the blank with your own response. There are other affirmations which you can discover on your own or in several meditation and self-love books. This is known as a Mirror Exercise.
Give yourself time for rest and relaxation, meditate and write a list of your love or life goals and how you wish to achieve them. Visualize yourself meeting those goals and write down how you will feel once those goals are achieved. After some progress go back and read your list and see how you've changed, write down your progress and comment on your journey and how you feel to date.
Keep a private journal and explore your inner self through writing. Be open to writing about the good and bad things, things you love and the things that make you uncomfortable. If you find there is something in life that make you uneasy ask yourself "why" and make an effort to discover what it is and make amends with it. Love comes out of understanding; although it's not always easy, when discomfort is addressed you might feel a wave of liberation due to letting go of what you had trouble with.
As I mentioned before, if these examples seem so easy, you might find that you are mistaken. The Love Journey is not simple, it does not pass overnight, but do not find discouragement in this because you too can find love inside for yourself and others; allow patience and compassion to melt your heart. The Love Journey is a beautiful thing in its difficulty because it allows you stir up all notions of who you thought you were, who you find yourself to really be, and the dirt and grime you find yourself cleaning off in the course of the journey. I'm still walking my journey, but I've passed the point of seeing love and compassion inside of my spirit, but I still have miles to go before I rest because I am willing to walk this road until I die; I know there are things in me that I still need to get through. I've started my journey and I am in awe of the beauty of life everyday because I view the world through a window of love. When you're ready to start your own Love journey, you'll find the best way to start is to take a step outside your comfort zone and start walking; your steps might be leaps or baby steps, but feel peace knowing that you are making an effort to better yourself.
Version 2 of Love is dedicated to the journey to love, kindness and compassion, making the first step of many, acknowledging that there is a step to make, and learning that it is okay to stumble along the path, just get back up and keep walking; feel peace in knowing that we'll get there together.
With Love and Smiles...Dhyantirth
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