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- Mystery Gift Box #023 | Maitrī
Mystery Gift Box #023 | Maitrī
The best hidden gems I've found; interesting ideas and concepts, thought-provoking questions, mind-blowing books/podcasts, cool animes/films, and other mysteries ❤️
Hey friends,
I failed. I couldn’t reach my newsletter goal this week.
I was planning to share my January learnings but need more time to finish organising my January readings. This week’s has been a busy one with two big deadlines coming up this month. Luckily, February’s exploration is an experience type and so it gives me more time to organise and write up 💪🏼
This sets me up perfectly to talk about Maitrī.
In Buddhism, Maitrī means unconditional loving-kindness towards ourselves.
My favourite way to think about Maitrī is the unconditional friendship with oneself. This should be the training every single day. The complete acceptance of ourselves.
We are not perfect.
And we will never be.
We should aim to love all qualities of ourselves… especially the qualities that are the painful parts of ourselves. Those are the hardest to love yet it’s the most important.
Being loving-kind to myself is something I struggle with. I don’t know how to balance between being kind to yourself vs pushing yourself to grow…
Over the years, I have started doing two things whenever I am highly critical of myself:
Be aware of it when it happens (catch it).
Voice it, question it, and rephrase.
The key is to catch it. Be aware of it when it happens. This is the hard part. If you want to take a small step in being more loving towards yourself, just focus on the first step → catch it ❤️🔥
I started this newsletter with “I failed”. I didn’t even notice it until I reread it…
I didn’t fail… I couldn’t reach my newsletter goal this week. It’s fine. I will try again next week.
Once I catch it, I would voice it out to start a dialogue with myself. I would question the hell out of it if it’s a big inner critic voice. And then I would rephrase and remind myself of who I am.
The journey goes down, not up.
Instead of transcending all sufferings, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. We explore the reality and the unpredictability of insecurity and pain and we try not to push it away.
— The Pocket of Pema Chodron
⛰ 4-4-4 Exploration Project
Each month, I would explore one new thing; a skill, a subject, or an experience.
January 2023: Writing and Storytelling (Subject)
February 2023: (Experience)
🎶 A song from a friend
📚 This week, I finished reading…
Have interesting gems you want to share with me and others? Share it by replying to this email and I will include it in the next gift box :)
With love,
Ryan O. 🎮
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