August 2021

I came across a video this morning of Francis Weller talking about grief. I must say, it felt to come at the perfect time. I have been experiencing a lot of grief about the state of our collective and his explanation of the many gates of grief was affirmative for me.

Below is the video (with discussion about the five gates starting at 3:03, though the whole thing is worth a watch). That said, I'll just quickly outline the five gates he mentions here. If you have thoughts or reflections on any of these, I would love to hear them:

1. Grief that occurs when we lose something or someone that we love

2. Grief that occurs when we lose some part of ourselves we've never known

3. Grief related to the losses of the world, the sorrow of the world

4. Grief for what we expected when we came into this world but did not receive

5. Ancestral grief

He notes that in our modern societies, we tend only to really acknowledge the first type. Just hearing him talk about the additional gates of grief felt deeply validating.

 

 

Beautiful, humbling words, Rachel. Thank you for sharing another one of your lovely blog posts. 

Reading it reminded me of something Sean said in a weekly call for the teacher training program a while back. He offered the reminder that teaching mindfulness is not about us; it is about helping others. This of course applies to modalities beyond mindfulness as well.

There is a short clip of that talk here:

 

Thank you for sharing J.D. - and welcome to the community! Relating to what you've said, I do believe managing anxiety requires a holistic approach - community, nourishing lifestyle habits, awareness, rest, and so forth. It seems like you're covering a lot of angles in your approach!

Thank you for sharing this, Eve. I can relate to what you've said as I am constantly trying to mind my phone usage. Sometimes, I am able to recognize unconscious scrolling, but sometimes not. It's definitely a journey. 

Day 13

Self ~ compassion

I found the expressions in The end of the video very helpful to offer ourselves a sense of compassion and kindness through difficult and challenging times. 

1. Areas of my life where I can be more forgiving are …  This reminded me of the forgiveness prayer that personally helped me a lot to forgive moments from the past in Childhood.
2. If I were more forgiving of these areas, it would allow me to….

As I was able to forgive that was the first time that allowed me to let go and move forward much easier with life.
Thanks for this  self compassion video, It feels always “connecting”  to bring a sense of self compassion to the moment and yourself.