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In this post, discover how embracing unconditional self-kindness provides a solid foundation for inner peace, emotional balance, and alignment with your true essence. You'll find out about the profound gifts self-kindness brings. These gifts don’t come from striving or trying to fix something, but from allowing. Allowing ourselves to be met with compassion, and full approval. Also, enjoy trying the nurturing, Short Reflection on Self-Kindness exercise, at the end of the post, to tune into what guidance your heart has for you at this time to support your path. Kindness is an inherent quality of the heart and our True Identity and essence. It’s part of what we are. What Does Self-Kindness Looks Like? ✽ Self-kindness means approaching yourself with warmth, compassion, understanding, and non-judgement — especially during times of stress or challenge. Rather than judging or criticizing yourself, it invites a gentle and supportive inner dialogue, along with patience and empathy. ✽ Embracing unconditional self-kindness is about offering yourself the same care and support you would naturally extend to someone you care about. It’s about fully accepting yourself, just as you are right now, knowing that you — and everyone — are always doing your best in any given moment. ✽ Self-kindness also helps one with looking deeply within, to heal judgement of others and the outer world. It also helps guilt, blame, shame, fear, and all the various forms that judgement takes, to fall away. Holding onto any kind of judgement puts stress on your system and drains your personal energy. All judgement arises from the ego, not from your true essence. ✽ Embracing unconditional self-kindness doesn’t mean doing everything perfectly or trying to be the perfect person (human self). Self-kindness also reminds us of the importance to not judge ourselves when judgement does arise. Thoughts of judgement are simply thoughts. That’s it. What also naturally happens with this type of spiritually conscious and heart-centered approach to any thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and challenges, is that we are able to view all of these with a sense of detachment and from the perspective, intelligence, clarity, and wholeness, of the true Self. Recognizing that we are not these things, but the awareness beyond it all. This remembering and knowing, brings with it a deep sense of inner liberation and peace that affects us on all levels of our being (physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually). Also, living consciously in this way, encourages us to be in the present moment, meeting the full spectrum of our feelings, emotions, and sensations without judgement, rather than ignoring, bypassing, or suppressing any of them, which can lead to stress, misalignment, and disharmony. Having self-compassion and a gentle, non-judgemental attitude to what we experience are important for vibrational alignment with well-being. (As a side note: looking at our emotions, thoughts, feelings, and issues can be overwhelming or challenging at times, especially if there has been trauma or if one is experiencing psychological issues. Be sure to consult and get support if needed, from a licensed professional or therapist.) Genuine kindness recognizes the Oneness of all of life with Source. It helps to transcend the ego and the illusion of separation 
A Few of the Other Gifts of Embracing Unconditional Self-Kindness Include: ✽ Bringing our awareness into the present moment (where our point of power is and where all possibilities exist) ✽ Raising our vibration and aligning us to our inner being essence — the true Self ✽ Triggering the release of feel-good chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine, which boost happiness ✽ Reducing stress, calming the nervous system and whole body, helping the body to feel safe and more grounded ✽ Building emotional and mental self-regulation ✽ Rewiring the body for greater overall health and well-being ✽ Rippling out, it inspires kindness, compassion, and care — qualities of the heart — to those we live with, around us and to the world ✽ Helping to support a healthy relationship with ourselves, others, our work, etc. ✽ Helping us to move forward in the natural flow of life with greater confidence, ease, and clarity A few years ago, during a challenging time period in which I was experiencing chronic body symptoms, I came to the point where I whole-heartedly committed to embracing unconditional self-kindness. I had been practicing self-love and self-kindness for years before that, but I came to realize it wasn’t always unconditional, especially in challenging situations. It became evident afterwards, that choosing unconditional self-kindness for myself was a key ingredient in my realignment with wholeness and peace. As I embraced unconditional self-kindness in my daily life, a shifting and transformation of the symptoms occurred. I felt renewed, recharged, revitalized and a deep reconnection, trust, and understanding of the innate intelligence that flows through the body. Unconditional self-kindness was instrumental in my healing. Sometimes it takes a challenging experience or situation to get our full attention on what’s not serving our highest good, so that it may be shifted. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Choosing to embrace and deeply align with unconditional self-kindness now is a beautiful gift to offer yourself. It will support you in making any shifts that your inner being essence — true Self is gently nudging you towards. Nurturing and strengthening your inner foundation now, will help you to meet, or perhaps avert in some instances, challenges with greater resilience and ease. You stay centered in who/what you truly are which is wholeness and peace. Unconditional self-kindness gently and lovingly leads us home — to the embodiment of our true essence and inherent magnificence. Exercise: A Short Reflection on Self-Kindness
Take a quiet moment when and where you won't be disturbed, to pause and connect with the intelligence of your heart and true Self, as you do the following exercise. ✽ Bring your inner attention to your heart center in the middle of your chest area. Imagine breathing in and out of your heart center as you take a few slow and gentle breaths — a little deeper than usual, but in a way that is completely easy for you. ✽ As you continue breathing in this manner, while keeping your gentle attention on your heart center, ask yourself the following questions. Feel free to write down your responses in a journal as doing so often provides greater insight and clarity. Write down whatever insights, impressions, words, feelings, etc. come to you without analyzing any of it. Simply allow the words to flow onto paper. ➡ Where in my life, have I been withholding self-kindness? ➡ How can I offer myself self-kindness and compassion in that situation(s)? ➡ What would embracing self-kindness feel like in my daily life? How would it shift the way I see and feel about myself…others…the world? ➡ What one thing can I do today to embrace self-kindness? ✽ As you move through the days to come, remember to follow the loving insights and wisdom, that you have now received from within. Feel free to share any of the responses or insights you receive, in the comment box below. In Oneness and Peace,
Maya Bringas
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Sometimes, in the midst of working on a project or task — especially under a deadline — it’s possible to get caught in a swirl of striving, pressure, or mental fog. But what if there’s another way? One with awareness, ease, and alignment, that honors your body’s natural rhythm. In the moment when stress arises, we’re often standing at an inner crossroads: one path leads to resistance and tension, and the other to calm, inner listening and connection. Let’s explore both. Then, I’ll guide you below, through a short, transformative, heart-centered practice to help you shift from stress and strain to ease and boosted clarity and creativity. ➡ As you read the two scenarios below, take a moment to reflect upon a time in your own life when you’ve found yourself on either path — and how each one shaped your experience. Scenario 1 You were trying to get a specific project or task completed. Maybe it required clear focus and called for some analysis, problem-solving, or a touch of creativity. Maybe it was a project that you needed to accomplish for work, and you had a deadline that you needed to meet. Or perhaps it was a time in school or when you were taking a class and learning something new. Whatever the specific situation, it may have begun as a fun or meaningful project, but somewhere along the way, the ideas were no longer flowing easily and you felt blocked. Self-doubt, over-analysis, worry, fear, or self-criticism may have crept in along the way. The voice of the inner critic was getting louder in those moments. You found yourself pushing through from the mind, trying to do the work, the assignment, project, or whatever it was. The more you pressed on, maybe even frantically to get it all done — striving, forcing, pushing yourself, trying to make the ideas come — instead you felt tense or stressed. Perhaps you’d describe it as feeling fuzzy-minded or foggy. The task then had begun to feel somewhat complicated or challenging. 
Scenario 2
Now reflect for a moment, on a time when you had another important project or task that you were working on. And in any moment when you felt unease, stress, or fatigue, you gave yourself permission to step away from the task awhile and take a break. During that pause, maybe you did something that’s fun for you and brings you joy. Perhaps you did some mindful breathing, meditated, took a walk in nature, watched a funny show, listened to music you enjoy, or spent time with your beloved pet, just to name a few examples. The break may have lasted an hour, a day, or even just a few minutes. You had recognized that you needed a little pause — to unwind, relax, and honor what your body was telling you. As you recall such an instance: ➡ How did it feel when you returned to the task? ➡ Did you notice that it was easier to concentrate? ➡ Perhaps you noticed that new insights and ideas came to you — almost like magic out of nowhere — without effort. That short pause may have felt like a little mini mind-vacation, that left you feeling refreshed, revitalized, and clear. From Survival Mode to Creation Mode: What the Science Reveals
When we try to make things happen, strive, force, push , this creates resistance to the natural flow of well-being. It causes strain and stress. ➡ When stressed or feeling unsafe, blood flow shifts away from the part of the brain that governs creativity and clear thinking, to the primitive part of the brain that is focused on survival and safety. ➡ And when we take moments to pause and tune into and naturally activate the qualities of the heart (joy, calm, ease, compassion, love, appreciation, gratitude, kindness etc.) and its intelligence, we re-center and re-align. The brain and body start to feel safe again, feel-good hormones are released, and blood flow shifts so that clear-thinking is restored and creative ideas can flow again. So, the benefits of heart-centered pausing are clearly evident as it activates heart-brain coherence and boosts heart-aligned action. Rather than pushing through from the mind, we can allow ourselves to flow from and with, the heart, our true inner being essence, and well-being. A Simple Practice to Pause, Tune-In and Re-Align with Your Body's Innate Intelligence The next time and anytime you notice any unease (stress) while working on a project or task, (and no urgent action is required — no emergency) try the following short practice. It requires no external resources or special conditions, only the connection with the resources already within you. And just a kind reminder to not judge yourself for any stress, worry, tension, frustration, anxiety, impatience, upset, or any kind of unease you notice you have been experiencing. It’s ok. Just notice with kindness, curiosity and compassion. (And refrain from judging any judging as well, if that occurs!) Step 1 Begin to take a few slow and gentle breaths that are a little deeper than usual, but completely comfortable for you. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your radiant, loving, heart center. (You can also place a hand on your heart, if it feels right for you and are able to safely do so in that particular moment). This step stops the impact of stress on your mind and body and eliminates the energy drain. Step 2 After doing step 1 for a couple of minutes or so (or longer if you like), as you continue breathing this way through your heart center, connecting more deeply with its innate intelligence and wisdom, internally gently say to your body: “I see you, hear you, and feel you. I care about you, and want you to feel safe and well. I love you. Thank you for all that you do. I appreciate you.” Then with self-compassion ask your body: “How can I help you right now?” “How can I support you?” And simply continue to rest and be (without trying to get answers to the questions) in the connection with your heart and body. You may naturally receive impressions, answers, or guidance in that moment, so just continue to be open and simply enjoy relaxing in the spaciousness of your heart essence. ✻ Then honor the loving and gentle wisdom within, by following any intuitive guidance you may receive. This is a simple yet valuable practice and it lets your body know that you are acknowledging and listening to it. And it shows your body how much you deeply care about it. It’s you offering yourself the support that you need. It is also a wonderful and powerful practice to do Step 1 above, right before working on an important project or such, as it will help you to flow into the task from a space of ease, self-compassion, and connection with the loving intelligence of your heart. And you will be more open to inspirational ideas and creativity, and boost clarity, concentration and focus, and purposeful engagement. Over the years, as I’ve learned to become more deeply aware and in tune with my inner body, I’ve been able to recognize the subtle signs of inner tension and the voice of the inner critic more quickly and clearly. This awareness helps me to stay anchored in presence, more often than not, without getting drawn into old patterns — and in those moments when I do get pulled out of presence, it gently supports a quicker return to inner stillness and peace with self-kindness and compassion. Heart-centered pausing has become a natural habit that I love. I’ve noticed the gentle, quiet inner shift that occurs when I give myself the gift of pausing in the heart. I then often find that new ideas and approaches, answers, solutions, and inspiration begin to flow naturally — sometimes even like simple miracles. Miracles reflecting the Truth of our being. 
I know that some reading this post may be attuned to vibrational therapies as well, like reiki. Integrating reiki with this short practice enhances the practice. I enjoy taking a heart-centered pause before activating reiki and they work beautifully together to boost the connection and alignment with our wholeness and clarity. And also, just simply tuning into the vibration and radiance of the heart feels so blissful! The heart carries a gentle yet profound power and intelligence that blesses every part of us — more than most people might ever imagine. I would love it if they taught about this in schools! As a vibrational therapy practitioner and meditator for many years, I have personally experienced — and have also witnessed in others that I work with — the heart's innate power and energy. And more recently, I have learned so much more about the intelligence of the heart through the HeartMath® Certified Practitioner training I completed. I've come to understand even more about its intelligence and have deepened my connection with it. The magnificence that the heart holds, is always available and ready to be tapped into more deeply for personal and planetary alignment, healing, and transformation. (Stay tuned — I will continue to share more about the loving power and intelligence of the heart in my upcoming e-newsletters and blog posts). So, remember to give yourself the permission to pause and center in the peaceful essence of your heart when any unease arises, and simply to relax into the magnificence that you are. And your whole being will appreciate your loving attention and kindness. May you enjoy the beautiful connection with your sacred essence. In Oneness and Peace, Maya Bringas PS. If you would like one-to-one personalized support on the path of embodying awakened consciousness and living more deeply attuned to the natural rhythm of your wholeness, I invite you to explore my Reconnect with Inner Harmony Program: Inner Peace, Balance, and Empowerment Through Heart-Centered Alignment. It would be my honor and pleasure to gently guide you on your path of transformation and alignment with your true essence, welcoming the natural unfolding of well-being, clarity, and balance in your life. Feel free to share this post with those who you feel would be interested in the content.
The inner critic is the voice in the mind of all humans that says we are not good enough. It judges the self, others and the world. It is the voice of confusion, separation, disharmony and illusion. It is fear, unconsciousness (in spiritual terms) and unawareness. It runs on auto-pilot and if one is unaware of it and doesn’t learn how to become mindful of it, it can run wild and become louder and more hostile. In contrast, peace, is the essence that we all are. It exists within all of life and is eternal and unchanging. Our inner peace is love, Oneness, and divine/universal Truth. It is stillness, consciousness, and awareness. We are always in charge of what we choose to join with, identify as, and invest our energy into at any given moment. There are two choices. We can choose to either join with the inner critic or inner peace. To list just a few, some of the qualities, beliefs, patterns, and energies, characteristic of the inner critic include: -inner bully, bossy, self-doubt, isolation, victimhood, critical, harsh, guilt, indecision, separation consciousness, conflict, limitation, unworthiness, complains, blames, and energy that feels chaotic/frantic/incoherent. Some examples of thoughts that arise from the inner critic are those such as: “I’ve got more work to do on myself. I’m not quite there yet.” “Other people can get what they want, but not me.” “I don’t deserve to be happy.” “There is something wrong with me.” “There is something wrong with that person.” “I’m being punished.” “I have to wait until everything is perfect.” “I’m not (smart…pretty…handsome…slim…fat...) enough.” “I’m too old.” “I’m better than them.” “They are better than me.” And so on… Clearly the inner critic has no interest nor desire for inner peace! However, joining and identifying with the true essence of peace that we are, aligns us to our wholeness and to qualities, beliefs, patterns, and energies such as: -inner gentleness, softness, reassurance, compassion, trust in divine/universal order, innocence, stability, harmony, flow, acceptance, connection, love, Oneness/unity consciousness, worthiness, and energy that feels calm/still/coherent. How we often feel reflects where we are placing our attention and focus. Is your attention, focus, and therefore your energy, on the inner critic or inner peace? Buying into the ideas, thoughts, and tactics of the inner critic is draining and exhausting. Buying into its fears can also hold you back from living your heart's true desires or keep you stuck. Beneath/beyond any loud, noisy, frantic, hectic energy of the inner critic, the quiet stillness, calm and peace is always present and available. No matter what patterns of behavior or habits you've had in the past, the present moment always provides the opportunity to choose inner peace; peace of mind. In my upcoming Joining with Inner Stillness and Peace Workshop on June 15th you will learn how to deepen your awareness of the ever-present, loving, calming, grounding, stillness and peace within. Learn how you can join with it consistently at any moment throughout the day, every day, and transform your life’s experiences. By integrating the simple, practical and effective tools that I will share in the workshop into your daily routine, you will be able to experience alignment to your magnificence, peace and wholeness. I invite you to check out the details of the workshop if you would like to: -invest your energy into inner peace rather than the inner critic -let go of worrying and fears and live rooted in the present now moment -let self-judgement fall away so that compassion and love can bloom freely and abundantly -be more in tune with your inner essence of peace (true Self) -learn how to experience true and lasting inner peace -enjoy greater inner liberation, relaxation, and well-being of body, mind, and soul So if you would like to join in my upcoming Joining with Inner Stillness and Peace Workshop in Edmonton, I would love to see you there. No previous experience is required and it is suitable for both those who are new to these ideas and practices and also for those who are already familiar with them. A desire to join more deeply with inner peace is all that is needed. Listen to your heart. It will let you know whether to join at this time. If you have any questions, feel free to let me know. You can find the workshop details HERE.  In Oneness,
Maya Bringas If you enjoyed reading this article and found it helpful, feel free to share it with those that may be interested in the content. Sharing is caring! Let's spread the love and peace! |