Wowee...an additional tool for the medicine kit!

So I have been working on asking my "Shadow Self" (mentioned 2 posts ago) what the different images and dreams represented by my unconscious mind mean. I have been successfully assuming the perspectives of these images, dreams, and people and talking/befriending them even when they are not always very becoming. To add to that, I stared to use the perspectives and feelings I come up through the "Shadow Self" practice to gain a greater connection with everything around me.

Below are two paragraphs from Pema Chodron's Taking the Leap Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears. I would have underlined the title of the book but this blog does not underlining capabilities :). I suggest working with the "Shadow Self" practice mentioned from 2 posts ago and then bringing in the practice listed below.

Whatever pleasure or discomfort, happiness or misery you are experiencing, you can look at other people and say to yourself, "Just like me they don't want to feel this kind of pain." Or "Just like me they appreciate feeling this kind of contentment."

When things fall apart and we can't get the pieces back together, when we lose something dear to us, when the whole things is just not working and we don't know what to do, this is the time when the natural warmth of tenderness, the warmth of empathy and kindness, are just waiting to be uncovered, just waiting to be embraced. This is our chance to come out of our self-protecting bubble and to realize that we are never alone. This is our chance to finally understand that wherever we go, everyone we meet is essentially just like us. Our own suffering, if we turn toward it, can open us to a loving relationship with the world.-Pema Chodron

Thank you World, Pema Chodron, and Ken Wibur for bringing both of these practices in my life. You have helped me learn to open up to life and myself in ways I may never have become aware of.