Week Six | NOVEMBER 18, 2005
Plan for Living
DAY FIVE: Maintain Compassion
Of all of our work over the last six weeks, I think that learning how to cultivate compassion is the most important. Spending time by ourselves, practicing yoga, pursuing activities that make us happy, and meditating all help us strengthen our ability to relate better to ourselves and the people around us. After all, what good is a beautiful yoga practice if you never leave your mat?
As you continue further along the path, remember to:
Find people who personify compassion and let them inspire you. Perhaps you'll be moved to donate your time or your money to the service of others.
Make the effort throughout your day to connect with the people you come in contact with, whether it's holding the door, smiling at a stranger, or saying bless you when the person behind you in line sneezes.
Reach out to your current friends, and throw caution to the wind to forge new friendships.
Find ways to extend compassion to people who get under your skin.
The kindness that you give to others will always come back to you through the feelings of goodness that it brings you.
Challenge Wrap-Up
"The end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
--T.S. Eliot
Congratulations on your hard work. As we hope you have learned throughout these six weeks, finding the time to relax and take moments for yourself are just as important as regular exercise and a healthy diet.
If you're under constant stress or feeling anxious about life, your body knows it. Left unchecked, stress can lead to high blood pressure, depression, stomach problems, back and neck pain and heart trouble, just to name a few.
So your assignment as you go forward into the frenetic pace of the holiday season is to slow down, breathe and to see any obstacles before you in the largest possible context of your life so that you may gain perspective. Those deadlines or hard days are rarely big enough to ruin your life, unless you let them. It's all about dealing with things in a positive manner, and hopefully through these weeks, you have developed the ability to do just that.
Congratulations and good luck. Celebrate your achievements with everyone else on the Mind-Body message boards.
