Your weekend reset 💫

Today’s Soul Food is a beautiful anecdote from the beloved Buddhist teacher, Pema Chodron, about being less reactive to the outer world.

She explains how we humans often blame everything around us—the world, the weather, other people, the government, and more. It's too hot, too cold, it doesn’t smell good, etc. We try to protect ourselves by eliminating and covering up all the things that bother us.

Pema compares this to walking barefoot across scorching sand. It’s painful and frustrating, so we might think, “Oh, I’ll just cover the entire field with leather to protect my feet!"

This is like trying to eliminate everything in life that bothers us, believing that by doing so, we’ll be happy and content. But in reality, covering an entire field with leather is impractical.

What if instead, you simply wrapped the leather around your feet? In other words, what if you wore shoes? 😌 

Then, walking across the hot sand wouldn’t bother you at all.

Working with your mind, instead of trying to change everything around you, Pema says, is the key to finding ease. And as Shantideva wisely said, “If you want to protect your feet, wear shoes; and if you want to protect yourself from the world’s provocations, tame your mind. The antidote to misery is to stay present.”

You can watch her two-minute video sharing the message here! Thanks for the wisdom, Pema 🙌

Take a long, slow, deep breath in…

Start to cultivate feelings of love, peace, gratitude, and kindness inside your heart.

Now begin to radiate that love throughout your entire body.

Then radiate that love to someone you care about deeply.

Next share that love with a stranger whose face you can imagine, but whose name you don’t know.

Then radiate that love throughout your entire city and country. Then, extend it to the world.

And finally, remember that all that love, is coming from inside of you.

Exhale.