Step Six

Many people fall in a negative pattern of mind after something has happened to them. They believe things are “irreversible” and that they “have been damaged forever”. Therefore, they easily get stuck in this sense of permanence, which arises from a tendency to be trapped in the past, recalling events in an overgeneral way. The over-generality is fed by a tendency to suppress memories of events we don't like or by simply fixating over them. 

Once our memories are overgeneral, we don't return to the specifics of what has actually happened in the past. Instead, we get caught and trapped inside our sense of guilt for what has happened and hopelessness about anything ever changing in the future. It feels permanent, but the good news is that it is temporary, it can change.

Mindfulness releases us from the trap of overgenerality. Its training makes memory more specific because we have explored an alternative to the automatic tendency to avoid what has happened, getting you stuck in the past and putting a fog over the future. All of the meditations and awareness exercises that we've done each have contributed to learning that there is a new possibility for you. 

Sometimes, all the meditations you've practiced up to now can leave a corner of your mind untouched. Somehow, many people seem to be able to meditate for months but still never really hear the message of kindness for themselves. They think of meditation as another thing to do. 

Therefore, if you want to go one step further into your journey and not only bring the bounty piece that comes from cultivating mindfulness, but also help to sustain it in the light of the stresses that life throws at you. You need to relate to the world with kindness and compassion. And you can only do this if you come home to who you are, accepting yourself with deepest respect, honor and love. 

 

In the meditation of this step you acknowledge that however hard you find it to be compassionate to others, it can feel even harder to bring kindness to yourself. Step Six helps you bring kindness back into your life.