Mindful Nugget: Meet Your Dragons

See if this mindful nugget resonates with you. One of my favorite quotes is,  

 “Meet your dragons with a shaky hand and a tender heart.” – Pema Chodron 

Your “dragons” are your fears (often unfinished business). We all have this business and these fears. It is often more comfortable to avoid our fears than to greet them.  

A “shaky hand” refers to the truth, that we all shake when we are scared. It is only natural. 

And a “tender heart” refers to self-compassion, the importance of being gentle with ourselves as we do the hard things in life. Self-compassion is being a friend to ourselves. 

A large part of mindfulness practice is greeting everything at the door with acceptance, no matter what shows up, and remembering that it is ok to shake when the things that show up are challenging, difficult or painful. The more gentle we are with ourselves, the more likely we are to approach challenges in our lives rather than avoiding them. 

The less we avoid, the bigger our world gets. This invites us to lead the fullest life humanly imaginable. 

See if these words ring true for you.  

Be well. 

Ariel