“Your mind is like a piece of land planted with many different kinds of seeds: seeds of joy, peace, mindfulness, understanding, and love; seeds of craving, anger, fear, hate, and forgetfulness. These wholesome and unwholesome seeds are always there, sleeping in the soil of your mind. The quality of your life depends on the seeds you water… The seeds that are watered frequently are those that will grow strong.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

You might be as reeling, heartbroken, and worn out as I am by the events this past week, only adding to the crisis load we’ve all been carrying.

Our society is in deep need of renewal and healing. We’re seeing who we become when we cultivate the seeds of fear, hatred, greed, ignorance, othering, White supremacy, …

How do we keep cultivating the seeds for a society rooted in integrity, equity, inclusion, and wellbeing for all?

How do we keep showing up to do the inner and outer work every day?

If you’re in need of rest, give yourself permission to stop doing, unplug, and simply be, even if for a little while. We cannot show up for each other and our world without periods of rest. This is a marathon.

As I think about the long road ahead, what’s been helpful for me to keep going is focusing on a long-term intention to contribute more kindness, integrity, healing, and justice to the world. Our intention is what we’re inclining our mind toward - the seeds we seek to cultivate.

May I meet each moment with clarity and kindness. May life use me well to bring more kindness, integrity, healing, and justice to the world.

Rather than focusing our intention on the wants and fears of our small, fear-based self, we can find strength and freedom in widening and deepening our intention. We can let it be an expression of our core values and what truly matters.

Finding your deepest intention might take some digging. It can be helpful to ask yourself: Does this intention feel alive in my heart and body, not just my mind? Does it energize and inspire me in the direction of becoming my wisest, most compassionate self?

When we get triggered, we can stop, take a breath, and reconnect with our intention before responding. We can let it be a guide as we’re moving through our day, doing our work, interacting with the people in our lives, and caring for our body, heart, and mind.

What’s your deepest intention? What seeds do you want to cultivate?

With love,

Sarah-Marie

Have things ever felt more uncertain? No-one knows how the coming week, month, and year will unfold. Amidst this uncertainty, I’ve been finding some solace and courage in a twelfth century Tibetan prophecy on the Shambhala Warrior as told by activist and scholar Joanna Macy (see video below).

The prophecy calls us to train in the tools of compassion and insight so we can dismantle the forces of division and destruction and bring about the more compassionate, equitable, and sustainable world we know is possible.

The darkest hour is right before the dawn.

I believe this moment calls for our moral imagination and sustained personal and collective action toward the kind of world we want to create – no matter what the coming week and months bring.

The first step of transformative change involves clearly seeing reality in this moment. If we resist the way things are, we cannot bring about positive change. Right now, we can let the grief, anger, anxiety move through and be aware of the thoughts and stories we hear and tell ourselves. What are you present to? What do you know to be true?

Second, grounded in reality, we can imagine a future of individual and collective wellbeing and the values we’d like to see in action. What do you stand for? How do you want to be? What kind of world do you want to pass on to future generations?

And third, we take micro-steps and collective action to move ourselves and others in the direction of that future. What's the next small step you can take? *Please vote if you can and haven’t already.*

It’s all a practice. We practice so we grow our capacity to meet whatever life brings with compassion and insight, with care and clarity. We practice so that we can imagine and create a more beautiful future, for all of life.

In this together for the long haul.

With love,

Sarah-Marie

Resources

Guided Meditations

RAIN of Self-Compassion [16:34] to work with difficult emotions and cultivate self-compassion.

Self-Compassion Break [10:42] to work with a difficulty in your life.
Coming Home to Presence [16:59] to practice mindfulness of breath, body, and emotions.
Lovingkindness for Self & Others [19:51] to cultivate kindness toward yourself and others.
Cultivating Compassion for Others [10:56] to practice cultivating compassion for others who are struggling