Practice Makes Permanent

“Kindness is the language which deaf men can hear and the blind can see.”

- Mark Twain

One of the reasons we started CMP is that the practices have had real impact on our lives.

One of the earliest influences on me was the practice of loving kindness. I'm not a big woo woo person, so I had a bit of skepticism about the value of this particular engagement.

I'm also willing to try stuff. So I decided to say silently to all those I'd see in my daily activity, “May you be well. I hope you have a great day.”  And I looked at each person as these thoughts went out.

I found that even though I didn't have a strong upwelling of emotion at that particular moment, by day's end, I felt pretty good.

A funny thing began to happen. As I sent out these well wishes, folks began to smile at me as we passed by. One day, I rolled through a stop sign as a police car was coming the other way. I kept up my practice as the officer approached my car. When she saw me, she laughed, and told me not to do that again!  Wonder of wonders!

We would like to invite you to join us in trying this simple technique for the next week. We can’t promise any specific outcomes, but there may be some surprises.

We’d love to know what you discover: welcome@communitymind.org