Courtney E. Ackerman - Anytime Exercises for Self-Acceptance, Kindness, and Peace

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First Adams Media trade paperback edition June 2020

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Interior design by Julia Jacintho

Interior images 123RF/Ekaterina Matveeva

Cover design by Harini Rajagopalan

Cover image 123RF/Ekaterina Matveeva

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Ackerman, Courtney E., author.

Title: My pocket meditations for self-compassion / Courtney E. Ackerman.

Description: Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2020.

Series: My pocket.

Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019055334 | ISBN 9781507213490 (pb) | ISBN 9781507213506 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Self-acceptance. | Compassion. | Meditation.

Classification: LCC BF575.S37 A25 2020 | DDC 158.1/28--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019055334

ISBN 978-1-5072-1349-0

ISBN 978-1-5072-1350-6 (ebook)

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book and Simon & Schuster, Inc., was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters.

The information in this book should not be used for diagnosing or treating any health problem. Not all diet and exercise plans suit everyone. You should always consult a trained medical professional before starting a diet, taking any form of medication, or embarking on any fitness or weight training program. The author and publisher disclaim any liability arising directly or indirectly from the use of this book.

Are you looking for a way to become more accepting of yourself?

Do you want to get more in tune with your authentic inner self?

Are you searching for ideas to boost your self-love?

If so, you need to practice self-compassion.

Why is self-compassion so important? Because it encourages you to go easier on yourself, which in turn makes it easier to love yourself and cope with all of lifes challenges. When you have self-compassion, you are better able to understand your emotions, give and receive love, let go of past mistakes, and move forward with confidence. It can often be tempting to leave this validation and compassion up to others, but its vital that you learn to do this for yourself. And if you want other people to be kinder and more understanding toward you, you need to set a precedent by being kind and understanding toward yourself first. To put it simply, your well-being rests on the foundation of how you think about yourself.

If you want to work on building up that inner foundation, My Pocket Meditations for Self-Compassion can help. Inside youll find 150 ways to express kindness and compassion toward yourself, make peace with your emotions, build your resiliency, and learn not only to accept but also to appreciate exactly who you are. Meditation is the key to helping foster this growth because it enhances the areas of the brain that are responsible for empathy, creativity, and compassionall necessary factors in self-acceptance.

You can pick a chapter at random or go through in a purposeful order; its all up to you. Youll find techniques for developing and strengthening different variations to self-love and self-compassion, including:

• Meditations on Self-Acceptance
• Meditations on Self-Appreciation
• Meditations on Self-Forgiveness
• Meditations on Being Body Positive
• Meditations on Accepting Love

Working on perfecting these techniques will remind you that you are worthy and deserving of love and will fill you with more self-awareness, kindness, and peace!

If youve never meditated before, youll find this guide to be a handy resource to help you build an effective meditation practice. The first question new meditators usually have is something like, But how am I supposed to clear my mind? I cant just sit and think about nothing! However, as youll see, meditating is not just sitting and thinking about nothing, although it might look like that from the outside. Meditating is a useful addition to anyones life, but before you start trying out specific meditations, you have to get the basics down.

Before you start meditating, make sure to practice these steps:

1. Find somewhere comfortable to sit or lie downjust make sure its not so comfortable that youre likely to fall asleep.
2. Close your eyes and bring your awareness to your breath. For a few moments, just follow your breath as it travels through your nose, down your windpipe, and into your lungs, then back out the same way. Notice the natural rhythm of your breath.
3. Now slowly begin to control your breath. Regulate your breathing, taking three seconds to inhale, pausing for a moment, then taking three seconds to exhale, followed by another pause. Fill your lungs all the way, then expel all the air.
4. Once youve got a good handle on your breathing, turn your attention to your thoughts. Detach yourself from your thoughts by noticing them, but refrain from holding on to them. Dont attempt to rigidly control your thoughts, just let them enter your mind and drift back out just as easily.
5. Practice observing your thoughts and letting them go until you have a clear mindor at least a mostly clear mind.
6. Now youre ready to meditate! Pick an exercise and get to it.

It can seem awkward and unfamiliar the first few times you try to meditate, but with a little practice it will start to feel like second nature.

Self-acceptance is the main building block of self-compassion. It is the foundation upon which you construct your self-love and a jumping-off point for feeling compassion for yourself. Without self-acceptance, you do not have a good basis for understanding and appreciating yourself. Before you get into the techniques, theres an important point to be made about self-acceptance: It doesnt mean you give yourself a free pass on any bad behavior or excuse every mistake you have made in the past. Self-acceptance means only that you accept all of it, the good and the bad, as a part of yourself. The meditations in this chapter will help you do just thatinstead of denying, avoiding, or making excuses for yourself, these meditations will teach you how to accept yourself as the imperfect but ultimately good person that you are.