Remembering the Good Within You

Exercise: Remember the Good Within You

Sit comfortably, in a relaxed way, and close your eyes. As much as possible, let go of analysis and expectation. For ten to fifteen minutes, call to mind something you have done or said that you feel was a kind or good action — a time you were generous, or caring, or contributed to someone’s well-being. If something comes to mind, allow the happiness that may come with the remembrance. If nothing comes to mind, gently turn your attention to a quality you like about yourself. Is there an ability or strength within yourself you can recognize? If still nothing comes to mind, reflect on the primal urge toward happiness within you, and the rightness and beauty of that.

In any of the above reflections, even if impatience or annoyance or fear should arise, don’t be disheartened or anxious — see if you can return to the contemplation without guilt or judgement. The heart of skillful meditation is the ability to let go and begin again, over and over again. Even if you have to [go through the process of being distracted from, and then returning to your object of meditation] thousands of times during a session, it does not matter. There is no distance to traverse in recollecting our attention; as soon as we realize we have been lost in discursive thought or have lost touch with our chosen contemplation, right in that very moment we can begin again. Nothing has been ruined, and there is no such thing as “failing.” There is nowhere the attention can wander to, and no duration of distraction, from which we cannot completely let go, in a moment, and begin again.

Sharon Salzberg
from Loving Kindness; The Revolutionary Art of Happiness