Finding kindness for yourself

How do we find the kindness we inherently have for ourselves? And why in the world do we feel like we have lost it? Kindness, even love for ourselves is always present, like an eager lover waiting for us to recognize that it is right there, if we just look we will see it, feel it, be it. It never goes away, it waits patiently to be remembered. It is the soft breeze, the loving embrace, the beautiful meadow, there just for us. This auther used to think that kindness, gratitude, peace, grace, generosity, happiness and love were something that happened to her, something she had to obtain from outside of herself, some surreal experience she could only obtain by searching far and wide, reading a gabillion books, suffering untold miseries, attaching to her perceived terrible past experiences, and finding a way to give up living the life she was living. BOY oh BOY was she mistaken, if only she had known how simple(notice she says simple..not easy) it is to become aware of the simplicity that is this..all of those experiences of being kindness, gratitude, peace, grace, generosity, happiness and love..ALL of them are WHAT and WHO she is, and it doesn’t stop there..they are what and who everyone is. Available to us all in every single precious moment…always..yes always..whispering this great truth feels exactly like heaven..because heaven is right here, right now..always was..always will be. So how to start to experience this? The simple first step is to accept where you are right now. That is it, accept where you are right now. So, for example, 20 minutes ago this author was..um..slightly agitated that she wasn’t getting time to write these very sentences..wasn’t being granted the silent quite time she believed she so desired(even now there is much laughing and music playing going on below her ;)), so she started to be less than kind to those around her..the truth is she acted like a hurt angry OLD witch, so when she became aware of this she simply said to her precious self..would you look at that, here we are again, it’s OK. That’s it…it’s OK that you are being a total turd because that is who you are being right now, it is OK. She holds herself in her truth of the moment(being a turd), without trying to change a thing, without judging herself, without beating herself up for what she believes is unattractive ugly behaviour, without apologizing to anyone, without moving to another state of being, she simple accepts completely and authentically where she is, right at THAT moment. This is the first step to finding kindness for herself and only then can she possibly find true kindness for those around her. Seems strange? Nope..simple. What happens when we do this..accepting ourselves where we are at..is that we allow a space for kindness of a seemingly magical sort. By accepting ourselves..only completely…where we are at, we give ourselves complete and total acceptance of ALL that we are..not just the pretty, ‘good’, feel good parts of ourselves..ALL of ourselves. From this place kindness is possible. It takes less time to move into a place of freedom, peace, love…a place where we can apologize to ourselves and others…a place where we can completely let go of our tension and relax into being who we really are, open to the next experience, willing to see ourselves and others in ALL of our aspects without judgment, without ridicule, with eyes and hearts wide open to the entire possibility of our beingness. Start with the simple act of accepting yourself exactly where you are. from my heart to yours....