Have you ever just wanted to tell your critical inner voice to shut up – or at the very least just be a little nicer?

If so, then it’s time to consider meditation, which provides the tools to do just that.

At Pathway to Mindfulness we teach insightful meditation, which allows you to:

1. notice your thoughts as they arrive;
2. make no judgments;
3. and then to send those thoughts on their way and return to the breath.

In fact, just the act of noticing your thoughts during meditation makes your brain stronger and resilient, building new neural networks throughout your brain. This repeated noticing reduces the alarms that go off in your amygdala, your brain power is enhanced, it helps us understand the emotions of ourselves and others, and helps us put things into perspective.

When meditation is practiced daily, you begin to bring this calm noticing into all aspects of your daily life.  And here’s the most amazing part: As you begin to do that, you are on your way to silencing your inner critical voice, what we fondly call your obnoxious roommate. As that voice rears its ugly head, mentally telling you that you are not smart, talented, good-looking, good enough, skinny – fill in your own blanks – you begin to have the mental strength and resilience to say “go away.”

That is the way we show loving kindness to ourselves, something that is critical for our happiness. And then we can begin showing loving kindness to the rest of the world.