If you listen to some seasoned meditation teachers, you might notice that at the end of a meditation they say
Thank you for your practice.
Perhaps you’ve wondered: Why are they thanking me for my practice? It’s not like I did something for them.
But in a way, you did. Your meditation practice is not just for you; it benefits everyone you come in contact with, and everyone those people come into contact with.
As I remind my students at the end of every yoga class,
The time you spend on your mat has ripple effects that extend way beyond its edges.
This is why meditation teachers thank you for your practice.
How You Show Up Creates Ripple Effects
When you take the time to regulate your nervous system, ground into your being, and fill your cup, you cultivate the capacity to show up for others with greater presence.
This philosophy has been at the heart of my personal practice, and at the core of what I have been teaching my clients and students for over a decade.
The way we interact with other people can degrade trust, deflate confidence, and sow seeds of doubt, or it can empower, support, and boost confidence.
It’s not just the words you use, but the energy you bring.
The Distrust Cycle
Whether you spend your day directly interacting with clients or students, or your interactions are limited to the local barista or customer service rep, consider the energy you bring to your interactions when you feel scattered and overwhelmed, or you’re in your own stories and fears, lacking confidence, or feeling like you’re under attack in some part of your life.
When you’re caught up in your own stories and emotional waves, it’s impossible to be an objective and supportive space-holder for others.
You might notice that when you’re not fully grounded, or you’re wrapped in your own stories and fears, you’re more impatient and more easily frustrated. You might cut people off, rush to assumptions, or get defensive in response to objective statements.
Perhaps you miss the nuances of humor in a subtle joke, or the point of what another person is trying to tell you.
You might be curt or rude, perhaps even unintentionally unfriendly.
How does this impact the other people you interact with? And, in turn, how do those people show up?
It’s human nature to attack when we feel attacked, or to slight others when we feel slighted, even if the people we lash out at are not the ones who inflicted that harm on us.
Ripple effects.
The Support Cycle
On the other hand, you might notice that when you show up fully grounded, you have greater capacity to hold space and offer support. Most likely you don’t get as defensive, even in response to explicit criticisms.
You are almost certainly more patient and listen more deeply to the other person, even hearing what they aren’t explicitly saying. You might speak with more kindness.
How does this impact the people you interact with? And what are the downstream impacts to the people they encounter in their day?
When we feel supported, cared for, and loved, we are more likely to offer support, caring, and love to others.
Ripple effects.
Your Cup Pours Into Others
Filling your cup first is not an optional, nice-to have practice to apply only when you have time for it. Filling your cup is not just for you; it’s for everyone you interact with and everyone they interact with.
You have the capacity to initiate cycles that degrade, deflate, and detract, or cycles that empower, enlighten, and emancipate.
Which cycle will you initiate? That depends on the way you show up: the words you speak, the way you listen, the space you hold, the energy you bring.
Everything you do has ripple effects.
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