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Your Amygdala Is Listening: What Are You Telling Yourself Today?
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Your heart chakra holds the key to experiencing true soul joy. This week, we're continuing our exploration of the heart chakra by diving into the transformative practices of self-compassion and gratitude – two essential components of sustainable wellness care.
Did you know your amygdala – that little almond-shaped structure in your brain – is constantly listening to how you speak to yourself? When we practice harsh self-judgment, this "lizard brain" actually works to make those negative thoughts our reality. But there's a beautiful alternative. By speaking to ourselves with compassion and focusing on gratitude, we can rewire our neural pathways toward positivity and healing. This isn't just feel-good advice – it's backed by neuroscience!
Many of us grew up in environments where "gentle parenting" wasn't a concept yet, leaving us with schemas that make self-kindness feel unnatural or even wrong. I share my personal journey of transforming the harsh self-talk I inherited from my father's tough-love approach into a practice of genuine self-acceptance. The relief I see on my clients' faces when given "permission" to be kind to themselves speaks volumes about how desperately we need this shift.
Ready to practice? I offer several simple exercises to build your self-compassion muscles: keeping a gratitude journal, writing compassionate letters to yourself, practicing loving-kindness meditation, engaging in mindful walking, and consciously changing negative beliefs. These practices balance your heart chakra energy, allowing expansive love to flow – not just for others, but crucially, for yourself.
Subscribe to my podcast, visit juliemerrimanphd.com for weekly PDFs with exercises, and start experiencing the freedom that comes when you treat yourself with the same kindness you offer others.
Chapters
1. Welcome to SoulJoy: Heart Chakra Series (00:00:00)
2. Harsh Judgment vs. Self-Compassion (00:04:13)
3. Breaking Free from Perfectionism (00:09:14)
4. Practical Self-Compassion Exercises (00:14:19)
5. Walking Meditation and Belief Change (00:21:34)
35 episodes
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