This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 2649 on transforming the judgmental mind stories from seven days of silence part two by Dr.

Elana Miller of Zen Psychiatry.com and I'm Justin Mollick, the guy that reads you every single day of the year.

Now today's episode is part two of a longer post. If you didn't catch part one, I'd recommend listening to that first.

If you're all caught up, let's get right to part two and continue optimizing your life.

On transforming the judgmental mind stories from seven days of silence part two by Dr. Elana Miller of Zen Psychiatry.com

The second seven transforming the judgmental mind replaced negative mind states with positive ones.

I recently read a story of Burmese Buddhist monks who traveled up to the top of the Himalayas in freezing cold temperatures, wrapped themselves in wet sheets, and then meditated on a heat growing from their bodies to the point where they dried the sheets through the sheer power of their thoughts.

Even after only a week of intensive meditative practice, I have no doubt that such a feat is possible.

One of the tools we studied as an antidote for the judgmental mind was the divine abode practices of which there are four.

Loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

We practice cultivating these positive mind states toward ourselves and others through repeating specific phrases over and over.

For example, to practice loving kindness toward myself, I would repeat,

may I be safe and protected, may I be healthy and strong, may I be happy, may I live with ease.

After hours of repeating these phrases, they seem to take on a life of their own. At one point, we didn't exercise directing loving kindness toward ourselves, then toward a mentor, then toward a good friend, then toward a familiar stranger, then toward a difficult person, and then toward all beings.

Over the forty-five or so minutes of the exercise, I swear I could feel an inner ray of warmth and compassion grow and grow until it emanated out of the entire world.

And then when I noticed my mind drifting into judgment, I could repeat these phrases to myself and feel the negativity drift away as it was replaced by joy.

With practice, I could choose to let go of negative mind states and replace them with positive ones.

As a side note, at one point I started doing loving kindness practice for a baby sea lion who had popped up its head next to me as if to say hello while I was surfing in Malibu a few weeks back.

I just couldn't help but crack up out loud right in the middle of the meditation room, probably interrupting the contemplative silence of everyone else.

The thought was just so joyful, I'm sure others found my laughter amusing and maybe even a little joyful too.

Meditation is a tool, not a cure for all of life's problems.

All admit by the end of the retreat I was ready to drink the cool aid. A few experiences right at the end though helped to rebalance my perspective for which I am extremely grateful.

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