Living a compassionate life isn’t only about how you treat others, but how you treat yourself as well. There are days when it feels like you’re beating your spirit like a piñata — and you’re not even getting candy! If you can be encouraging to yourself, rather than cutting, it will definitely change your mood.

Try this meditation throughout the day:

NOTICE THE WAY you talk to yourself. Stop any negative self-talk and replace it with a bit of gentleness.

Children often possess gifts which they lose as they grow up. With the years we seem to enter into a prison of conventions and opinions, concealments, and unquestioned acceptance, and there we lose the candor of childhood. The child still reacts spontaneously to the spontaneity of life. —Karl Jaspers, psychiatrist and philosopher

How did this meditation go for you? Share your experience with your fellow North Shore Bank employees at shorelines@northshorebank.com and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Mindfulness in Plain English, by Bhante Gunaratana.

If you’d like a daily email reminder to practice one minute of mindfulness, email us with the subject “Mindfulness reminder.”