Liberate Yourself from Judgment
Judgment acts as a barrier to love, yet curiosity stands as a powerful antidote.
In the dance of life, judgment often emerges as a silent saboteur, casting shadows of suffering on my path. The act of passing judgment, whether directed toward myself or others, fosters an atmosphere of negativity, hindering personal growth and genuine connections. How does judgment impact your life? When judgment takes hold, what sensations ripple through your body?
In my TEDx talk, I explored the profound truth that real tenderness cannot coexist with judgment. Judgment acts as a barrier to love, yet curiosity stands as a powerful antidote.
My intention this year is elegantly simple: BE LOVE. I’m trying to embrace love through curiosity. I invite you to join me on this journey to release the chains of judgment and envision the embodied love that awaits. The moment judgment arrives, let’s lean further into curiosity in order to foster love and nurture compassion, keeping these steps as a guide:
1. Practice Self-Awareness: Recognizing the judgments that surface within you. Observe your thoughts without attachment.
2. Cultivate Curiosity: Lean into curiosity to shift your perspective.
3. Embrace Tenderness: Allow tenderness to soften the edges of judgment and grow your compassion.
Let us cultivate a curiosity-led approach, and remember that the true measure of our humanity lies in our capacity to embrace each other, flaws and all.
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” — Rumi
May this path lead us to a profound sense of love and peace.
Author Bio: Meena Srinivasan is a contemplative leader, celebrated speaker, accomplished author, and visionary edupreneur. She is an educator-activist at heart, consistently championing the fusion of Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence, and Belonging. Meena was featured as one of 2022’s 10 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement in Mindful Magazine and is the Executive Director of Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL)™ an organization that supports educational leaders in building more compassionate and just schools. A former public school administrator and National Board Certified Teacher, Meena is the creative force behind the SEL Every Day Online Courses, an instructor of graduate level Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) courses at UC Berkeley and the CEO of Karuna Consulting, LLC, an organization that takes its name from the Sanskrit word ‘Karuna,’ signifying compassion. Karuna Consulting is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) driven by a profound mission: to foster a more compassionate world through Meena’s keynotes, professional learning, coaching, and consulting services. She is the author of numerous publications including Teach, Breathe, Learn and SEL Every Day. The latter was honored as one of 2019’s Favorite Books for Educators by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Her TEDx talk on Tenderness is one of the most popular TEDx talks of 2024 (with over 2 million views). Meena has been practicing yoga and meditation for over 25 years, is an ordained Zen Buddhist and serves on the Board of the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation. Learn more at meenasrinivasan.com.
