The Aaron Hill Podcast

The Aaron Hill Podcast

By The Aaron Hill PodcastMusic
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The Aaron Hill Podcast episodes

  • The Comparing Mind (10% Percent Happier Self Care Journey) 3/16/20

    The Comparing Mind (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/16/17


    •  Constantly comparing yourself to others is a restless, unproductive,  unhealthy habit. Deciding who we are based on other peoples status,  achievements, preferences etc is a fruitless activity because the source of validation is being derived from a standard that  will always fluctuate when a new person enters the equation; thereby  becoming the new object of comparison.

    • At times  comparing yourself to others CAN be the source of inspiration to do  something positive. However "dwelling" in an obsessive way can quickly  and easily lead to negative emotions, feelings of fear or resentment and  have a huge impact on ones self confidence or feelings of self worth.  The key is to monitor your feelings and to be honest with yourself about  how the feelings of comparison are impacting you.

    •  Comparing is the opposite of Sympathetic Joy. Sympathetic Joy - the  feeling which arises when one regards all beings (beginning with oneself  and one's own family and friends but not stopping there) with  loving-kindness and then perceives those who are happy and have created a  lot of merit or even attained liberative insight.

    •  Remembering that everyone's life is a mixture of pleasure and pain and  joy and sorrow will naturally decrease your "comparing" and judgement  and increase your degree of empathy, compassion and mindfulness.

    •  Remember, we can't control emotionally what arises but we can control  how we relate to it. A state of chronic comparing leads to exhaustion  and bitterness. Applying compassion, we can see what's happening and  work toward the development of compersion, mudita and sympathetic joy.

    25 min
  • Burnout Vs. Compassion (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/10/20

    Burnout Vs. Compassion (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/10/20


    Compassion  -  sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

    - Sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

    -  Burnout - Feeling overwhelmed, depleted, exhausted, undone, overcome,  broken etc. by someone else's difficulties in our desire to help or fix  the situation.

    - Compassion requires the balance of  equanimity to acknowledge the suffering or pain of others and be open to  helping while knowing that you can't solve every problem for everyone,  "fix" the world or force others to make different decisions.

    -  Extending compassion to the point of your own inconvenience is  unhealthy and detrimental not only to yourself, but also those who  you're trying to assist. Have compassion and empathy but not at the  expense of your own mental or physical well being, sanity, capacity or  health. Aaron Hill

    - Practice focusing on a  difficult person and mentally extending phrases of loving-kindness  toward them. This will help you to develop compassion without being  triggered, facing burnout or putting yourself in harms way to help them.

    22 min
  • Compassion (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/5/20

    Compassion (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/5/20

    Compassion - sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.

    - Sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

    -  If someone shows kindness, caring, and a willingness to help others,  they're showing compassion. This is a word for a very positive emotion  that has to do with being thoughtful and decent. ... When you have  compassion, you're putting yourself in someone else's shoes and really  feeling for them.

    - The ability to see the pain, sorrow or  suffering of others similar to your own issues is the first step toward  compassion. Seeing others as yourself dealing with the ups and downs of  life's cycle.

    - Keep your perception healthy and increase your  mindfulness about others by visualizing someone who you see dealing with  these various issues and offer thoughts and phrases of loving-kindness  and compassion toward them. (May you be happy, healthy, live with ease,  etc.) [You can also choose phrases that work better for you]

    -  Don't worry about forcing the feeling of compassion or loving-kindness  while practicing this exercise. Just be "open" to it. That's all the  willingness needed for the process to take effect in it's own time.

    - This isn't about fabricating an emotion or feeling. It's about paying  attention in a different way in order to gradually develop your  mindfulness, empathy and compassion around others and the reality  they're dealing with.

    - There are many expressions and  manifestations of compassion. Being quiet, outspoken, gentle as well as  stern or intense. Being open and vulnerable or setting up strong  emotional boundaries. The key is to always be aware of your motivations  to decipher if you're coming from a place of indifference. Be gentle  with yourself as you continually guide yourself more and more toward  actions spawned by positive motivations.

    20 min
  • The Myth of Separation (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/4/20

    The Myth of Separation (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/4/20


    - Coexist - (of nations or peoples) exist in mutual tolerance despite different ideologies or interests.

    -  We may feel alone at times but we all exist in a "network" or bigger  pattern of life where our actions no matter how large or small have an  effect on others coexisting with us and the environment around us.

    -  The Butterfly effect is always essentially in effect. (with reference  to chaos theory) the phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a  complex system can have large effects elsewhere.

    -  Very few things happen in a vacuum. Co-creation is responsible for most  circumstances, personality types, actions, beliefs etc. Empathy,  compassion, mindfulness and patience allow us to be realistic and  balanced about our perspectives allowing us to be the most beneficial to  ourselves and the world around us.

    - The phrase "We  are one" isn't just a "fluffy optimistic cliche" or romantic,  sentimental emotion. The reality of our experience is that we live in an  interdependent world and "system". The more we understand and accept  this the more traits like loving-kindness and compassion become our  natural and normal responses.

    - Practice extending  loving-kindness mentally and verbally to remind yourself and others of  the beneficial qualities of positive inter-connectedness and  coexistence.

    - Take to time to reflect on all the circumstances both good and not so good that brought you to this very moment.

    32 min
  • Anger Vs. Loving-Kindness (10% Happier Journey) 3/3/20

    Anger Vs. Loving-Kindness (10% Happier Self Care Journey) 3/3/20


    - Anger can be very detrimental because it make us suffer, stress and struggle more and longer than needed for most situations.

    -  Anger, hatred and resentment are expenditures of energy that doesn't  serve us or others. Meditation and mindfulness gives us a resiliency to  guard against soaking up toxic energy. We may feel it but we can also  let it go.

    - There's a big difference between feeling angry and being lost in anger.

    -  Anger, fear, guilt and greed can make us narrow-minded, naive, our  sense of possibility limited, and in general be just overall tormenting  to us.

    -  Practicing mentally offering  loving-kindness to people who we have both good and challenging  relationships offers us the opportunity to be balanced in our growth and  application.

    - Offering Loving-kindness to someone  who has behaved "badly" doesn't mean we condone their actions or that  they don't matter but that we can have the courage and the willingness  to see them in a way that frees us from the negative effects of anger,  bitterness and resentment.

    - The first thing to  remember to tell yourself when becoming angry is that this is "just a  passing state". This can automatically give you the space to experience  the emotion while not becoming the emotion.

    -  Learning to see these as states of aversion we can be free of them. It  doesn't mean they won't come up. It means we can sense when they are  arising, understand them clearly, and learn not to be ruled by it. As we  understand we can have empathy and compassion for ourselves and others  rather than judgement. Seeing it clearly allows us to remember that we  have a choice with how we will respond.

    27 min

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