Learning to practice love starts with ourselves. If we get still, we can turn toward trust and ask ourselves, “Am I bringing kindness to this moment?” And we use that pause to determine the action we need. So self-love is part of the practice of tending to the welfare of the whole world. Because if we don’t start here—in the garden of our own heart and our own being—when we tend outward we find that we really haven’t had enough nurturing ourselves.
JD Doyle
Spirit Rock Residential Teacher
JD Doyle(they/them) served as Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center, where they co-founded the Alphabet(LGBTQIA+) Sangha, and as Guiding Teacher at Insight Santa Cruz. They graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Retreat Teacher Training in 2020.