An odd suggestion

This is a little trick I learned over the years doing meditation in a variety of forms.

When someone bothers you -- for me this often means a politician or public official acting in a way I dislike -- try praying for that person. (You don't have to call it prayer, call it well-wishing, whatever works for you.)

And don't just pray for them to change the way you want them to change, as if you were all-wise and knew exactly what they needed to be perfect in your opinion, but spend time repeating over and over, trying to get to the point where you honestly feel like you mean it:

May he (or she) be serene and at peace.
May he be free from enmity and danger.
May he be free from ill-will and ill-treatment.
May his heart be open.
May he wake to the light of his true nature.
May he be free from mental suffering.
May he be free from physical suffering.
May he be healed of all things.
May he be a source of healing for all people.
May he take care of himself happily.

Don't argue with yourself or try to get too specific about how you want this well-wishing to happen. Just try to wish the person well, to ask God or the universe or WhomEver to give them serenity, peace, freedom from ill-will and ill-treatment, an open heart, awakening to their own truth, freedom from the control of mental and physical suffering, healing and the power to be a healer, and the gift of self-love with joy. It may take time and many efforts to get anywhere with this, but give it a chance.

My experience is that this may make no apparent change in the other person, but my own serenity and peace increase, I am not as controlled by my own anger and ill-will, that my heart opens a wee bit more and a beam of light sometimes creeps in, my own sufferings -- real though they be -- have less power over me, that healing can flow to and from me in some way and that I can like and love myself.

These days, I have lots of opportunities to practice this meditation. Just listen to the news! Trust me, there are people out there that I am well-wishing who would be quite surprised to hear it.

Just as I am quite surprised to hear myself doing it.
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The small sculpture pictured above is of a Russian beggar woman, by Ernst Barlach. It is in the Hirschorn Museum in Washington, DC. The first time I saw it, it epitomized prayer to me.