# @cintiamars on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Dc1Td58DeVq
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/69996670-cintiamars-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/084ad79c01.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-09-03T17:03:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Cintia Mars (@cintiamars) — https://gondola.cc/cintiamars

## Caption

A while ago, someone asked me in all seriousness: “Wait, isn’t meditating just making your mind completely blank?”

That question stayed with me and became the catalyst for these reflections.

Through my meditation teacher training with the Buddhist Studies Institute, one of the most fundamental pillars hasn’t been chasing an artificial stillness, but grounding the practice in ethics and trauma-informed mindfulness. The space cultivated through techniques like calm abiding (śamatha) doesn’t empty the mind… it opens a spacious container where whatever has been repressed, neglected, or avoided can surface. And more often than not, what surfaces first is discomfort, our own shadows, and the raw truth of how we relate to others.

For a long time, I carried a very specific form of naivety: believing that when someone claims to care about you, they naturally operate with the same commitment to honesty, reciprocity, and transparency. I assumed emotional maturity arrived with age, or that affection guaranteed consideration for your well-being.

It doesn’t.

Navigating starkly different cultural realities—from the structure of life in Sweden to reconnecting with the guarded, insular dynamics of my rural roots in Galicia—has been a humbling mirror. Sometimes, reaching for what feels like support out of vulnerability only leaves you burned. When people haven’t done the internal work to face their own shadow, language easily ceases to be a bridge and instead becomes a tool for power: crafting self-serving narratives, evading accountability, and dismissing the impact they inflict on those around them.

This isn’t about moral purity or pretending to be above mistakes; it’s about relational responsibility. True practice doesn’t happen on an isolated cushion. It begins when we are willing to stay with discomfort, own our impact, and stop manipulating realities just to stay comfortable.
Everything else is simply ego disguised as insight.

#reflection #meditation #mindfulness #ego #iphone17pro

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## Tags

iphone17pro, ego, reflection, mindfulness, meditation

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