See a Loved One's Suffering

So, we'll continue our practice, snuggle in, big deliberate inhale, exhale, let it happen. Let it be audible and strong just to really help the belly drop. Do this again, inhale, exhale, yes. Now, the key is to allow this grounded, rooted feeling to stay as the heart tenderly blossoms. Shoulders soften back and down, palms are open, skull aligns over the spine and your eyes soften, like imagine like a newborn deer coming to a tiny little lake in the forest to sip the water, like just so soft and be aware of the movement of the breath in your lower belly and be gentle with this, like you don't have to harden your belly on the inhale, it's just feel the natural expansion and the natural release.

And then once you feel this sense of grounded, rooted softness, much like a big oak tree, then so tenderly it's likely that you have someone in your life whom you care deeply for, who you really genuinely love, who is suffering. And the play as you let this person now start to come into your awareness, the temptation is to want their suffering to stop, to want to fix it, in fact it's so likely that as you've brought this person into your awareness, your mind has all sorts of good advice. The play here is can you let this person come into your field, let the belly stay soft, let the eyes stay soft and simply practice being with, inhale and as you exhale I see your suffering, inhale and as you exhale I feel your suffering. And I'm using the word see and feel but you might even find that I hear your suffering is more correct for you. The practice, the learning here is to increase the capacity to be with, not be complacent, but to be with, to be present.

Again the mind will so easily be drawn, be drawn into wishing it with other and even having ideas of how to fix and if we get up into the heart too fast it moves the hands into action to try to do something. So this is why we practice being in the belly, continuing like this, inhale, exhale, I see your suffering. Just a few more moments, again we're in training here, yeah, beautiful, gently relax the effort you might thank the being for being a part of your practice, rest, letting the belly relax and so then this is your homework today because it's just so likely as you leave the house that you will come across friends and family who are in pain and as they describe their pain or you can sense it instead of trying to fix it or make it go away or talk them out of it, can you internally start to play with this mantra, love.