Hold the Cosmo's Suffering

And so we'll continue our practice with being with what is, snuggle in, deliberate inhale, and exhale, belly drops, inhale, exhale, audible, full big heavy belly. Maintain this quality of rooted grounded stability, like let your heart grow and feel the natural blossoming of her generosity as you root through the sit bones, let the shoulders roll back a little bit, wide and behind the shoulder blades, palms might turn up. I like to let my head wobble a little bit as I sort of find her spot, upper palate domes, and then really like such a softness in the eyes, like sort of this quality of kindness. Okay, with your awareness in the in the response of the belly to the breath, so you can feel the movement of the inhale as the belly expands, and you can feel the release of the exhale as the belly tenderly draws in. Yes, once you have this ground, this last interval training is really about increasing our capacity to allow our ability to be with what is extend beyond our personal realm, and so maybe in your imagination as we were playing within season one, maybe just simply allow yourself to see the planet, like as if you were seeing her from space, and almost as if you're holding her like with your soft belly and your hands tender, like a mother holding a small newborn child. Can you hold the planet? Inhale, and as you exhale, I see your suffering. Inhale, and as you exhale, I feel your suffering, and if the image of the planet is too abstract, doesn't work, then maybe let your focus narrow a little bit, and maybe you have a deeper connection to nature itself, the trees, the rivers, the mountains, the animals. Maybe it's easier for you to connect to populations, mass populations that are currently apparently under great duress. It's hard not to know about these things these days, but the play here is to be able to be aware of the suffering without A, wanting to immediately change it or B, being overwhelmed into a state of hopelessness. Inhale, and as you exhale, I see your suffering. Inhale, and as you exhale, I feel your suffering. And while on some level there's a tuning of empathy happening, empathy can make the situation all about us again, so it's much more a quality of kind, tender, accurate witnessing. Okay, and so maybe you're still with the image of the planet, maybe you've moved around the planet, some of you might be out into the galaxy last handful of moments though, it's about moving our capacity beyond our immediate entangled world. Soft in the belly, kinder in the eyes, inhale, and as you exhale, I see your suffering. Inhale, and as you exhale, I feel your suffering. Okay, tenderly relax this. Soft in the belly, kind in the heart. And so just a little bit of play with this today, one of the things that really can burden us is our obsession with ourselves and our immediate world and our immediate problems. It can be really difficult to care about anybody or anything who's not intimately related to us in some way. And so let this practice today as you encounter situations, whether it's on the news or just in your awareness, can you play with moving out beyond what's immediately affecting you and make an effort to connect and witness on a bigger scale. So today as you perhaps find yourself entangled in the intimacy of the small details of your own life, perhaps make an effort to just reach out and increase your witnessing out beyond your own known borders. See what happens. Love.