Compassionate breathing meditation towards others.
Inviting the body to find a comfortable posture and spending a few moments to feel into supports beneath you,
Allowing a soothing breathing rhythm to emerge.
Returning to it whenever you notice tension or distraction.
Imagine you embodying compassion and there is inner space,
Stability and resilience.
And we can start this practice with a benefactor or with someone who is very dear to you.
Visualizing this person in your mind's eye and reflecting on what kind of suffering they play role in his or her life.
And then connecting with this pain,
Sorrow or difficulty and imagining the qualities it may have.
It may be that a visual or tangible sense is prominent or an emotional atmosphere.
Imagine breathing in this person's suffering with each in-breath a little bit.
Welcoming and allowing it to enter through all pores of your body and let it change into a healing quality which you breathe out towards this person.
It may be that you imagine breathing in something dark,
Hot or sticky and breathing out something light,
Cool or airy.
Or you breathe in something cold and hard and breathe out something warm and soft.
Let your imagination do the work.
Be mindful of whatever arises.
If you feel you have space you can expand the practice in a similar way to a neutral person and a difficult person,
Groups of other people or animals and eventually all beings.
Be gentle with yourself.
It may feel daunting to breathe in the suffering of the world.
It is not about working harder.
It's not about striving to take in or give away what you cannot manage.
It is not a practice of grandiosity but rather of humility.
Your imagination is doing the work.
Allow your mind and heart to open from the calmness of the body,
Supported by mindful presence and the ebb and flow of the soothing breath.
Imagining a manageable proportion of suffering flowing in with every in-breath which is transformed and healed with every out-breath.
And allow yourself to take a mindful pause and return into self-compassion whenever strong emotions or stress reactions surface.
Allowing the soothing breathing rhythm to return before you continue.
You can also experiment with adding taking in and giving out movements of the arms and hands.
With every breath we're interconnected with all other living beings.
Our imagination has no limits and our hearts can be as big as the world.
