Welcome.
And I hope that each one of you will come to find peace within yourself.
Today,
I want to talk a little bit about kindness and compassion.
For ourselves and for others.
These are two of the most quietly radical forces we have.
And they work from the inside out.
Kindness isn't about being nice.
It's about recognizing the shared human experience,
The way every person you meet is carrying something unseen.
And when you practice kindness.
You're choosing to meet the world with what you do want,
A little less armor and a little more presence.
And that interrupts reactivity,
And it softens the edges.
Kindness is a behavior,
But compassion is the understanding underneath it.
I have a mantra that I say to just about everyone.
Be kind to yourself.
Just think about that for a moment.
My mantra works because it's not be perfect or be strong or be calm.
It's about being kind.
And kindness is accessible in any moment.
It implies that you deserve gentleness,
That you're not a problem to be solved.
And you can soften without losing your strength.
You can meet yourself the way you meet others.
Compassion is what happens when you see suffering,
Your own or someone else's,
And instead of turning away,
You lean in with curiosity.
So it's not pity.
It's not fixing.
It's not martyrdom.
It's a quiet recognition that this hurts and I can meet it with warmth instead of fear.
Compassion for others is powerful,
But compassion for yourself is transformative.
And self-compassion is often much harder than compassion for others because it requires honesty.
It asks you to acknowledge your own pain without collapsing into it.
It's like saying,
I'm doing the best I can with what I have.
Or I deserve the same gentleness that I offer others.
Kindness and compassion.
Aren't just moral choices.
They're regulation tools.
They shift your nervous system.
They move you from threat to safety,
From contraction to openness.
I try to teach this in my meditations.
It's the river that keeps on flowing.
The breath that keeps on returning.
The body that tells the truth before the mind does.
Kindness and compassion are how we stay human.
In the middle of everything.
And another thing I say all the time.
Life is hard,
But we get through it together.
Close your eyes now and let's get in touch with our breath.
And it doesn't matter if you're sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Or kicked back in your favorite creek liner.
The only thing that truly matters when you meditate.
Is that you're comfortable and alert.
So let's start to relax.
We're just breathing in and breathing out one breath at a time.
And then the next.
And then the next.
And that is the present moment that everyone seeks.
One breath.
Relax your face.
Your face is way too tense.
Unfurl your brow and unclench your jaw.
Now relax your neck.
I roll mine around,
But you can do whatever makes you happy.
Relax your shoulders.
I raise mine up and let them drop.
But again,
Do what makes you feel right.
These are common places of tension in today's world because we're hunched over phones and tablets and laptops.
Relax your arms and your hands.
Maybe just let them fall.
Land where they will.
Look for any tension in your chest and belly.
And as we begin to relax,
Let's breathe.
Relax our legs and our feet.
Because they get tense too,
And they're just sitting there.
And as we begin to relax,
Let's focus even more on our breath.
Our breath is our anchor.
It's there for us in all moments.
When we're happy,
When we're sad,
When we're being kind and compassionate.
Our breath is also like a river as it flows in and flows out.
We breathe constantly,
But when you meditate,
Notice your breath.
Notice where you feel it,
A cool sensation in your nose as the breath flows in.
And the movement of your chest and belly as the breath flows in and flows out.
Let your body settle,
The way a stone settles into a riverbed.
Naturally and without effort.
Take a slow breath in and a soft breath out.
Kindness begins with arrival.
With letting yourself be here.
Exactly as you are.
Without needing to be different.
Here I'm going to pause for a moment to let you breathe and think and I'll be back in one minute.
Now imagine you're sitting beside a wide,
Gentle river.
The water moves with steady patience.
Not rushing.
Not forcing,
Simply flowing.
This river is the part of you that never hurries.
The part of you that knows how to carry things without strain.
The part of you that has always been kind.
Feel the breath as a current.
Feel the body as the riverbank,
Stable and supportive and welcoming.
With each inhale,
Imagine the river rising slightly.
Cool,
Refreshing presence.
And with each exhale,
Imagine it settling.
Smoothing the stones,
Softening the edges.
Let kindness be that softening.
If there's tension.
.
.
Let the river touch it.
If there's worry.
.
.
That the river holded.
If there's self-criticism.
Let the river wash around it without trying to remove it.
Kindness doesn't fix.
Kindness doesn't correct.
Hide to simply make space.
Now picture placing a small stone into the water.
Something you've been carrying.
Maybe some pressure.
Or a doubt.
Or a moment you wished had gone differently.
Whatever it might be,
Placed it gently into the river.
And watch how the river receives it without judgment.
Watch how the current moves around it.
Or over it,
Or through it.
The river doesn't reject the stone.
It doesn't cling to it.
It simply includes it.
This is kindness towards yourself.
The willingness to include your own humanity.
Now,
Imagine someone you care about standing upstream.
And they placed their own stone into the river.
Something they're carrying.
You don't need to fix their stone either.
You don't need to lift it out of the water.
Just watch how the river holds theirs the same way it holds yours.
Kindness towards others is the same as movement.
A gentle allowing.
A soft presence.
A willingness to let people be human in your sight.
Let the river teach you.
Kindness is not a performance.
It's a way of seeing.
Feel the river widening now.
Spacious and calm and steady.
And feel yourself resting inside that spaciousness.
Let kindness be the water beneath you.
Let kindness be the breath moving through you.
Let kindness be the way you speak to yourself in this moment.
You don't have to earn this softness.
You don't have to deserve it.
It's already here.
We're just breathing in and breathing out one breath at a time.
Feel the river still flowing.
Even as you prepare to return to your day.
What you need to know is that you can come back to this kindness anytime.
Simply by remembering the river inside you.
This river has guided me most of my adult life and it can guide you too.
We're just continuing to breathe,
Breathing in and breathing out,
One breath at a time.
If you follow my lessons or my live sessions,
You know that I like quotes.
And I have some good ones today.
Mother Teresa said,
I would rather make mistakes in kindness and compassion than work miracles in unkindness and hardness.
And then Anne Frank.
Said in her writings.
How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment.
We can start now.
Start slowly changing the world.
How lovely that everyone,
Great and small,
Can make their contribution toward introducing justice straight away.
And you can always,
Always give something,
Even if it is only kindness.
Wise words from a young girl.
I hope this has been a beneficial and calming session to each and every one of you.
Life is hard.
But we get through it together.
Till next time.
You.
