Befriending Practice

Intention: cultivating self-compassion and compassion for others. Contents: the practice starts with stabilizing self and sensing the whole body. Then firstly bringing awareness to someone that we are fond of and sending some good wishes to them. And secondly, moving to someone who has a small difficulty and sending wishes. The next, moving to ourselves who may have a small difficulty and sending wishes. Finally, letting go of all wishes and returning to the body as a whole.

Transcript

This is a befriending practice the intention of this practice is to cultivate self-compassion and compassion for others if you feel uncomfortable or difficult to do this practice you can always choose to have a pause and then return to your anchor or body always remembering to take care of yourself and when you are ready just allowing the eyes to close or lowering the gaze and bring awareness to your seat the thighs and the buttocks may touch on the chair and see if it's possible to feel the whole body sinks a little deeper into the chair with each out breath a sense of steadiness and the gravity and when you are ready just expanding attention to the whole body from top of head to the toes the whole body is sitting and breathing perhaps noticing any pleasant sensations of the body and rarely moving close to them and see if it's possible to make a connection with these pleasant sensations and returning to the whole body again the body can be an anchor a sense of connection and the steadiness and when you are ready bring awareness to someone you are fond of can be a family member or a friend or someone else also can be a pet and really bring this person to your mind as clearly as you can perhaps bringing an image of them or silently saying their name and see if it's possible to make a connection with the body as you do this sending some good wishes to them safe and well peaceful living with ease and kindness and repeating these phrases or you may want to change the phrases or just keeping silent it's your choice wishing then may be safe and well peaceful living with ease and kindness and noticing an instance of friendliness warmth and compassion it's also okay not to notice this just being with yourself being with your experience and the repeating the phrases they may be safe and aware peaceful living with ease and kindness and when you are ready just letting go of the phrases letting go of this person and then returning to the body as a whole sitting and breathing and then I'm inviting you to bring awareness to someone who is suffering it don't need to be a large difficulty just a small one and the rarely bringing this person to your mind as clearly as you can perhaps bringing an image of them in your mind's eye or silently saying their name and seeing if it's possible to keep a connection with your body as you do this and wishing them may be safe and well peaceful living with ease and kindness in the meat seat of what they are going through and repeating this phrases or you may want to change into your own phrases or just keeping silent wishing them may be safe and aware peaceful living with ease and kindness in the meat seat of the difficult time you may notice a sense of care and the compassion for them or you may note not right or wrong just being with your experience and when you are ready repeating the phrases wishing them may be safe and aware peaceful living with ease and kindness in the meat seat of what they are going through and perhaps taking a deep breath letting go of the phrases letting go of this person and they're returning to the body the body can be an anchor a feeling of sadness and connection and when you are ready bring yourself to our mind yourself is suffering it's not an overwhelmed one perhaps a small one and really bring yourself to your mind as clearly as you can perhaps bring an image in your mind's eye or seeing your names and trying to keep a connection with your body as you do this and sending some good wishes to yourself may I be safe and well may I be peaceful may I live with ease and kindness in the meat seat of what I'm going through and sometimes we may feel it's hard to send some good wishes to ourselves maybe a sense of resistance and reaction just noticing any thoughts or emotions that are arising giving them a space and repeating the phrases or you may want to change to your own phrases or just keeping silent may I be safe and well may I be peaceful may I live with ease and kindness and you may notice a sense of self-care self-compassion or you may note just be with yourself being with the present moment repeating the phrases perhaps you can put your hands on your chest as a gesture of self-compassion may I be safe and well may I be peaceful may I live with ease and kindness in the meat seat of what I'm going through and when you are ready just letting go of the phrases letting go of this suffering and returning to the body as a whole sitting and breathing the body can be always an anchor and giving us a feeling of stability you