In this episode of Healing at the Edge, Dale shares daily heart practices that allow us to cultivate compassion and change our relationship with grief.
Show Notes
Heart Practices (Opening) – If asked to define grief, most people would call it a sadness that is associated with loss of some kind. Dale suggests a new way to think about grief and shares how spiritual practice allows us to reframe our relationship with grief.
“I would suggest that grief is any negative emotion that we are caught in as a result of feeling separate – whereas compassion is the quality of feeling connected. Rumi says that grief is the garden of compassion. We are working with being alert to places where we feel separate, where we are feeling grief, and learning to transmute that, through heart practice, into feelings of connectedness.”
Breath of Compassion (4:30) – Dale leads a guided tonglen meditation practice – a quick practice that can be performed in the midst of our daily lives or in moments of contemplation.
“Sometimes I find that if I am lying in bed at night, rather than counting sheep, I will do tonglen for everyone I know who is suffering. A breath for this person, a breath for that person – it really is a lovely way to open your heart as you are going to sleep at night.”
Compassionate Abiding (20:40) – Dale shares two daily practices we can use for a breath of clarity and to cultivate compassion for ourselves.
“Its just one breath long where you notice when you are caught. On the in-breath, you breathe clarity into this place in your body where you feel the caughtness – on the out-breath you breathe spaciousness into that place.”
Learn more about developing the habit of daily practice – Mindfulness as a Daily Habit
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